Anna Maria Volpi

I dont remember when it was that I became ardent about food, or at what point in my life I caught my cooking fever. I always was fascinated by food: mesmerized by the mixes, the manipulation, the infinite tastes, fragrances, and colors; and by the transformation of flour into the innumerable forms and textures once combined with water and shaped by... fire. When I was a child, my mother, sisters, and I went for our summer vacation to a country home in a small town just north of Rome. A medieval abbey built upon the rocks deep in the valley, a castle, and an old bridge evoked a sense of history and time. The austerity and nobility of the environment contrasted sharply with the simplicity of the lives of our neighbors, the peasants. Their lives appeared to be flowing in slow motion, yet in harmony with nature. They repeated the same gestures year after year, busy in their day- day occupations of survivalgrowing their crops, raising their livestock, and cooking their food. I will never forget the aromas of those times: the perfume from the lime tree blossoming with white flowers in front of our house; the smoke exuding from the fireplaces into the narrow streets; the scent of the herbs and the tomatoes; and all the foodsthe sauces, lamb, and freshly baked breads and cakes. Baking bread was a big deal. Every other week the wood- burning oven was fired. The hinged top of a large wooden chest was opened and the flour was scooped onto the sieve on top. I stood on tiptoe looking at the flour being sifted to separate the bran. The yeast (nothing other than a piece of the fermented dough from the previous week) was pulled out of a small sack where it was kept and was added to the flour together with water. Kneading by hand was hard work. Yet, soon, a dozen big loaves were set to rise covered with a blanket on a long wooden board in a warm side of the kitchen, close to the fireplace. Then, the trip to the oven: The women walked slowly, carrying the long boards on their heads. Taking advantage of the event, my family ...Read More