Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL
I have nothing against Italians, after all, I am Italian. But I don't eat any of the standard Italian dishes that you might consider "yummy". I've been living in the villages for almost 14 years and I think I went to an Italian restaurant only twice, and both times I was disappointed.
What does Italian food mostly consist of? It's mostly high in starch, fatty/salty cheeses and fatty/salty meats. How about a big dish of spaghetti with fatty/salty grated cheese and fatty/salty meatballs? That's typical and many other dishes are variations of that. The vegetables are skimpy and merely an after thought.
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The Italian diet of olden days , when my grandmother and aunts cooked it, as well as my dad, was very HEAVY on the vegetables. They ate meat sparingly. The cheese was their source of dairy. I recall fondly all of the wonderful "vegetarian soups" and they didn't even know they were eating a vegetarian lifestyle for the most part..........bean soups, lentil soups, vegetable soups.......simple green salads every day........eggplant, zucchini, you name it............plus they grew their own tomatoes and green peppers..........ate FRUIT for dessert "except on holidays".........ate NO BUTTER on their wonderful Italian bread. I don't recall anyone in my dad's family being obese. They were all THIN.
My dad ate walnuts, chestnuts, pears, cantalupe, oranges for DESSERT.
Everything was prepared from scratch in those days. NO PROCESSED FOODS.
Also, they made their own wine..........so no sulfites were added.
Fruit of the vine is supposedly good for your arteries and such......
Sure, if you are going to "choose" anchovies, pepperoni, salami, etc. rather than the daily preparation of home made bean and lentil soups, then you would get the salt..........but those were used for flavorings more than "snacks".
All ethnic groups had a type of preserved summer sausage or salty meat which they "put up" against hard times or winter approaching.........using meat scraps or what have you.
P.S. I totally forgot to mention all the "greens" I grew up on.......such as ESCAROLE, SPINACH, BROCCOLI, GREEN BEANS, romaine lettuce, chicory in soups, parsley, etc...........probably more than I can think of so early in the a.m. Plus lots of veggies like zucchini, tomatoes, green and red peppers, carrots in everything.....eggplant but no corn. I don't ever remember eating corn at my grandmothers............although the polenta was made of cornmeal.
Below link is just for "fun" ..........the huge roast beef does NOT belong with the Italian veggies. Use right downward arrow on screen to keep scrolling down...........
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...bles&FORM=IGRE
In a nutshell, they did eat a lot of vegetables...........so perhaps they were ahead of their times and “knew” what was healthy.
They also ate a lot of seafood, as I recall.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/...MATTER,00.html
Here is a modern version of the old “Escarole and Bean Soup” I grew up on. Very few kids would eat this today........
Back “in the day” they didn’t use Progresso canned cannelini beans..........but used dried beans they soaked overnight. This is a shortcut recipe.
Lentil soup is also yummy with spinach or other greens in it.............it’s easy to make with the dried lentils...........again, we grew up with lentil soup.
The Italian kids in high school , who didn't do the cafeteria meals.......would come in with huge eggplant parmesan sandwiches made by their moms for the working brothers and dads to take to work.
No fast food in those days.........or else, peppers and egg sandwiches........potatoes and egg sandwiches, or tuna salad (NO MAYO) Italian style which is with red wine vinegar, diced onions, garlic, etc.....
Everything had lots of garlic in it............which is good for you.
The Asian culture also knew the value of garlic and other herbs as medicinals........as did the Italians..........so I'd say these cultures were ahead of their times.......ahead of the pharmaceutical companies.