Original title: Eat a bite of ravioli, a night of happiness is guaranteed
Sicily, because of its location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Sea, has been a battlefield for Europeans and North Africans since ancient times. Such a harsh cultural environment coupled with the dry natural environment on the island has led to an extremely difficult life for the islanders for thousands of years, and the folk customs are more fierce. To this day, this joke is still widely spread in Italy: when Garibaldi recovered southern Italy, it was not to unify the north and south of Italy, but to divide Africa.
The beautiful scenery of Sicily The pictures in this article are all taken by Xi Xi
When I arrived in Sicily, at first I saw that everyone was fierce and evil, like a member of the mafia, and finally I was relieved to see the owner of the sofa, Angoilo. Uncle Angilo, 55, spent his early years doing business in North Africa and the Middle East, running a lap every month in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Lebanon. When he was almost fifty years old, he chose to retire.
The two of us met in the square near his house, and five minutes later Angilo appeared. As we walked to his house, we chatted casually. Perhaps because of doing business all over the world, Angilo is fluent in English, well-informed, and humorous, and we both share our travel experiences at first sight. Arriving at his house, dropping off his luggage, it was already dinner time, and Angilo invited me and me to dinner at a local restaurant.
Sofa owner anglio
After two glasses of wine, my "self-cooked" personality was revealed again, and I said to Uncle Anilo: "Do you know that the phrase 'Italy is the China of Europe' is indeed worthy of the name, fortunately Marco Polo brought back noodles from China that year, and you developed pasta and dumplings." After angilo listened, his face suddenly darkened, and he said solemnly: "It is time to correct Chinese's misunderstanding." ”
According to historical records, as early as the 10th and 13th centuries, the area of present-day Genoa, Pisa and Venice belonged to a country called the Maritime Republic called "marinare", and a young man named piedmont in a small town called gari in the republic claimed that he invented dumplings consisting of two thin layers of dough, stuffed inside, called ravioli.
A good plate of "Italian dumplings"
Ravioli is quickly sought after by people because of its good taste, easy to eat and full. Locals began making ravioli and selling it to nearby shops or merchants who came here to do business. In this way, ravioli first spread to the port city of Genoa, through merchants and sailors to Hungary and Poland in Eastern Europe, and then all the way east to the Middle East and the Far East, and the dumpling named "ravioli" was passed down from generation to generation.
Uncle Angilo's remarks are said to be more accepted by Italian scholars today. But I would like to tell him that in fact, some complete dumplings have been unearthed in the Tombs of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in Xinjiang, China, which can be used as the strongest evidence that "Chinese invented dumplings first". However, neither of us is a serious historian, and arguing about who invented the dumpling dish first is obviously not the subject of the night.
The northern mountains are cold, so the taste is thick
Ravioli has long since become a home-cooked dish with no distinction between north and south, but in the Middle Ages, only the princes and nobles could afford to eat it. It is said that the people of the royal family liked to make vegetable rolls wrapped in ricotta cheese with turnip leaves, and then after a long period of improvement, ravioli wrapped in ricota and spinach puree became a classic representative of Italian vegetarian stuffed dumplings.
But in fact, in the history of Italian cuisine, these noodles and dumplings, which are now at the top of the "national cuisine", have also experienced a rather tortuous period. Back in 1931, filippo tommaso marinetti, the futurist leader of the pro-fascist movement, launched a vigorous "pasta abolition" campaign, declaring that "pasta is a ridiculous food" – perhaps the British drew their energy from cod, roast beef, pie.
The Germans gained confidence from smoked bacon and sausages, but what about the Italians? Eating pasta only makes people doze off.
There are also ravioli similar to ravioli
At the same time, it was also a politically charged campaign, with Mussolini hoping that the population would reduce demand for flour due to shortages of goods in response to the decline in wheat production and soaring prices. Filippo also publicly declares that "your thoughts, dreams, and actions are determined by your daily diet." According to him, both pasta and dumplings are carbohydrates, and eating too much of these foods can make people suspicious, tired, pessimistic and sentimental.
Of course, the fascist regime was eventually overthrown, and the futuristic campaign for food reform ended in failure–not only did the Italians wean themselves off these "useless" carbohydrates, but instead set off a popular movement to "defend the Italian national cuisine": housewives united to sign petitions demanding that people be retained the right to cook and enjoy pasta; the Neapolitans launched the defense of thin noodles; romantic poets also used their social position to praise ravioli is" love letters in red envelopes"; even within the Futurists there are divisions, with some members from the Genoa region hoping to exclude pasta with green sauce from their hometowns from the list of fasts.
Although this absurd movement eventually ended in farce, Italians can eat pasta steadily and doze off with confidence.
By this time, the waiter had already placed a bowl of noodle dumplings in front of me. Uncle Angilo motioned for me to hurry up and try it. Sicily is surrounded by the sea, and eating seafood is definitely one of the must-do things here.
The plate looks very tempting: six dumplings with a faint green spinach filling sit in the center of the plate, surrounded by steaming seafood sauce, which is composed of plump tomatoes, fat rays, fresh octopus, and then mixed with garlic, sage and white wine, simmered over a low heat. After serving, the chef will sprinkle the extremely chopped parsley as a garnish.
The white dough, red ketchup, emerald green parsley, and the red, white and green colors of the Italian flag coincide. Take a bite, cook just right to maintain the al dente level of dough, mixed with the fragrance of spinach and the smell of the sea, the sauce is sweet and sour, and it feels extremely enjoyable with each bite. After eating a mouthful, I knew that the happiness of this night was guaranteed.