Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (5 page)

It is common knowledge throughout the world that the Friulians distill exclusive grappas (in this area Friuli vies with Piedmont). The production of grappas in these parts is viewed as an aesthetic process. Elegant flasks and goblets in thin blown glass, intended for the bottling and sampling of grappas, are manufactured both in the region itself and in the workshops of Murano. A dazzling container with grappa, enclosed in a wooden case and displayed in the window of a fashionable bar in Rome or Milan, can cost as much as five hundred or a thousand euros—or as much as the vendor has the nerve to ask.

 

The word
sagra
(plural
sagre
) derives from the Latin
sacrum
: its early meaning refers to a popular festival dedicated to the patron saint of the village or town. But the
sagra
can also be a celebration of a certain dish or product, of a vegetable or fruit, of a wine, of a type of preparation, even of a specific part of the beef or lamb. In this way tribute is paid to the specialties (roast chestnuts, strawberries, frog's legs fried in batter) for which a particular village or city is renowned.

To mention a few at random: in the little Sicilian town of Ribera (Agrigento) in April, a lively orange
sagra
takes place (similar to the battle of the oranges at the Carnival of Ivrea): the participants cheerfully throw oranges at one another, race on oranges, slip and fall, and even get hurt. A
sagra
in honor of gnocchi is held in June at Castel del Rio, near Bologna. In July, in Tropea, there's the
sagra
of “blue fish” (oily fish) and red onion. In July, in Castelfiumanese, the
sagra
of the apricots. In August, in Norcia, the famous lentils of Castelluccio are honored, and in Eboli, the local mozzarellas. In the village of Albanella in the province of Salerno, the
sagra
of the pizza is organized in August. In August, Sardinia celebrates the
sagra
of the tomato (in Zeddiani, in the province of Oristano) and the
sagra
of Vernaccia wine (in Nurachi, also in the province of Oristano). Many arrive dressed in traditional costumes. These are rowdy festivals, with music and dancing. In San Damiano d'Asti, in September, there's the
sagra
of boiled meats. In the fall, in Marradi, near Florence, the chestnut
sagra
.
Torrone
(almond nougat) is the star of the November
sagra
in Cremona and the December one in Faenza. The radicchio
sagra
is the main event of the month of December in Treviso. A national exhibit of “meditation wines” takes place in Mantua, in the Palazzo Ducale, on the last weekend of April, and on the second weekend of the same month the “Festival of Lost Flavors” is held in Zerbolò, near Pavia.

By Alexey Pivovarov

The Italian
sagra
is pagan in origin. Ancient Roman festivals celebrating food and eating practices were described both by Ovid and by the encyclopedist Ambrosius Teodosius Macrobius, who lived in the fifth century A.D. at the court of the emperor Honorius, and who characterizes them as “things of bygone days.” Even after the triumph of the Christian religion, high spirits have continued to flourish on these days, and participants feast pleasurably under the banners of interceding saints and martyrs. Thus, in the village of Force, in the Marches, the
sagra
dedicated to the
cacciannanze
, typical focaccias of bread dough baked in a wood-burning oven, is also called the Feast of the Blessed Maria Assunta Pallotta. But these feasts have little to do with sanctity—so little that zealous
Catholics are often irritated by them and do not always participate. The
sagre
are for the most part organized by informal, nonreligious groups of individuals brought together by some interest, such as an association of fishermen, a committee for environmental protection, or a group of passionate local history buffs. Such feasts may even become an arena for ideological protest, and then the saints' statues on the tables are replaced by portraits of the founding fathers of political movements.

Even in these cases, though, the
sagre
are popular, open, lighthearted, and democratic feasts.

In every gorge, in every piazza, on every hill, Italians celebrate the fruits of their labor. To name a few more: the black bread
sagra
(Champorcher, Valle d'Aosta), the feast of Valpelline soup (Valle d'Aosta), the
sagra
of chestnuts (Châtillon, Valle d'Aosta), of
vin brûlé
(Étroubles, Valle d'Aosta), of peaches (Canale, Piedmont), of hazelnuts (Cortemilia, Piedmont), of the white truffle of Alba (Alba, Piedmont), of honey (Arese, Lombardy), of frogs (Bornasco, Lombardy), of rabbits (Brembio, Lombardy), of asparagus (Cantello, Lombardy), of risotto (Villimpenta, Lombardy), of cherries (Bareggio, Lombardy), of milk (Truccazzano, Lombardy), of goose (Mortara, Lombardy), of the porcini mushroom (Motta Visconti, Lombardy), of bilberries (Piazzatorre, Lombardy), of apples (Caldonazzo, Trentino), of olives (Pove del Grappa, Veneto), of asparagus (Bassano del Grappa, Veneto), of corn (Marano Vicentino, Veneto), of chicory (Crespadoro, Veneto), of strawberries (Faedis, Friuli), of crayfish (Remanzacco, Friuli), of olive oil (Moneglia, Liguria), of anchovies (Deiva Marina, Liguria), of focaccia (Recco, Liguria), of grilled meat (Terzorio, Liguria), of snails (Borgio Verezzi, Liguria), of rosemary focaccia (Lavagna, Liguria), of chickpea flour flatbread (Maissana, Liguria), of chestnut flour flatbread (Rossiglione, Liguria), of
porchetta
(roast suckling pig) and tortellini (Lavezzola, Emilia Romagna), of
cotechino
(pork sausage) (Val Tidone, Emilia Romagna), of bruschetta (Predappio Alta, Emilia Romagna), of roots (Soncino, Lombardy), and on and on.

Little by little, religious feasts (in the name of the local saint) and ideological feasts (in the name of the proletarian revolution) merged with the traditional pagan
sagre
, but a central place was always reserved for the local specialty or typical product. Today, in sports fields, parks, and recreational areas, under the tents of the feasts of
L'Unità
, a well-known Communist newspaper, families roast, prepare, eat, and clean up together, just as they once did in churchyards and piazzas.

There is nothing that brings people together like food. And if unity is ruptured at the level of higher politics, the fracture is also evident in gastronomic declarations. When in
the nineties the Communist Party split into the Democratic Party of the Left (DS, or Democratici di Sinistra) and the Communist Refoundation Party, Massimo D'Alema, then secretary of the Democratic Party, summarized what had happened by resorting to the language of the culinary code. In fact, addressing those who intended to abandon the party in order to found another, he exclaimed: “With you . . . will go those who grilled the steaks at the feasts of
L'Unità
.”
¹

But it did not end there. Political divergence found a place even within the DS itself, and in February 1998, concluding their meeting in Florence, D'Alema attacked the sacredness of that which no one had dared challenge until then: the tortellini of Emilia. Tortellini were the chief specialty of the
sagre
of “red Emilia Romagna”! They were an icon of the partisan movement, a symbol of democracy, the banner of the revolutionary struggle!

In attacking Emilian tortellini, D'Alema, a Roman, had probably not predicted the severity of the blow when he stated point-blank (just before being elected president of the Council of Ministers!) that he did not intend to cry over “a Left made up of liberal militants capable only of distributing flyers, putting up posters, and making tortellini.”
²
Such skills, D'Alema declared, were not enough “to lead the nation.”