Cucino Paradiso by Clifford Wright

[Wolfert]

Chickpea flour was the 'wheat of the very poor' and used to make street food everywhere in the Med region.

socca in Nice and farinata in Genoa.

Tunis: fenugreek flavored butter cookies called ghoriba homs

Tangier: cumin flavoerd, egg based pudding called karantika

Gibraltar: ditto

Israel: falafal

Antalya, Turkey: Hibes (a type of hummus made with the flour and tahini)

Palermo: panelle

Cadiz: Tortillitas

Edited April 24, 2005 by Wolfert (log)

[chefzadi]

Given that the use of chickpeas and their flour is quite widespread in Mediterranean countries I wonder if there really has been an influence from one side of the Mediterranean coast to the other or if it's just an example of natural culinary evolution running on the same tracks due to the common ingredients available. You have pasta e ceci almost everywhere in Italy, though more common in the South.

Alberto-

Your insights are valuable here.

I don't know of many other chickpea flour products (apart in Indian cuisine); Farinata and Panissa in Liguria and Soccà and Panisse in Provence are the only ones that come to mind. Are these more common in the Southern Mediterranean?

The origins of chickpeas are thought to be in Turkey near Syria.

I think I've said this before in another thread, if you give a Mediterranean cook a set of ingredients the resulting dishes will be very familiar. And it is true many dishes are so obvious that they were bound to have been created eventually and independently.

I wonder if pasta with chickpeas is something only found in Italy and Algeria though?

Paula Wolfert already gave a list of dishes. In Algeria we also do a pie, crepes and fritters from the flour. It is also seasoned and used to stuff breads.

I have a copy of A Medditerranean Feast now. WOW!

[Behemoth]

I can't help but think the raisins are a persian influence that was carried through the middle east to the west.

[ludja]

...

There are Sardinian cookbooks in Italian but none in English, although I believe Bugialli wrote a book a few years ago called the "Food of Sicily and Sardinia."  Incidentally, I disagree that Sardinia was a crossroads of the Mediterranean.  But Sicily certainly was.  Sardinia, although suffering many invaders, never became an entrepot for anything and this accounts for the island's insularity even today.

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Bugialli has an interesting quote in his intro to the book (published in US in 1996): The quote comes after a section describing the various invaders/inhabitants of Sicily: Romans, Phoenicians, Greeks, Germanic tribes (most influential of which were Lombards). Then Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, medieval Swabian Germans, the sea powers of Pisa and Genoa and then the Spanish Aragonese.

Sicily, the center of Mediterranean trade from the Roman period until the late Middle Ages, was the chief prize.  It has become trendy in recent times to vastly overrate the Arab influence on Sicilian food.  But a careful examination reveals facts that challenge this assumption.

Some things he mentions are earlier (and I guess he thinks stronger) influences of Phoenicians and Carthaginians 1000 years earlier. He says that cultivation of oranges and lemons came relatively recently (last few centuries) via the Spanish and that all beans (except favas, lentils and chickpeas--which he says were used by the Romans) came from the new World. (As did peppers, zucchini and other squashes, tomatoes and potatoes). Mentions that lambs and kid were used by the Romans and that pork is a very important meat in Sicilian cooking--lard, proscuitto and pancetta. Mentions that olive oil was in production before Arab arrival via the Romans and Etruscans and that many Indian spices were being used in upper-class Roman empire cooking. He also mentions the trickiness of interpreting the etymology of the names of diffferent dishes with some examples.

*I have no idea if he has an agenda at all and I don't know anything independently on this topic.*

Just thought I would briefly try to summarize some of what is in his intro. From other things he says it doesn't seem like he refuting Arab influence, but the (in his eyes) perceived overstatment that Sicilian traditional foods depend wholly or largely on Arab influences. (Maybe this has been prevalent in recent Italian books on the subject???)

Anyway, this thread is very interesting and I wish you the best of luck researching your book chefzadi! Unfortunately his book does not seem to have a bibliography, so besides the recipes therein I don't know if you would get many other leads. It would seem that there would be a lot more material out there but I suspect that much of it is written in Italian.

One thing that might be useful for research at the end of the book is a small dictionary of foodstuffs commonly used in the area with the equivalent words given in English, Italian, Sardinian and Sicilian. The recipes in the book are listed with their Italian or Sicilian names in addition to the English translations.

[archestratus]

I'm looking at the book to study history on both sides.

What do the Sicilian themselves consider to be Arab influenced?

What did the Sicilians document of the Arab kitchen?

What did the Sicilians Pied Noirs contribute to Algerian cooking?

(I don't know the number of Sicilians who returned to Sicily after the end of French Colonial rule. I will find out).

