The Cabinet of Curiosities | Issue 11
Of cheese that makes every cell in your body rejoyce; the gastronomic stops along the Via degli Dei and Gabriele D'Annunzio in the role of food influencer.
Welcome back to The Cabinet of Curiosities my fellow food lovers! To refresh your memory, cabinets of curiosities, or wunderkammers, were small collections of extraordinary objects created during the Renaissance. This is our very own Cabinet of Curiosities, dedicated to all the wonders and peculiarities of Italian food culture.
In this monthly newsletter, you can expect to find 3 pieces by alternating La Panza Piena contributors. Voices and people that you’ll meet gradually, through their narrations, stories on forgotten recipes, hidden gems, deep-dives into unique products and distinctive global perspectives on Italian food culture.
Issue 11 of The Cabinet of Curiosities marks ALMOST a year of the contributor based newsletter — what a milestone! It was this time last year that I began tentatively embarking on the journey of finding and meeting all the incredible people that are now a core element of this project. I’ll save the rest of my soppy reminiscing for December’s newsletter and waste no time in introducing this month’s pieces. We begin with a recounter of Sophie’s brave experience (or, as she states, Iron Man) at Slow Food’s Cheese festival during which she discovered a truly unique cheese. Next up is part two of Wanda’s 130km gastronomic walk along the Via degli Dei, full of new landscapes, flavours and tips on buying the perfect Fiorentina steak. Our favorite Abruzzese, Caterina, is back with another story on a regional dessert, one with a very special history linked to none other than Gabriele D’Annunzio. Buona lettura!
- Carlotta, founder of La Panza Piena
When a cheese steals your heart
by Sophie Echeverry: curious and hungry Colombian polyglot passionate about tasting & cooking world foods
Picture this: an entire weekend spent indulging in cheese and learning about it from producers who have crossed Italy and the world to share their knowledge and products. Never in a million years did I think this type of weekend would happen to me, until I attended Slow Food’s iconic bi-annual Cheese festival in Bra. The festival’s objective is to celebrate, recognize and support small cheese producers who aim to restore the biodiversity of pastures.
As a first-time attendee, I came; I tried to get a taste of them all; and I (think) conquered.
I mistakenly thought that visiting 200 producers would be an easy task, that I had trained sufficiently for this marathon. It felt more like participating in an Iron Man – or Cheese Man if you will. Only my innate curiosity kept me going.
Surprisingly I don’t have a favorite cheese from my quest, though cheese did however leave a special place in my heart and soul, one whose flavour made every taste bud in my body dance.
The cheese is called Toumin dal Mel and it comes from Valle Varaita, in southwest Piemonte, an area which is home to one of the most extensive Pino-cembro forests in the Alps that creates the ideal ecosystem for the cattle to live in. What makes the cheese so unique is the know-how of the production method, which has been passed down through female generations since the end of the 1800s.
The cheese was originally created by two women who had cattle high up in pastures and produced butter but felt like venturing into the world of toma production. They produced a smaller-than-average toma cheese and named it toumin (small toma), whereas the “dal Mel” name was added as they often sold the cheese within the small town of Melle.
Toumin dal Mel is traditionally aged on wooden shelves that sit on bamboo mats and are wrapped in cloth. The cheese needs to be turned constantly, up until three days pass and a white layer forms on the cheese, meaning it is ready to be enjoyed in its freshest form, with notes of milk, the forest and an underlying acidity. However, I would recommend tasting the older “ladies”.
The cheese is so delicate it can be enjoyed on its own, however it can also be found in many local sauces and dishes, such as ravioles. Not to be confused with ravioli, the gnocchi-like pasta is rolled out my hand on a wooden board and filled with Toumin dal Mel.
Meet me along the Via degli Dei | Part 2
by Wanda Frosi: cheese lover (even better with a glass of wine) & gelato enthusiast
On day three the landscape begins to change. Tuscany bursts in with hills lined with cypress trees, people’s accents shift and the dishes they serve morph slightly. Mortadella gives way to porchetta, bread loses sapidity or transforms into a crunchy schiacciata.
Stopping in the town of Bivigliano - more specifically in the Locanda di Bivigliano - is mandatory. Situated in the heart of the Mugello area - where gastronomic traditions are ancient and stem from the Middle Ages - the town once used to be dotted with accommodations that welcomed wayfarers.
There are two main traditional dishes anyone passing through the area cannot fail to taste: Fiorentina steak and tortelli mugellani. Let’s proceed with order. The area of Mugello is actually the breeding ground of the cattle used to make the prestigious steaks that make Tuscany famous all across the world. To recognize a real Fiorentina, look for a rib-eye steak that has been aged for at least 18 months, in which the tenderloin and sirloin are separated by the characteristic “T-bone”. It must be of a thickness between 3 and 4.5 centimeters and rigorously cooked over coals – I can assure you the difference is palpable in the flavour and texture, which melts in your mouth.
Although I increased my knowledge at the Locanda in Bivigliano, it was actually the tortelli mugellani that were a true novelty. The ingredients all have poor origins but are combined and cooked in a manner that makes them a true culinary masterpiece. Fresh egg pasta is simply filled with potatoes grown in the area and topped with beef or rabbit ragù, sugo with mushrooms or a delicate duck sugo.
I went for the classic beef ragù and mentally prepared myself for the last leg of the trip which would take us into Florence and away from all the incredible gastronomic discoveries the trip gifted us with.
Gabriele D’Annunzio: a gastronomic influencer ante litteram & his beloved dessert
By Caterina di Luzio: Passionate about literature and osteria, takes aperitivo very seriously.
The year was 1920. Luigi D'Amico, the owner of a pastry shop in Pescara, a city on the coast of Abruzzo, created a new dessert: a dome of semolina flour, eggs, ground almonds, orange zest and amaretto liqueur, all covered with a thick chocolate glaze.
Luigi's idea was to imitate the shape and color of a rustic bread eaten by farmers of the area: the semolina flour and eggs simulated the yellow colour of corn, whereas the dark chocolate recreated the scorch marks of wood-fired baking. The result was a soft, fragrant sponge, covered by an almost crunchy layer of chocolate.
Once the recipe was perfectioned, the dessert was ready to be tasted. D’Amico felt that it was only appropriate that a childhood friend with whom he shared common roots could have the first bite. This friend was none other than the renowned and controversial poet Gabriele D’Annunzio.
The leading exponent of Italian Decadentism was so delighted by the dessert after his tasting that he went as far as dedicating a poetic composition to it, all penned in Abruzzo’s dialect. He suggested the dessert’s name should be parrozzo, from pan rozzo, the poor’s bread that inspired D’Amico’s creation.
The poet eventually moved to his opulent villa on Lake Garda, yet always demanded parrozzo in his correspondence with D’Amico, who in turn found in the perfect solution: a lifetime supply.
Parrozzo's fame soon spread throughout the region and beyond, and the popular Gabriele D’Annunzio - as a kind of influencer ante litteram - played a key role in that.
It isn’t the first time D’Annunzio is involved in “marketing”. A few of his most famous term coinings are tramezzino, Italy’s most famous soft bread sandwich and Saiwa, the brand name of one of the country’s most famous biscuits.
Although every pastry chef in Abruzzo now makes their own version of parrozzo, you can still taste the traditional recipe made by Luigi D’Amico in his shop or online.