Pasta, pizza, Parmigiano: the whole world loves Italian cuisine!!! But there are a few Italian delicacies that divide opinion. From calf's nose to maggot cheese: what triggers pure rapture in some may cause others to shudder. Buon Appetito?
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In fact, there is no such thing as the an Italian cuisineEvery region, and even every village, has its own specialities. Pizza used to be considered a poor man's food, but today it is the Italian export hit.
Some specialities from the "Cucina Povera" take some getting used to from today's perspective: In the past, especially in the poor regions of Italy, people cooked very inventively due to a lack of money, using virtually everything that was available locally. When an animal was slaughtered, for example, (almost) everything from the animal was used. In the past, poor people's food, today regional dishes for connoisseurs - Buon Appetito.
Cooked cow's stomach with bread rolls in Florence
Photo: giovanni1232/Getty Images via canva.com
One of Florence's specialities that is also only available here: Lampredotto in a roll with hot or herb sauce is a typical and extremely popular street snack in Florence in Tuscany. The cooked stomach is, by the way, the tender, darker abomasum of the cow (which, as we know, has four stomachs).
The history of lampredotto dates back to the 13th century. Once a poor man's food, today it is eaten without social distinction: Housewives, bankers, tourists and artisans line up at lunchtime in front of the small mobile cookshops in Florence. Lampredotto has long been available shrink-wrapped in the fresh counter of most supermarkets in Florence.
Lampredotto stands for the appreciation of a farm animal, but also for the exclusivity of a local product. Buon Appetito!
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Buon Appetito! Cheese with live larvae in Sardinia
Photo: Shardan /Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.5
A delicacy for cheese lovers - but officially banned under EU food law since 2005: Casu Marzu" is an overripe sheep's cheese from Sardinia. The name is Sardinian and means "spoiled cheese". The special thing: The cheese is colonised by larvae of the cheese fly.
The cheese fly ( Piophila casei ) lays its eggs on the sheep's milk cheese. The hatched larvae eat into the cheese and, through their digestion, ensure a high fermentation, a high maturity of the cheese. This gives the cheese a creamy consistency and a strong, austere aroma.
Officially, the production and distribution of Casu Marzu has been banned since 2005
The cheese becomes poisonous when the maggots die. It must therefore be eaten as long as the larvae are still alive. Larvae of this species are partly resistant to stomach acid: in individual cases they could settle permanently in the human intestine.
Since it cannot be ensured that the cheese flies have not had contact with cadavers and the like before the cheese, the production and distribution of Casu Marzu has been banned under EU food law since 2005. Efforts are currently being made to ensure appropriate production conditions. On Instagram, however, apparently up-to-date photos and videos of Casu Marzu appear again and again.
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Calf's nose and calf's foot in Naples
Photo: jimmyweee - Napoli/wikimedia.org CC BY 2.0
"O pere" and "o musso" are typical dishes of Neapolitan cuisine: calf's foot and calf's snout. These dishes also originated in the cucina povera, where food was not wasted. The pieces of veal are shaved, cooked, cut into small pieces, cooled and then seasoned with salt and lemon juice.
"O pere" and "o musso" can now be found in traditional shops and butchers. It is also often sold by stalls or food trucks.
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written by Pietro Perroni, first published on 27 November 2022
