I Primi D’Italia: The Anticipation
One of my recurrent dreams is to tour every corner of the culinary peninsula — Italy. This dream was born following my intense interest in food and wine, matters in which Italians are connoisseurs! It always fascinated me how these citizens could create a dish with the same main ingredient in a multitude of ways depending on the region and the village where it is being created. Every corner in Italy has its own gastronomic traditions, its own variety of ingredients and its unique particular method of cooking. Fascinating, isn’t it?! What fascinates me most is their creativity, which is not about being a professional chef (speaking of which would take us to another dimension) but even the ‘panineria’ on the road or the small ‘trattoria’ at the corner can provide you with the tastiest dish you crave for. Having said this, Italy is a food mine; in the sense that many ingredients are available as a natural resource. Wild mushrooms, wild fruits, herbs, borage, rocket, etc are easily available in the woods they are surrounded with, thus easy to pick up and take home to prepare any favorite dish with the freshest ingredients. Unfortunately, on our islands it is becoming less popular growing our own fruit and vegetables and most of what is available on the market is usually imported. I hope that someday we realise that local produce can give us better results in our cuisine and that with the most simple ingredients we can create a variety of dishes, what matters most is the quality of the ingredient and not the quantity!
Coming to the subject of my post… I Primi D’Italia… this is a 4 day festival which will be taking place in Foligno, Umbria from the 23rd to the 26th September. This is the 11th edition of this festival and will be a gastronomic tour of the ‘primi’ which will include pasta, rice, polenta, gnocchi, soups and whatever it takes to create a tasty primo. It will be held in the historic centre of Foligno and whilst enjoying the cultural aspects of this village one is surrounded with glorious food to taste, buy and even cook during cooking sessions with popular chefs. For more information see attached link where you can also find the programme of this festival. Luckily, and THANKS to my DAD I will be going to this festival so watch out for the blog I Primi D’Italia: The Experience. Can’t wait! :)
