Tuscan Bread...Perfect for Panzanella Upon our visit to Mercato Centrale, our tour guide brought the group insight to the alarmingly different taste of the bread placed in the center of our table at the start of every meal. Used to American customs, our group would hungrily grab a piece as soon as the basket was placed on our table and either dip it in olive oil or just eat a piece plain, as butter is not typically provided, and were surprised by the blandness of bread without salt. There are a few theories behind the absence of salt in Florentine and Tuscan bread. One such theory is the legend that "in 1110, in an attempt to force Florence to surrender in one of their endless battles against each other, Pisa blocked the salt that arrived at her port. preventing it from reaching Florence," (Pirro). Thus, without the supply, salt was no longer added to bread. Another theory was simply that salt was too expensive to use in a recipe as common as bread, thus Florentines decided to eliminate it. As our tour guide explained, these are both practical stories which could have played a part in the development of Tuscan bread to what it remains to be today, but there is one far more practical answer. As Florence Fabricant explains in her article for the New York Times, "...that is not correct. The fact is that Tuscan Food is highly seasoned and has been so and the bread, which is eaten with the main course and is an essential part of the meal, provided a better balance without salt." So, without an overbearing taste that salt can create, Tuscan bread creates the perfect base for dishes such as panzanella, taking on the flavor of the ingredients added. Panzanella has remained a popular dish throughout Tuscany for more reasons than one, however. A salad made with stale bread, fresh vegetables, and olive oil, panzanella has remained a staple of the Italian diet for centuries because of its compatibility with the Italian tradition to use all leftovers, its adaptability to include whatever ingredients are available, and its embodiment of the Italian food culture of using what one has to create something good. Cucina Povera Panzanella is such a popular dish if not for its flavor, then for its accessibility to the majority of Florence throughout history. “It is a salad which starts with stale bread, moistened with either cold water or salad dressing until soggy, resulting in it’s name Panzanella, or ‘little swamp’,” (Bikeski). With its origins as a poor man’s dinner throughout Tuscany, people would make Panzanella in order to make use of their leftover stale bread. Even a peasant would commonly have a wood burning oven, and bread was made every several months in abundance. Thinking from a political and economic perspective, limited resources cultivated the Tuscan culture of not putting any food to waste. On top of the soaked bread, typical vegetables included in Panzanella include tomatoes, onions, and pulled basil, though tomatoes were not brought to Italy from the Americas until the early sixteenth century (Davies). The culture surrounding the popularity of Panzanella throughout Tuscany embodies a “philosophy common to many cultures: making do with what you have to transform humble ingredients into dishes that are not only good, but exquisite,” (Lardara). Panzanella is classified under a type of cooking in Italy called “la cucina povera” or “the cooking of the poor.” Cookbook author Pamela Johns describes this philosophy as so: “the philosophy of not wasting anything edible and using a variety of simple techniques to make every bite as tasty as possible.” The people group embodying this philosophy of course would be those without proper means, the working class who were forced to “glean from their meager rations and gather from the land,” (Johns, 4). This mindset was also demonstrated by Dario, a butcher from the Chianti region of Tuscany who seeks to put all of the cow to good use, in honor of their sacrifice. His message radiates the same tone of simplicity, and that amazing meals can come from the humblest cuts of meat. It would be easy to count out the use of stale bread in an extravagant dinner setting, especially regarding its origin and history, but it was an antipasto served with some of my nicest meals in Florence, including my favorite from Zeb’s Gastronomia. The “cucina povera” style meals which we ate in Florence were not out of necessity, but a testament to the delicious dishes which were created from humble origins. Adaptable The basis of Panzanella is simple, but there is much room for adaptation from the traditional recipe including bread, tomato, onion, and basil. “Panzanella recipes tend to change slightly from house to house and province to province, or according to what you have on hand,” (Davies). With its popularity in the summer, the adaptability of Panzanella embodies the idea of the importance of using fresh, natural, and local ingredients for one’s meal. My experiences with Panzanella showed me how it could vary by ingredients, but also by its traditional bread base. At one restaurant, I was surprised by its use of quinoa rather than bread. Panzanella will remain a staple throughout Tuscany as long as the cultural values of the region remain: to make use of what is available, and turn it into something amazingly delicious. Though a “poor man’s dinner,” Panzanella remains an icon of Tuscan cuisine. BibliographyBechtel, Kathy. “Panzanella- Tuscan Bread Salad.” Italian Food, Wine, and Travel, August 9,
2013. http://www.chefbikeski.com/?p=3311 (May 28, 2017). Davies, Emiko. “Bronzino’s Panzanella.” Emiko Davies. http://www.emikodavies.com/blog/bronzinos-panzanella/ (May 28, 2017). Fabricant, Florence. "Tasty Tuscan Bread." The New York Times, October 17, 1982. http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/17/travel/tasty-tuscan-bread.html?pagewanted=all (May 28, 2017) Johns, Pamela Sheldon. Cucina Povera Tuscan Peasant Cooking. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011. Lardera, Natasha. “Cocina Povera Mania.” i-Italy: All Things Italian in America, May 30, 2009. http://www.iitaly.org/magazine/dining-in-out/articles-reviews/article/cucina-povera-mania (May 28, 2017). Palcher- Silliman, Jennifer. “Panzanella: the perfect summer salad.” The Seattle Times, August 8, 2016. http://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/panzanella-the-perfect-summer-salad/ (May 28, 2017). Pirro, Deirdre. "Take it without a pinch of salt." The Florintine, May 18, 2006. http://www.theflorentine.net/food-wine/2006/05/take-it-without-a-pinch-of-salt/ (May 28, 2017).
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