I have been thinking a lot about food lately.
After reading Mark Bittman's article concerning eating sensibly and Michelle Obama's roto-tilling the back yard of the White house to put in rucola, it hit me how far we have come from eating real food and how we really need to get back to what Italians have been doing all along: eating what we grow.
I know it sounds simple, but it's not. Our lives are rushed and we need to get something on the table quickly. Food preparation becomes a chore and we need to cut out the time it takes. Entire industries have been created out of making our lives more "convenient" -- or, in other words, by enabling us to pack even more business into our lives by removing the time it takes to prepare something nutritious, our lives are supposed to have gotten better. But it seems to me that we have just gotten more stressed. And tired. And malnourished.
It is like we are starving while shoving the food into our mouths.
Our food comes from places very far away. It takes trains, planes and automobiles to get it to us. It is picked early and rushed to markets half a world away.
I come from a family which always grew what it ate. We always had huge vegetable gardens, and my mother and father kept the gardens impeccably. We had beefsteak tomatoes in the summer and swiss chard which had been blanched and flash frozen in the winter. My father hunted, and we had venison all year. Venison chops sauteed in a little olive oil with garlic, deglazed with dry white vermouth. That is how we ate. I was jealous of my friends who had prepackaged ham, canned peas and potato buds. I did not know how good we had it. But I do know now. I think that it very much had to do with my family being of Italian heritage. My grandfather, while living in an apartment, always had tomatoes and basil growing on his small balcony. I did the same when living in an apartment in Germany. It is in the genes.
Now we are all learning the benefits of sustainable gardening, small agriculture and vitamin content. Eating well, unlike just before the bubble burst, does not mean eating fancily. It means eating simply. It means knowing what you are putting into your mouth, and knowing where it came from.
I have taken to making my own muesli. Breakfast is: Italian strawberries, muesli, plain Italian yogurt and honey from my neighbor.
Dinner is: Italian asparagus and leeks, sauteed in Italian olive oil with rosemary from the garden. Half the sautee goes into the blender and is smoothed with parsley and a ladle full of the boiling pasta water.
It is then all tossed with Italian spelt, or farro pasta. It took exactly 16 minutes, start to finish.
Simple foods have color, have texture, are appetizing. They beckon us to eat them. They are not overdone.
Buon Appetito!
12 comments:
Because I live in the country I can grow my vegetables in summer, and I choose to buy local ones in winter. It's a choice based on environmental and health considerations (we do indulge in the occasional treat!). As you say, this kind of food is simple, but has real flavor.
One of the things many of us need to get more comfortable with is that its ok to have less choices when foods aren't in season locally.
As an aside, the idea of pureeing some of the sauteed veggies for the pasta is wonderful--I'm going to try that.
Amy, I agree, but I think it is more of a perception problem than a real problem. Between fennel, celeriac, savoy and red cabbage, cardo, pumpkin, citrus, pears, apples etc, I feel that the winter selection is really quite large.
The pureeing of half the sauce is something I learned from my mother, who learned from my grandfather (the one who made the chestnut stuffing)
Cara,
How right you are! I am sure we will see a counter revolution - against mass-produced junk food - shortly. People may not care about their health, but they care about money. And ready-made will ruin them. Growing vegetables, Farmers' markets, home cooking - pure therapy and a relaxing family hobby - antistress! By the way.. thanks for the treat! March opens a delightful season of greens! Bacione, Ingrid
I have just finished reading "In Defense of Food," by Michael Pollan, which speaks of the horrible health consequences of the Western diet.
He said, if your grandparents wouldn't recognize it as food, don't eat it.
I'm happy to say that my grandparents would recognize about 95% of what I eat these days, and I enjoy cooking and eating so much more, including the seasonality of certain items. Most Saturday mornings in West Chester I go to the Amish market; I can't wait to see what's fresh each time, and I spontaneously decide then what to cook.
Nice post Diana, and a good reminder for all of us...
What a wonderful post! It brought back so many fond memories of my parents and grandparents gardening, cooking and hunting. Unfortunately, we don't have a belcony or a piece of land, otherwise, I would be growing things too. I'll have to settle for the fresh stuff at the grocery store and markets. :-) But life is still good. Being a stay-at-home mom gives me all the time in the world to whip something up in the kitchen (while the hubby watches the baby). Thanks for making me smile.
I could not agree more even though I could grow a lot more food than I do. I think it is also important to support local organic agriculture. There are many people out there, for example Giulia, who devote their lives to produce good organic food and they have sometimes a hard time to sell it.
I agree. I also read "In Defense of Food" right before I moved here and it was a real eye opener.
I so miss farmers markets (the real ones where farmers actually sell what they have grown) and friends that bring fresh home grown tomatoes and corn from the garden... one of my favortie summer meals. It seems that potatoes somehow replace these wonderful vegetables here.
My mom always taught us that a meal was not complete until there is green on the plate, and fresh is the only way to go. Many Germans are really shocked that I am not a fast food junkie, but I can overlook it since stereotypes may be all they have to go on.
I have never done a vegetable garden, always opting for what looks pretty instead. I would maybe like to experiment this year and start out with tomatoes and strawberries. We'll see.
By the way, I'm not really sure I know where you grew up in the States... with venison, that sounds like it could be not to far from where I grew up. Ich bin neugierig.
In Hawaii this is a major concern, being as isolated as we are. The awareness is very high and we are leaning more and more towards local sustainability.
I most appreciate your statements regarding the simplicity of preparation and depth of taste...we have just been making it way too hard! Like this post, an exceptional message, very simply put.
Coconut Girl, Island life has its wonderful side and its downside -- one of the downsides being the expense of getting everything to the island, and the resulting higher costs of everything. I think everyone thinks of Hawaii as a Garden of Eden, which of course it is, but it does not mean that the climate is right for many different vegetables -- the humidity and heat play a huge roll, just as in south Florida.
Allison, Germans (and others) have their perceptions of Americans which are all based upon stereotypes --- just as most Americans think that Germans wear lederhosen and drink Weizenbier -- a perception which most Northern Germans hate!!! :)
Thanks for your comments, my friends. I think people are really getting much more on track about eating right.
You get it! Love that sauce idea. I've got to get a copy of "In Defense of Food".
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