Dolce Vita

When life is not joy, I do not want to see anyone, but I want to, on the contrary, immediately walked, because winter ahead is half a year, seasonal flu, gray sky and a birthday, after which you will be more older, but hardly smarter or happier, but hardly smarter or happier I order pizza. Or, wolving the throat with a bright red scarf, I go to eat pasta somewhere with white mushrooms. Or just go to the kitchen to make a cappuccino. For the simple reason that Italian cuisine, in my opinion, is one of the strongest antidepressants. Well, it is impossible to raise over a plate Minestrone, even kill. And the almond cookies or tiramisu are garnish in the loneliness does not go out – there is an insurmountable desire to call a friend and two hours and a half chat with her about a diverse stupid nonsense, from which, oddly enough, just consists of real Dolce Vita. Chat like this – and Vita really becomes quite different. Eat for the consolidation of the resulting effect, the portion of the paste under the cheese sauce – and the depression did not happen.

Why does it happen – the hell knows him. Great mystery of Italian cuisine. True, nutritionists (let’s only give will, under all bring the theoretical base) they assure that regular consumption of macaron makes a person energetic and cheerful. Pasta who are here called pasta (from Italian impaasto – dough), residents of Apennel really eaten in huge quantities. And there are their most different, great many. Pasta is both long thin spaghetti, and thick butterflies, and gentle seashells, and the sheets of the dough for Lazagania, which should be baked in the oven, wrapping sauce and shifting minced meat or vegetables. These are the dwarf dumplings of Ravioli (with cheese, meat, vegetables), and Alelotti (also dumplings, but from very thin dough), and cannelonny (thick and short macarials with stuffing), and similar to Nyokki dumplings, and Penne, and Patendell noodles , and reminiscent of pink buds TagliaTelli. However, the Italians themselves believe that TagliaThelli is not like a rose on a rose, but on the adorable female navel, at one time inspired by a certain Bologna cook to create these pasta (according to legend, the cook was in love with the master wife and first prepared TagliaTelly after saw her nude).

In total, pasta paste numbers about three hundred. For cooking any general rule "Ten, hundred, thousands": per 100 grams of pasta it is necessary to take 10 grams of salt and 1 liter of water, and they are removed from the pan a bit unsolved. Italians eat pasta slightly hard, Al Dente (speaking in Russian – on the teeth). And, by the way, exclusively for a fork (in contrast to the regulars of Moscow restaurants, which remain like help to help themselves with a spoon).

You can argue as much as you like who invented pasta – Chinese or Arabs. But the fact remains: the Italians know how to prepare them better than everyone in the world. The first documented prescription paste dates back to 1000 year of our era. Martin Korno describes it in his book "Culinary art about Sicilian Vermicelli and Macarona". To this day in the countryside it is believed that the girl is not ready to marry if he did not have learned to prepare pasta fifteen in various ways.

Strictly speaking, the main thing in any paste is sauce. Just like the actual macaroni, sauces there are a great set. The most famous – bolognese (mince and tomatoes) and carbonara (eggs, fat or ham and melted in cream cheese). The other is extremely popular sauce – Neapolitan Salsa Di Pomodoro: It is prepared from tomatoes, onions, garlic, add celery, carrots, parsley and basil, plus a little bit of flour, a pinch of red pepper, a little major and olive oil. All this is fascinated on the weak fire of two or three hours. Recipe for another popular sauce, pesto – from Liguria, the famous best in Italy Basilic. Sauce, of course, preparing from this Basilica, plus garlic and olive oil (sometimes – nuts). Extremely simple, and at the same time delicious to madness.

However, my favorite recipe was read in the book Sophie Loren "Recipes and memories". Need to fry mushrooms with onions, pour them boiled pasta, pour the whipped eggs and bake in the oven until golden crust appears. Especially warming up that there is this and other Italian yummy can be completely without a branch of conscience. Eaten pasta all life Beauty Sophie Loren, and that? Yes, and nutritionists assure that from macaroni from solid varieties of wheat (namely, this paste is prepared) impossible to recover. Although, maybe the secret of the Italian diet is that the creamy oil is often preferred by olive, and bread – Grissini, thin bread sticks, which were invented in the XVII century in Piedmont for a delicate stomach Vittorio Amedeo. In addition, the Italians are certainly eating a green salad with lemon dressing between the main dish and dessert – the ideal means for improving digestion and cleavage of excess fat.

Of course, it would be a crime to reduce Italian cuisine only to pasta. Italian cuisine is both Dumplings in Venetianski, and Florentine beans, and air cheesecare, and the cheese of the Roman Schnitsel, and a console (steep cornpage, which is served on the side dish), and all sorts of snacks (antipasta), and Magnificent soups, of which the most famous is considered to be Minestrone (according to classic recipes, it is preparing from seven types of vegetables, seven types of meat and seven types of seasonings, which, according to legend, symbolize seven virtues of Cardinal).

