QUANTA BASTA

By Larry & Arlene on Dec 24, 2014 in Blog | 1 comment

QUANTA BASTA Among the rich experiences and emerging insights that living full time in Italy for a year and a half has afforded is a deeper appreciation for Italian Cuisine. It goes without saying that what appears superficially as a cooking style thought to be inspired by economically disadvantaged, subsistence farming is anything but ‘impoverished.’ The contemporary American inclination to simplify complex matters does a disservice to the term ‘Italian Cuisine.’ An Italian would ask, “What part of Italy are you talking about?” Italy is a very rich mosaic of very localized sub-cultures, each with their own unique identity. Local cultural identity is expressed not only in language dialect but also in what comes to the table. Many Italians find amusing what passes for ‘Italian Cuisine’ in the U.S. Here in Italy, each unique, community is tied very closely to their surroundings. The products of local agriculture and what is locally available in the way of seafood and game are the basis of the local cuisine. Discerning Italian kitchens express preference for particular agricultural products based on the characteristics of the ground and even the farm that produced them. At its very best the Italian table presents very carefully selected fresh, seasonal, locally produced ingredients prepared with very close attention to detail. With that very special skill that is learned at the elbow of a practitioner of the true art of Italian regional cooking, a meal preparation is less an exercise of repeating a mechanized and closely quantified formula but more like an exercise in increasingly delicate flights of improvisation. If you ask a very successful Italian cook how to prepare a favorite dish, the reply you get might sound more like obfuscation – “just some of this then some of that.” When you persist and ask, “But how much of that?” The standard reply will most likely be, “Quanta Basta” – “Just Enough!” That response is deeply authentic. In the preparation of the meal, there is a total engagement with a goal in mind and a derived skill in understanding how to successfully move in that direction. At that level of involvement, there is an appreciation there will be subtle differences in the fresh local ingredients from one...