Welcome back to the Cucina section.
The festive splurges and hearty winter dishes are now long behind us and those previously incongruous salads are now featuring on summery menus with pride. This edition we’re tackling the age old topic of Italy’s food culture, how we see it and how the Italians see us… and how both stereotypes compare to reality.
To bring fresh light on the task we have sought the opinion Arianna and Briony, two student food enthusiasts with local knowledge aplenty. Arianna, a current Erasmus student from Bologna, brings us her take on what Italian food culture really means and how, though our culinary interests are no longer so different, it is the time spent in the kitchen and around the table that sets Italians apart. Meanwhile Briony, a current Italian student who has spent the last four years living in Rome, recounts her disapproval of the widespread English debasement of true Italian cuisine and the crucial flaw in our restaurant-chain culture. In the hope to restore some faith in our own culinary aptitudes I have included a recipe for homemade semolina tagliatelle, a chance to exhibit your gastronomic flair whilst passing a few of those all-important communal hours in the kitchen, discussing the day’s events as you roll and fold.
Happy cooking!
Pippa Cole
Cucina Editor
'Tomatoes by Roxanne' - Flickr