Tastes of Southern Italy – I
The region of the midday sun, in other words Mezzogiorno; has a very fruitful and magnificent ground. Mediterranean diet was born on this region, thanks to some fundamental foods such as fresh vegetables, tasty sea foods, aromatic plants and olive oil. In this region, even if lamb and veal are consumed commonly, also pork meat and chicken can be found typically. Generally meat is cooked on a barbecue simply with thyme.
Italian Olives - freshly collected and ready for pressing machine.
Puglia is one of the most important regions in terms of olive and grape agriculture. The regions close to Etna and Vesuvius volcanoes have optimum ground for vegetable and fruit agriculture whereas Napoli is the mother land of Pizza.
Basilicata is other region famous with its spicy peppers. For me, it’s really an interesting thing to see some typical foods with these spicy peppers because it’s a fundamental component of Turkish cuisine as well. In addition, pork is an integral part of Basilicata's cuisine, often made into sausages or roasted on a spit. Mutton and lamb are also popular. In the region Basilicata, there is one pasta type which so famous. Its name is Maccheroni di fuoco. This is the pasta which is prepared with spicy peppers and garlic.
Peppers of Basilicato - Spicy and hot but tasty !!
Campania is the region where I live. I really like living here; I love its culture and cuisine because there are numerous types of different food products. Every day I can come across particular tastes here. Apart from the classical tastes such as pasta, pizza, I would like to talk about the tastes which are more special and unknown. You can find my opinions about pizza of Naples by clicking here.
Arancini: This is the typical food of this region. Arancino is the rice ball which can be prepared with rice, vegetables, cheese and hams. First they are putting all the ingredients together and then, they are rolling them till their shape becomes a form like ball. After that, they are frying them with oil. Basically, there are two types of them, White Arancino (Arancino Bianco) and Red Arancino (Arancino Rosso).
Arancino White - It's without tomatoes sauce. Generally, besides the rice, the ingredients are hams and cheeses.
Arancina Red - Rice with tomato sauce and peas.
For me, this type is so similar to one typical Turkish food, içliköfte. Although the ingredients of it are totally different from Arancino, the shape is the same and also both of them are fried foods. So, I can say that for Turkish people, the taste of Arancino will not be weird.
İçli köfte is the Turkish name for the deep fried, bulgur wheat sheathed meatball served throughout Turkey. As I've said before, the form is quite similar to Arancina.
Caciocavallo: This is a very particular cheese type which is typically produced in Campania region. Specially, the caciocavollo of Avellino is very famous. Avellino is a city which is one of the important city of this region. I think that the taste of this cheese type is very similar to Kashar cheese type of Turkey. Also, I had tasted the smoked Caciocavallo and it was so tasty as well.
To be continued…
Comments