[CH] Southern Italian Chiles
Porter Banister (porter9@concentric.net)
Sat, 24 Mar 2001 04:18:35 -0500
Michele Mastandrea wrote:
<<Accordingly the italian "gastrosofo" Vito Teti, who wrote
several books about eating customs of people who live in
southern Italy, the use of "peperoncino", chile for you, in
sausages making in the city of Reggio Calabria, have been
demonstrated since the year 1500 (post Christum).
In the province of Calabria, very very hot sausage type,
called "nduja",(from french word "andouille") is produced
and exported too. La "nduja" is a mixture of two part of
pork meal and one part of chile powder!>>
Michele - I am very interested in how Southern Italians use chiles. I know
many Sicilians, Napolitans, and Calabrese, and they tell me conflicting
things about the use of chiles in Italian cooking. Some tell me "Italians
only use dried red pepper flakes when they want to give heat to a dish" and
others tell me that "fresh chiles are also used." Some of these people were
born in Italy, and some were born in the USA, but all of them are Italian
Americans. I'd be interested in the opinions of someone like you, who lives
in Italy.
Could you discuss in what dishes Southern Italians would use chiles, and how
hot do some of these chiles get, and which dishes call for fresh chiles,
which for dried, and which for powdered?
Do Italians ever use hot sauce, either in cooking, or to pour on top of a
dish at the table? I have only seen one hot sauce from Italy - it is
imported by Roland, and it's a balsamic vinegar sauce.
Thanks for your help,
Porter