R: [CH] Southern Italian Chiles
Michele Mastandrea (diavolillo@katamail.com)
Tue, 27 Mar 2001 09:13:41 +0200
-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: Porter Banister <porter9@concentric.net>
A: chile-heads@globalgarden.com <chile-heads@globalgarden.com>
Data: sabato 24 marzo 2001 11.39
Oggetto: [CH] Southern Italian Chiles
>Michele Mastandrea wrote:
>
><<Accordingly the italian "gastrosofo" Vito Teti, who wrote
>several books about eating customs of people who live in
>southern Italy, the use of "peperoncino", chile for you, in
>sausages making in the city of Reggio Calabria, have been
>demonstrated since the year 1500 (post Christum).
>In the province of Calabria, very very hot sausage type,
>called "nduja",(from french word "andouille") is produced
>and exported too. La "nduja" is a mixture of two part of
>pork meal and one part of chile powder!>>
>
>Michele - I am very interested in how Southern Italians use chiles. I know
>many Sicilians, Napolitans, and Calabrese, and they tell me conflicting
>things about the use of chiles in Italian cooking. Some tell me "Italians
>only use dried red pepper flakes when they want to give heat to a dish" and
>others tell me that "fresh chiles are also used." Some of these people were
>born in Italy, and some were born in the USA, but all of them are Italian
>Americans. I'd be interested in the opinions of someone like you, who lives
>in Italy.
>
>Could you discuss in what dishes Southern Italians would use chiles, and
how
>hot do some of these chiles get, and which dishes call for fresh chiles,
>which for dried, and which for powdered?
>
> Do Italians ever use hot sauce, either in cooking, or to pour on top of a
>dish at the table? I have only seen one hot sauce from Italy - it is
>imported by Roland, and it's a balsamic vinegar sauce.
>
>Thanks for your help,
>
>Porter
>
Hello you Porter!
Italians like hot foods and hot sauce, but every single town, even if it is
very small, has his own tradition of eating hot peppers!
In my town, Terlizzi a hot sauce, called "kunzerv de diavulikkie", is done
with sun-dried very small tomatoes and chiles.
In Molfetta, 10 Km far by me, another sauce is done called "prikko-prakk",
with sweet and hot peppers, garlic and other spices and vinegar and oil.
You can cover only some miles and all the things change: the traditions
change and change the chile, and others vegetables, varieties, so all the
dishes change.
Chiles are eaten in all the forms, as fresh pods on top of "maccheroni al
pomodoro", as well red-powder or in flakes with all the seeds.
Chiles and sweet peppers are pickled in several manners, with olive oil,
with vinegar, with only water and salt and spices too.
It is very diffuse, in southern part of the country, the use of "ristras",
called by us " 'nzirt", the chile are eaten after they are been fried and
they become crackling.
The italian cuisine does not exist, it exist the many cuisine of the towns
and of the italian provinces.
Thank you,
Michele from Terlizzi, near Bari
Italy.