Italian cuisine would not be Italian cuisine and without risotto – dishes made of rice olive oil, into which, in addition to an indispensable spoon of wine or vodka, add all sorts of things: meat, vegetables, seafood, mushrooms. Risotto eaten with beans, tomatoes, green peas, cuttlefish, from which white rice becomes black. White truffles are added to the risotto in Piemotto, in Umbria – black. And the famous risotto in Milanski is preparing with Saffron. Milan’s emissions became famous as the homeland of gorgeous gorgon pressed cheese with blue mold.

In addition to the Gorbonzol, from Italian focus, it is undoubtedly, Mozzarella from Buvolin Milk, a gentle ricotta and, of course, parmesan, who is considered the king of cheeses.

Real parmesan make only in Italy, and then not everywhere. Its production is strictly limited by the zone covering the province of Parma, Reggél Emilia, Modena and Parts of Mantu and Bologna. Cows here are fed only by special feed, the composition of which is forbidden to disclose. For this they give such high-quality milk that it does not even pass it. After 20 days, during which the cheese is satisfied, the long period of its maturation begins in wooden forms, it lasts up to three years. All this time, specially trained people regularly each cheese head and clean. Then the expert comes from the Parmigiano-Reggiano consortium (a special organization that monitors the quality of parmesan) and the cheese tries. The one that the exam could not stand, let go under the grater – it is only suitable for sprinkling salads and pasta.

If the best parmesan is prepared in a parma, then the best pizza is in Naples, at the homeland of the most famous Italian pizza "Margarita", which is a local cook at one time presented to the Queen of the same name. Green Basil, White Mozarella and Red Tomatoes, which are the main ingredients "Margarita", symbolize the colors of the Italian flag.

In Umbria, it is certainly worth trying a pork with white truffles, in Lombardy – local veal, in Sicily – fresh, just caught a fish-sword, cooked on the grill, which, like everything else here, is served with an acute seasoning of the caustic red pepper-peppercino. Also attention is worthy of soup with mussels and squid in Sicilian.

In the romagle, it is certainly worth linger in the striped kiosk with the inscription "Padda" and buy this very puzzle – a cake, in which cheese, vegetables, fish or meat wrap up.

In Tuscany, you must taste local dishes from lentils. One believer buddy after the Leshevichny Schwick was assured that he had become better to understand Cain and that many would donate for such a dish by birth. In general, Tuscan cuisine is a separate song. She is very simple, as the Italians themselves say – Essenziale, minimalist, but dishes are fantastically delicious.

Painting and paste Here you prefer the beans and already mentioned lentils to which the dried ham is served Pozhetto, Pekorino cheese with herbs (by the way, it is believed that it is from the residents of Tuscany, the French have adopted traditions to add herbs in cheese), all sorts of smoked, chestnuts and artichokes. The famous Antipasto Toscano consists of a chopped smoked ham, salami and fresh bread, which will certainly populate in a bowl with olive oil. Bread also crumble in vegetable, beans or cereal soups.

Perhaps the most famous and most delicious dish of Tuscan cuisine – Bistecca Fiorentina, Bifstex in Florentine. Italy is about the same as marble meat in Japan. For a steak of Florentine, only one right piece of beef is suitable, only from the purebred animal killed at a certain age, and cooked on an open fire. The meat is prepared without marinade and herbs, they are simply solid and slightly sprayed with olive oil.

Good Beefstex should weigh at least 600 grams, consist of a main meat part, bones and a piece of tender fillet. Eat such a bifstex together. The dish is quite rare, and outside the Tuscany it is almost not prepared. However, in Moscow, Bifstex in Florentine can try. Not so long ago I found it in the restaurant menu "Cantrease Antinori" on monetary lane. This restaurant is a native brother "Cantreases Antinari", which antino family at the end of the 60s opened in Florence. And I must say that in the Moscow restaurant, the Italian Cook also prepares as well as in Florentine, and just like in Florentine, it goes into the hall to wish guests of a pleasant appetite. Just like in Florence, Moscow waiters offer visitors sitting on the terrace, plaid to hide from the wind. In addition to the Florentine steak, it makes sense to eat chicken soup with pasta, and, of course, in no case can not be denied in dessert. From the traditionally Tuscan my favorite is a chocolate cake with chestnuts. However, the Italians know how to prepare the breathtaking Pappa and Richarelli, the macaroons Cantucci’s almond cookies, which you need to dry up in sweet dessert wine, real tiramisu, and such roma women, which once because of them, the English queen broke the etiquette (perhaps – the only time in life). It was in 2000. Being in Italy with an official visit, Queen Elizabeth asked for lunch asked the additive of rumbaba, which is categorically not allowed by the protocol. In truth, I fully understand her: Italian Dolce, in Russian speaking – desserts, maybe even the famous English lady turn into a frivolous cheerful synorina.