Let the Meatballs Rest by Montanari, Massimo, Brombert, Beth A. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Half title Series Page Title Copyright Contents Introduction 1. Things and Ideas

Being and eating The invention of bread Our daily bread Festive bread Bread unites or divides? Divide meat, share soup Form and substance (discussion around a plate of pasta)

2. The Status of Foods

Esau’s lentils, or how farmers defeated hunters Flour from spelt “Inferior” grains? Liquid bread: from ale to beer The stench of garlic The king’s peas (and the peasant’s too) The potato, from emergency food to culinary specialty The eggplant, food of plebeians or Jews The bread tree The peaches of Messer Lippo Five hundred pears To die for a melon Strawberries in November Watermelons and cucumbers Sweet as a fig

3. Adventures in Cooking

From raw to cooked (and back) The prefect recipe Cappelletti and tortellini: the retro-taste of history Macaroni, or is it gnocchi? The patient took some broth The invention of fried potatoes Among the thousand ways to prepare eggs Fritters Don’t flip the frittata Sausages Pink pigs, black pigs Liberating vegetarian cooking Dressing a salad The blender and the mortar Mediterranean “fusion” Home cooking: when variation is the rule Cooking is home

4. The Gastronomy of Hunger

Nameless plants Field herbs Forgotten fruits, or rediscovered? The struggle against time Diversity as a resource Bread of earth The right to pleasure Rivers of milk and giant tomatoes

5. Flavors

Flavor and knowledge How many flavors are there? A longing for sweet Sweet andor salty Bitter to the taste When sour was fashionable The taste for spices (and hot pepper) The taste of smoke How chocolate became sweet The taste of canned foods

6. Pleasure and Health

“What tastes good is good for you” The law of opposites, between kitchen and pharmacy Watermelon, salt and pepper Monthly diets The language of the navel Fat, meaning meat “Indigestion does not bother peasants” The lightness of the monk When pleasure frightens Monastic gastronomy Philosophizing gluttony

7. The Beautiful and the Good

The making of colors White or red? Carrot red Culinary artifices Compositions and compotes Confetti (sugarcoated almonds, spices, etc.) Beauty is not a superfluous benefit

8. Convivial Rituals

The call of the wild (around the barbecue) A masculine ritual Rucola in the White House Christmas dinner A hundred cappelletti Carnival and Lent Lenten diet, gastronomic discoveries Easter eggs Breakfast When snacking kills the snack Silence, we’re eating Eating on the highway Fast food and conviviality

9. Table Practices and Mannersa

The fork and the hands The missing cutlery The pot on the table First or second? The wheel of food To pour, to mix: when wine was made by the imbider The ancient art of pairing wine with food How to taste wine (without making an ass of oneself) Cold drinks

10. “Identity” Declined in the Plural

Spaghetti with tomato sauce, or the other in us Pasta and the Italians: a single and multiple identity Macaroni-eaters Four pies One product, one city: Bologna and mortadella Pellegrino Artusi: Italian identity in the world Polenta and couscous (with an unexpected variant) Is McDonald’s compatible with local identities?

Index