Italian cooking will also celebrate 150 years of Italian unification this year, but the regionalism associated with traditional Italian recipes and dishes nearly always outweighs a nationalist interpretation of Italian cuisine. Over recent weeks, as Italy celebrated the date of March 17, there has been much debate over whether Italians can be unified at the table, so to speak.

The ’soft’ conclusion is that while Italy has a multitude of regional dishes and styles, it’s all celebrated in a common spirit. But is there one dish that represents Italy? Not really. There are many dishes, Italian wines, and different cooking styles which all represent different parts of Italy, although the Italians in the culinary business at the moment are claiming a unified spirit.

Coincidentally, 2011 is also the centenary of the death of Pellegrino Artusi - considered the pioneer of what is called Italy’s enogastronomic renaissance and author of the work Science in the kitchen and the art of eating well (La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene). The work was the first to start collecting what could be considered Italian recipes, written in Italian and collected from across the Belpaese - from Sicily to Piedmont.

It’s a work that can be rivisted in times when Italian people still associate more with their local regions and territories, than any national definition of their culture and therefore culinary traditions, despite festivities for unification this year. Can turnip tops and octopus from Puglia be just as Italian as ossobuco and Panettone from the north? There is a world of Italian cooking to be discovered and while it doesn’t unite us as such, it’s all to be enjoyed at the table of one of the world’s greatest cooking traditions.

Source | Gustoblog.it

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Italian cooking tradition is about as varied as they come: from north to south, the famous peninsula offers just about everything. Even the most famous Italian cuisine overseas has a local tradition from somewhere in the Bel Paese. In fact, you could hardly describe traditional Italian products or cooking as national - much like the Italian people, in fact.

But to celebrate further today’s 150 years of Italian unification, we bring you a gallery of all the best “Italian flag dishes”. Today is a public holiday in Italy but many people are still working, so you can save these for the weekend, too. You would be surprised at just how many red, white and green ingredients there are to make these dishes.

A favourite Italian flag dish, as you can see in the gallery, is to use rocket lettuce, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese - staples of the Italian diet, too. And the original Margherita pizza is also an example of the first homage to the Italian tricolore that is probably documented. Check them all out below.

Italian flag dishes: red, white, green in Italian cooking

Continue reading: Celebrating 150 years of Italian cuisine: dishes with the Italian flag

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In the midst of tragedy in Japan, a financial crisis which won’t go away, the Berlusconi sex scandals and investigations into the murder of a 13-year-old girl in Italy’s north, today Italy celebrates 150 years of unification. It’s a difficult time to be celebrating with political instability, low wages and the usual cultural divide between Italy’s various regions.

As a foreigner living in Italy there have been more times of late when I’ve questioned my ‘choice’ to live here than chances to celebrate that. But this evening the television was on to scenes of Italians making tricolore pizza and pastries, singing the anthem and doing their best to stay positive.

So today on Dolcevita we celebrate the local spirit of the Italians we live and work with everyday. The people who can still laugh in the face of adversity, work hard while having a remarkable passion for life and who, with diffidence, with an eye more for the contrasts than the bonds which make them all Italian, will still turn on a celebration today, March 17.

Photo | Flickr

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In the interview given to A magazine, Michelle Hunziker, talks at length about the role of women in politics. Women - she says - should unite and work together effectively on common causes and this independently from their political faith! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Minister Mara Garfagna and Alessandra Mussolini could collaborate and work together towards solving simple things? That , after all, is what Giulia Bongiorno and I do with our foundation which works to end violence against women.

Michelle Hunziker’s volubility ends abruptly when the interviewer swichtes to another subject: her love life. She doesn’t want to talk about her fiancé Italian actor Daniele Pecci. “Whenever I talk about my private life, I end up alone; so I won’t talk about it, it brings me bad luck!”

Michelle Hunziker sulla copertina di A

Continue reading: Italian tv host Michelle Hunziker on women in politics

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Today we have a very old recipe handed down over the generations. It was the soup that gladiators used to eat before facing the enemy in the arena.

Ingredients: 500 g emmer; 150 g fresh pock rind; 100 g pork cheek; 1 or 2 garlic cloves; 1 onion; 400 g tomatoes; celery; parsley; marjoram; grated pecorino cheese; salt and pepper.

