Food in medieval Sicily

This paper is a revised version of the original still here on the site, which has some corrections and new recipes.

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

BACKGROUND: The heightened consumer awareness for food safety is reflected in the

Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine, 2018

Wild vegetables in the Mediterranean Basin are still often consumed as a part of the diet and, in particular, there is a great tradition regarding their use in Sicily. In this study, an ethnobotanical field investigation was carried out to (a) identify the wild native taxa traditionally gathered and consumed as vegetables in Sicily, comparing the collected ethnobotanical data with those of other countries that have nominated the Mediterranean diet for inclusion in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and (b) highlight new culinary uses of these plants. Interviews were carried out in 187 towns and villages in Sicily between 2005 and 2015. A total of 980 people over the age of 50 were interviewed (mainly farmers, shepherds, and experts on local traditions). Plants recorded were usually collected in collaboration with the informants to confirm the correct identification of the plants. The frequencies of citation were calculated. Two hundred fif...

Ex Oriente Lux Studies in Honour of Jolanta Młynarczyk, 2020

Food is an effective symbol capable of strongly evoking a cultural identity. In the case of Sicily, this role is mainly played by pastry, and in particular by two sweets: cannolo (the singular of cannoli) and cassata. But how does it happen that just these two preparations, rather than others, take on this value? What are their meanings and what determines them? Are cannolo and cassata the expression of a remote and spontaneous tradition as we generally like to believe? Semiotic analysis not only leads us to understand the complexity of these two pieces of a gastronomy, but also to reflect on the whole notion of symbol, rethinking its limits and possibilities.

Economic Botany, 1995

there is a small area near the town of Pordenone where an ancient rite of spring is still carried out. This is the preparation of a special dish, known as "pistic," a collection of 56 wild herbaceous meadow and wood plants which are boiled and then sauteed together. This practice is still alive in a few areas of Friuli today and possibly goes back to pre-Roman Celtic cultures in this part of Friuli. The number of herbaceous plants used in this dish is extraordinarily high (56), especially when compared to the low number normally used in other conventional dishes. "Pistic" is therefore important, not only because it represents a quantitatively high use of wild herbs in the diet of the rural population, but also because it reflects environmental awareness, in that the archaic method of naming, identifying and using these plants still exists today. Similar rural practices include the use of "pot herbs" in Great Britain and in France the cooking of "mesclun. "" Le Pistic, un plat traditionnel de l'ouest du Frioule (Nord-est de l'Italie), fait ~ partir de plus de cinquante plantes sauvages. Dans le Val Colvera, dans l'ouest de Frioule, au nord-est de l'Italie, il existe une petite r~gion, pros de la ville de Pordenone oft un ancien rituel printanier a toujours cours. II s'agit de la preparation d'un plat spdcial, connu sous le nora del "Pistic, "" d base de 56 espkces herbac~es sauvages des pros et des bois, qui sont bouillies, puis rissol~es ensemble. Cette pratique est toujours vivante dans quelques r~gions du Frioule et il est possible de la retrouver jusque dam les cultures celtique, pre-romaines, qui une et des actives dans cette partie du Frioule. Le nombre d'esp~ces herbacPes utilis~es est exceptionnellement ~lev~ (56), sp~cialement quand on le compare au nombre normalement bas d" espdces utilis~es dam d" autres plats. Le Pistic est donc important, non settlement parce quil repr~sente un usage important d'herbes sauvages dans le r~gime des populations rurales, mais aussi parce que la nomenclature archa~'que, utilis~e encore actuellement pour identifier ces plantes est toujours en usage, refl~te une sensibiliM a l'environment.

The use of non-cultivated plants in a daily diet based on local cuisines is potentially of considerable interest to nutritional scientists, because of the plants' role as local products and their potential as sources of novel nutraceuticals. In many Mediterranean regions these traditions are at risk of disappearing, hence the urgent need to study such knowledge systems. Accordingly, an ethnobotanical survey was carried out among the 850 inhabitants of the village of Castelmezzano, in central Lucania, which is located in the inland southern Italy. Seventy-five taxa of non-cultivated and semi-cultivated local food plants and mushrooms were documented, and uncommon food uses of a few species were reported for the first time. These include Bellavalia romana , Lepista nebularis and Onopordum illyricum . Most of the recorded noncultivated food plants and mushrooms are cooked in oil or fat. Very few are consumed raw. This article discusses in detail the traditional culinary uses of these plants, their seasonality, ethnoecology, and their economic and nutritional potentials. The article also demonstrates how food agro-biodiversity is inextricably connected with cultural heritage.

Despite the extensive bio-scientific literature concerning the Mediterranean diet, which emerged in the last three decades, systematic ethnography-centered investigations on a crucial portion of this food system, linked to the traditional consumption of non-cultivated vegetables, are still largely lacking in many areas of the Mediterranean Basin.

Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae, 2015

Despite the extensive bio-scientific literature concerning the Mediterranean diet, which emerged in the last three decades, systematic ethnography-centered investigations on a crucial portion of this food system, linked to the traditional consumption of non-cultivated vegetables, are still largely lacking in many areas of the Mediterranean Basin.In this research, an ethnobotanical field study focusing on wild vegetables traditionally gathered and consumed locally, was conducted in a few centers and villages located in the Gargano area, northern Apulia, SE Italy, by interviewing twenty-five elderly informants. The folk culinary uses of seventy-nine botanical taxa of wild vascular plants, belonging to nineteen families, were recorded, thus showing a remarkable resilience of traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) related to wild food plants. In particular, approximately one-fourth of the recorded wild vegetables are still very commonly gathered and consumed nowadays, while ten taxa ...

Citation: Biscotti N, Bonsanto D, Viscio GD (2018) he traditional food use of wild vegetables in Apulia (Italy) in the light of Italian ethnobotanical literature. Italian Botanist 5: 1–24. Abstract In this work, we present a summary of an ethnobotanical research carried out in the whole Administrative Region of Apulia (southern Italy). he main topic of the investigation is the traditional knowledge about wild plants, focusing on their common names, on which parts were used in cooking and how they were used. he main aim was to establish a botanical knowledge about these culinary uses through a systematic identiication of the species involved, directly in the ield. In addition to this, we focused on the ecological aspects of these species and on their biological and chorological forms. Results suggest the existence of very strong ties between the local communities and this particular lora, without substantial diferences between rural and urban areas or among diferent zones of the Apulia Region. On the other hand, in each area we found peculiar food uses, species, parts used, and recipes. he analysed wild plants still have a fundamental role in the local diet, which can predominantly be ascribed to the Mediterranean model. Moreover, we documented an increasing interest in the culinary uses of these species: in the Gargano area, for instance, more and more cultivations of Salicornia perennans Willd. subsp. perennans are underway thanks to the demand coming from restaurants. In total, we documented 214 taxa (58 families) and at least 19 of them are enduring components of the local diet. Nineteen species represent a high number, considering that the tertiary sector is nowadays predominant in Apulia (73.5 % of the local GDP, compared to 73.2 % in Italy as a whole). Furthermore, the total amount of wild species used as food is the highest in Italy, according to the Italian ethnobotanical literature. On the same basis, we were able to draft a national checklist of 539 taxa documenting the taxonomy of the wild plants involved in traditional food use in Italy, categorized by regions. In conclusion, this work shows that the available literature regarding the Italian territory provides only a partial representation of traditional food uses, even though they are widespread throughout the country. Consequently, this tradition remains to be thoroughly investigated.