I'm on the pasta, rice and couscous dishes. I've already discussed couscous in the couscous thread and will get more into in the Beautiful Algeria thread. I've touched on rice and pasta dishes as well a bit as well.

I'll point out just a few dishes that stand out to me.

Yellow Vermicelli- Vermicelli Gialli

It is is true that overall dairy products are scarce and expensive in the Maghreb. But my family in Setif keeps cows and sheep. So dairy was a part of pretty much everyday eating  in my family.

Spaghetti with Almonds- Spaghetti All Mandorle

Yes Arabs mix pasta with nuts. Sometimes with sultanas and sweeter spices.

Pasta with Tuna- Pasta Col Tonno

Adding pine nuts and raisins to a savory sauce is very Arab.

Pasta with Eggplant- Pasta Co Le Melanzane

The identical sauce would more like be served with thicker cut pasta in Algeria. But I just have to mention this dish because the combination of Olive and Eggplant is glorious culinary marriage, two simple things when combined heighten the flavors of the other.

Bottarga. Yes it is an Arab invention. Batarekh.

Pasta with Chick Peas- Ciciri Con Pasta

I've had a lot of this in my lifetime. It's sort of like our dietary equivilant of a bean burrito. In Algeria tomato sauces, meat ragus and vegetable sauces for pasta will contain chickpeas.

I have to finish this post a little later. Kids are calling....

←

These are complex questions. There is a Sicilian cuisine known as cucina arabo-sicula, that is for the most part a folkloric cuisine not based on documents but on tradition as to what the people believe to be "Arab." There is also no distinction between the Arab era of Sicily (827 to 1223-3 when the last Arab-Sicilians were finally "ethnically cleansed" by Frederick II) and Arab and Sicilian contacts through the centuries. So the basis to the concept of cucina arabo-sicula starts with food products brought to Sicily by the Arabs that did not exist before and hence, any dish made with these products can be considered a part of this cuisine. These are: hard wheat (pasta and couscous), sugar, oranges, lemons, eggplant, watermelon, artichokes, sesame seeds, spinach, rice, and some others. Added to this are native food products that were employed in culinary ways derived from the Arab kitchen, for example, pasta and eggplant, pasta and chickpeas, currants, saffron, almonds and other nuts, raisins, cinnamon, or methods that came from the Arabs such as stuffing of vegetables, skewering pieces of meat (as opposed to spit-roasting), preserved tuna, bottarga, seviche.

The Sicilians documented very little of the Arab kitchen in Arab lands. What they knew of Arab cooking was the cooking that was happening in Sicily under Arab and Norman rule. Remember that the Normans, who ruled Sicily from 1091 to about 1194, were enamored with Arab ways and the palace chef and chamberlain in Palermo were Arabs.

By the "Sicilian pieds noir in Algeria" I assume you are refering to the fact that during the time of the Barbary corsairs in the sixteenth to eighteeth century there were Sicilians and other Europeans living in Algiers and other ports, either as sailors, adventurers, and traders. What their influence might have been we have no idea.

[chefzadi]

Sweet and Sour Lamb- Agnello In Agrodolce

This is very much like a sweet lamb tajine in it's most basic form. Adding vinegar to slow cooked dishes is a common Algerian touch.

There are other recipes in the book with sweet and sour sauces and sauces thickened with almonds. In Algeria we also make lozenges from ground almonds and eggs to garnish sweet tajines with.

The Chicken Pie of Mohammed Ibn Ath Thumna- Pasticcio Di Mohammed Ibn Ath Thumna

The filling is reminiscent of Trid. We would add saffron though.

This book makes me think that the Sicilian pied noirs (I'm also including the settlers who came with French colonization. Sicilians, Spaniards and the Maltese were promised French citizenship and the chance to homestead in Algeria) would not have found much of the coastal cooking in Algeria to be unfamiliar. I also wonder if spices are used in Italian cooking outside of Sicily? If so, which ones?

Now that I have a copy The Mediterranean Fest I want to focus on that book.

[Adam Balic]

Sweet and Sour Lamb- Agnello In Agrodolce

This is very much like a sweet lamb tajine in it's most basic form. Adding vinegar to slow cooked dishes is a common Algerian touch.

There are other recipes in the book with sweet and sour sauces and sauces thickened with almonds. In Algeria we also make lozenges from ground almonds and eggs to garnish sweet tajines with.

The use of vinegar is interesting. Many of the medieval Arab recipes use vinegar as a souring agent, but this doesn't seem to be the case now. I wonder if the translation 'vinegar' is means a grape product though, or another type of similar product.