Preparation; soak the emmer in cold water and then drain. Next wash the pock rind (use cold water), boil it for a couple of minutes and remove from the heat. Next cut it into strips and then put it back on the burner and cook for a while. Meanwhile grind the pork cheek with parsley, onion, basil and celery. At this point place the mixture in a saucepan and cook over medium heat. Next add the tomatoes, aromatic herbs, the pork rind and a cup of its water. Cook for at least 20 minutes over high heat and keep stirring until it is cooked through.

Photo | Flickr

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Eva Hengels was born in Gyor, Hungary, on 2nd November 1972. She was elected Miss Hungary at 17. With this title under her belt, Eva landed a few jobs as a model, but her career got a boost in 1991 when she bumped into her future husband Riccardo Schicchi, a famous Italian porno show producer and agent, who took her under his wing. Her hard-core movies, many of which directed by Schicchi himself, became great successes.

Continue reading: Eva Enger: from porn movies to primetime tv shows

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Italian music is rocketing up the World Chart thanks to Gigi d’Alessio, Boccelli, Biagio Antonacci and above all Tiziano Ferro whose new album Alla mia età has entered the chart at number 17 with 75,000 copies sold. Actually the album has already become double platinum!

Another Italian singer set to soar up the international charts is Laura Pausini whose new album has just been released. As for Giusy Ferreri, her much awaited album Gaetana is expected to sell well and make an appearance on the charts too! It’s nice to see so many Italian singers hitting the big time, isn’t it?

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Today, June 20, Abel Ferrara’s film Go Go Tales will be released, with two Italian actresses in the cast: Asia Argento and Stefania Rocca. The film features

Ferrara tells the story of Ray Ruby’s Paradise, a strip club…but that’s not all. The film was much talked about at Cannes in 2007, for the scene in which Asia Argento kisses a dog. The actress has recently said: “I wish I had never done it. My scene was constructed and that’s all that’s been talked about.”

Stefania Rocca however, has some good memories of the set, even when she did a lap dance although she was pregnant at the time:

It was on that set that I realised I was pregnant with my son. I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t want to say anything at the Cannes festival where the film was presented. I wanted to protect myself from undesirable publicity and also because Bianca Balti was already pregnant and it seemed out-of-step to let people know that two dancers from an infamous club were both about to become mothers.

It’s great to see that Italian actresses are still taking their craft overseas and being ambassadors for Italy. The film looks quite interesting so see below for an extensive photo gallery.

Continue reading: Italian actresses: Asia Argento and Stefania Rocca in Abel Ferrara's "Go Go Tales"

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Our Italian colleagues have found an article from the American magazine Let’s Go on all the best places in Italy to do different things. It’s turned out to be quite interesting for the locals, particularly with some of the more unusual suggestions.

The best alternative accommodation went to the Sassi di Matera, and the trulli. The best place to taste unusual animal food was Sardegna where you can find horse meat, wild pig and dog fish. The magazine also suggests trying “tapulone del lago d’Orta” which is minced donkey meat cooked in red wine.

The best place to lose weight is apparently the stairs at Positano which are better than any gym and decidedly more panoramic.

Continue reading: The best place to...unusual list of things to do in Italy

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You may have thought that the mafia culture in Italy was a thing of the past, or something mythologized in America through films such as the Godfather, or more recently the television series The Sopranos. But the Calabrian version of the mafia, the ‘ndrangheta, is showing just how to hoodwink a government.

Recently processes have been underway to discover how, on the 16th of January this year, 13 million euro went missing from the Ministry of State Schooling, destined as a bonus for families. The first stop on the trail of the money was in the accounts of a company purportedly to have a bar in Bologna’s city centre.

Unfortunately though, the bar doesn’t exist and neither does the company, and the account was opened with false documents. With Interpol and a special branch of the Italian police on the scent, the fake account took them to Cairo, Egypt and a company called “Egyptians for Investments and Tourism”. Waiting for the right move, they managed to engender a withdrawal of 50,000 euro and so freeze the account.

Continue reading: 13 million euro stolen from the Ministery of State Schooling

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