Differing attitudes towards vegetables

[purplewiz]

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions!

I would like to ask about the differences in Italian attitudes toward vegetables vs. American ones. My experience has shown me that I live in an area where vegetables are definitely considered "second class citizens", just something else to have on the plate along with your meat and starch, something that kids have to eat in order to be rewarded with dessert. (This comes from discussions with friends and neighbors, and the number of times I have to explain the "weird vegetables" I'm buying like Japanese eggplant or rainbow chard.) Since changing my diet to a far more vegetable-centric one, I've discovered a whole new world, and I'm wondering how things differ elsewhere.

I'm also wondering if there are any vegetables that are popular/common in Italy that are unknown or rare or unpopular in the US. I'm always looking to expand my horizons!

Thank you again -

Marcia.

[Faith Willinger]

Ciao Marcia

Italians do eat more vegetables than Americans, and in different ways, as part of an antipasto or paired with pasta or stewed by itself or with meat or fish. And Italian vegetables are better than Italian desserts. Farmers' markets throughout the country mean that most people have access to fresh, local, seasonal produce, a key to successful vegetable cooking. When I came to Italy, in the 70s, I had never seen red radicchio, wild greens, zucchini flowers, purple artichokes to eat raw, wild mushrooms, truffles. I've turned a lot of people onto fennel pollen, a condiment worth hunting for. I've never seen the vegetable known as agretti in the US, chive-looking sourish greens that are boiled, dressed with lemon and extra virgin. There are lots of different kinds of broccoli greens that don't exist outside their areas of production. And cicerchia, a legume that's an ancient chick pea, is new to most people. But what I find so special is that each village and town has its own special vegetable--beans of all colors and shapes, farro from the Garfagnana, the riccio Fiorentino tomato, zucca barucca from Veneto are a few examples.

a presto

Faith

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions!

I would like to ask about the differences in Italian attitudes toward vegetables vs. American ones. My experience has shown me that I live in an area where vegetables are definitely considered "second class citizens", just something else to have on the plate along with your meat and starch, something that kids have to eat in order to be rewarded with dessert. (This comes from discussions with friends and neighbors, and the number of times I have to explain the "weird vegetables" I'm buying like Japanese eggplant or rainbow chard.) Since changing my diet to a far more vegetable-centric one, I've discovered a whole new world, and I'm wondering how things differ elsewhere.

I'm also wondering if there are any vegetables that are popular/common in Italy that are unknown or rare or unpopular in the US. I'm always looking to expand my horizons!

Thank you again -

Marcia.

←