In the 14th century "Description of Familiar things" there is a recipe for Marwaziyya, which is named for the central asian city of Merv and is an thought to be an ancestor of the North African feast dish Mrouzia. The two dishes are quite different in taste profile, due to the vinegar in the medieval recipe, infact it reminds me of the Italian Agrodolce sauces. I wonder if this Italian cooking method had an Arabic root?

My version of the medieval recipe is:

1.5 kg meat (lamb)

500 gm onions (grated)

2.5 ounces raisins

2 ounces of jujubes

6 ounces of prunes

vinegar

mint

mixed spices

saffron

sugar

Mix meat with spices and onion, rest overnight.

Gently heat the meat mixture until fragrant

Add pre-soaked fruit

Cook for 1.5-2.0 hours, add sugar/vinegar syrup to taste.

Adjust seasoning with more spices, salt and mint, glaze under the grill and leave to settle for 10 minutes or so.

[chefzadi]

In the 14th century "Description of Familiar things" there is a recipe for Marwaziyya, which is named for the central asian city of Merv and is an thought to be an ancestor of the North African feast dish Mrouzia. The two dishes are quite different in taste profile, due to the vinegar in the medieval recipe, infact it reminds me of the Italian Agrodolce sauces. I wonder if this Italian cooking method had an Arabic root?

The recipe you post is identical to a contemporary Algerian one.

I suppose we can ask the question if such dishes are found in the rest of Italy.

I'm still trying to digest The Mediterranean Feast it's quite the book.

[albiston]

In the 14th century "Description of Familiar things" there is a recipe for Marwaziyya, which is named for the central asian city of Merv and is an thought to be an ancestor of the North African feast dish Mrouzia. The two dishes are quite different in taste profile, due to the vinegar in the medieval recipe, infact it reminds me of the Italian Agrodolce sauces. I wonder if this Italian cooking method had an Arabic root?

The recipe you post is identical to a contemporary Algerian one.

I suppose we can ask the question if such dishes are found in the rest of Italy.

←

Agrodolce is quite common in Italian cuisine especially. Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari, in their book "Italian cuisine, a cultural history", describe two periods where sweet and sour marked the tastes of the times.

Initially, starting from the Roman times, agrodolce meant strictly dishes with vinegar and honey, a combination that remained very popular up to the middle ages. According to the two authors the Arabs succesively introduced a more delicate version of agrodolce, based on citrus fruits and cane sugar, that established itself in Sicily and Andalusia first and then spread from there.

I personally cannot help notice that a Sicilian dish like "sarde a beccafico" (stuffed sardines), is made with vinegar in Catania and with lemon (and sometimes orange) in Palermo, where the Arab influence was stronger.

[chefzadi]

I personally cannot help notice that a Sicilian dish like "sarde a beccafico" (stuffed sardines), is made with vinegar in Catania and with lemon (and sometimes orange) in Palermo, where the Arab influence was stronger.

My family from Setif who were pretty isolated from Europeans or the Mediterranean coast often use vinegar and citrus interchangeably.

[docsconz]

Agrodolce is certainly very common in Venetian cooking. Outside of Sicily this is probably where I have most often encountered it in Italian cuisine.

[Adam Balic]

In the 14th century "Description of Familiar things" there is a recipe for Marwaziyya, which is named for the central asian city of Merv and is an thought to be an ancestor of the North African feast dish Mrouzia. The two dishes are quite different in taste profile, due to the vinegar in the medieval recipe, infact it reminds me of the Italian Agrodolce sauces. I wonder if this Italian cooking method had an Arabic root?

The recipe you post is identical to a contemporary Algerian one.

I suppose we can ask the question if such dishes are found in the rest of Italy.

I'm still trying to digest The Mediterranean Feast it's quite the book.

←

How interesting and I thought that when I cooked it that I was recreating a dish that hadn't been made for a few hundred years. What is the name of the Algerian dish?

The Tuscan agrodolce sauce for wild boar is similar to this (once you take out the New World ingredients). Some of the early tuscan cookbooks apparently contined Arabic recipes, I will look into what they were exactly.

[chefzadi]

The dish is called Lahm lhalou (Sweet Meat). But there are many variations on the recipe.

The recipe Adam posted

My version of the medieval recipe is:

1.5 kg meat (lamb)

500 gm onions (grated)

2.5 ounces raisins

2 ounces of jujubes

6 ounces of prunes

vinegar

mint

mixed spices

saffron

sugar

Mix meat with spices and onion, rest overnight.

Gently heat the meat mixture until fragrant

Add pre-soaked fruit

Cook for 1.5-2.0 hours, add sugar/vinegar syrup to taste.

Adjust seasoning with more spices, salt and mint, glaze under the grill and leave to settle for 10 minutes or so.

Minus the salt Lahm lhalou is a special dish for Ramadan.

Edited April 30, 2005 by chefzadi (log)