I PARCHI LETTERARI® IN CALABRIA “JOURNEYS TO THE FUTURE OF MEMORY” - THE FOOD

The journey cannot end without having mentioned the pleasures of the palate, which in this land of marvels continue to amaze the sense of taste today as in the past...

The cuisine of Calabria comes from the traditional homemade foods that were prepared by Calabrian peasants and fishermen, who improved and added “flavour” to the simplest foods that were available to them on a daily basis. But those simple foods of long ago have now become precious jewels, “robust” and genuine flavours that have maintained their real tastes, which have now disappeared almost everywhere else. Tradition has handed down the secrets for preparing vegetables and meat in unique ways, especially pork and swordfish, which abounds in the waters near Scilla and Bagnara.
The cultivation of hot peppers, also known as “the poor man’s spice”, which were brought to Calabria in 1500 from the new world, makes simple dishes more vivacious, yet always unmistakable. For centuries, hot pepper has been the base for popular healing, magical and aphrodisiacal remedies. Many other spices, such as saffron, which is grown in Sila, and was imported by Arabs, are used in these dishes. Worth special mention are the renowned Tropea onions another regional source of pride, along with hot peppers.

This sunny land offers perfumed citrus fruits, olives as well as vegetables and wine. There are also the high-quality extra-virgin olive oils known as “Lametia” and “Bruzio” and prestigious wines that come from the wine-making areas of Bivongi, Cirò, Lamezia Terme and Castrovillari. The production includes dozens of types of other quality and unique white and red wines, such as the white wine from the Ionic coast where the vineyards of the white Greek grape, the most ancient wine grape in Italy, are grown. The Greek colonies baptised Calabria as Enotria, “land of wine”.

Then there is tradition of oil-packed preserves of products from both the land and the sea. All types of items are preserved: sun dried tomatoes, very flavourful aubergines, sweet black and green olives, capers, artichokes, Porcini mushrooms and cardoncelli (King oyster mushrooms), as well as the very spicy hot red peppers, a genuine source of regional pride. From the sea, the tuna that is fished from the Tyrrhenian Sea and along the Ionian coast provide an ideal complement to sauces and salads.
The art of a “peasant” cuisine has created specialities like “Sardella”, the poor man’s caviar, which consists of tiny anchovies, dried in the sun on wooden boards and then preserved in a mixture of oil and ground red pepper, and Sardella, which is made with newborn sardines and anchovies and covered in sweet and hot ground red pepper. Their flavours are distinct, but truly unforgettable, perhaps along with the versatile “pitta” a focaccia that is a testament to and recalls the traditional bounty of Calabrian baked goods and bread.

Finally, the cold cuts

Pork is a monument to Calabrian cuisine. The region’s most characteristic cold cuts derive from the processing of the pig and are exported throughout the world: the celebrated soppressata, which is made of lean cuts of meat selected from pieces of the thigh and the filet which are flavoured with salt and pepper, the hot and sweet sausages, the smoked bacon and finally the capicollo. Included among the specialties is the n’duja, a creamy cold cut that is obtained from the leftovers from the meat processing, or with tripe and tongue; the main producers are located in the towns of the Gioia Tauro plain.

Pork reigns supreme in the robust regional dishes from Calabria. After all, the slaughtering of this animal was a ritual that up until just a few years ago, was celebrated by each head of the household, assisted by friends and family. The processing culminated in a great banquet for everyone. Today, there is the “industrialised” norcino salame, but the custom of convivial days with the traditional preparation of “fritulle”, where hocks, rinds, the head, belly and fatty parts are boiled in a large cauldron with water and salt; in the end, lard is obtained and the ciccioli (little pieces of browned fat) that remain on the bottom are eaten hot with a salad of pickled aubergines and oranges.
Accompanied to a Calabrian farm by the storyteller, with help from actors and “improvised” participants, the tourist can take part in the joyous atmosphere that accompanies the ritual of the processing of the pork and hear the reading of the Testament of the Pig (Anonymous, 4th Century A.D.) in which the protagonist, in a series of notarised formulas that are full of bitter irony and comedy, dictates its last will and testament before passing into the hands of the cook, naming the recipients of each of the parts of its body.

The piglet, Marco Grunnio Corocotta, provides his last will and testament.

“Since I was not able to write it myself, I dictated it so it would be written down.”
The chef Magiro said: “Come here, you who subverts the home, you who messes the barnyard, you piglet who always runs away, today I will take your life.”
The piglet Corocotta said: “If I have done something, if I have broken a vase with my hooves, I beg you Master chef, I ask for my life, concede it to me, I beg of you.”
The chef Magiro called out: “Come boy, bring me a kitchen knife, so that I can cut this piglet’s throat.”
It was captured by the servants, fed until the sixteenth day prior to the Calende Lucernine (towards mid November), when the cabbages abound, under the consulate of Clibanato and Piperato. And just as he understood that he was about to die, he asked for another hour’s time and begged the chef to allow him to make a will: he called his relatives to appear before him in order to leave his edible parts to them as their inheritance And so he said to them:
“To my father, Verrino, I leave thirty bushels of acorns and to my mother, Veturina Scrofa forty bushels of premium Spartan flour, to my sister, Quirina, whose wedding I was unable to attend, thirty bushels of barley. And from my entrails, I shall leave the bristles to the shoemakers, my cheek to those who fight, my ears to those who cannot hear, my tongue to the lawyers and the orators, my intestines to the sausage makers, my thighs to the meat roasters, my kidneys to the women, my bladder to the children, my shanks to the slaves and to the hunters, my nails to the thieves and to the unnamed chef the ladle and the pestle that I had stolen: from Tebeste to Trieste, may they hang themselves with a rope. And I want it to be written on my tomb: “The piglet, M. Grunnio Corocotta lived for 999 and a half years; if he had lived another half of a year, he would have turned one thousand years old”. My excellent estimators and those of you who care for me, I ask you to do good things with my body, which you must season well with good condiments like walnut, pepper and honey, so that my name may be remembered for all time. My dear sirs and my cousins, you who have witnessed my last will and testament, please sign.”
Signed: Lardoso, Braciolino, Speziale, Salsicciotto, Prosciutto, Celsino and Nuziale. This is the end of the piglet’s last will and testament, towards the sixteenth day of the Calende Lucernine, happily under the consuls, Clibanato and Piperato."

However, Calabria will always remain a land that features “incredible, stupendous landscapes, strong patriarchal traditions and the warm humanity of its inhabitants” (Gerhard Rolfhs)