Several cheeses are made in Corsica: Bleu de Corse, a ewe’s milk cheese that ressembles Roquefort, various goat’s cheeses, and brocciu – a fresh goat’s cheese made with ewe’s milk that is similar to Italian ricotta and les brousses of Provence. Brocciu is also made demi-sec and sec. Fresh brocciu appears in many Corsican dishes, as stuffings for omelettes, ravioli and cannelloni, and in sweet and savoury fritters. It is also used in numerous desserts such as fiadone (a cheesecake flavoured with lemon rind and eau-de-vie), l’imbrucciati (cheese-filled puff pastries) and strenna (a brocciu cheese tart that is made in Vico on New Year’s Day). Brocciu sec, or dried brocciu, is mainly used, like Italian Parmesan, for flavouring soups and pasta. Other pastries of note are i canestri, ring-shaped pastries that are traditionally made for Easter, merzapani (almond macaroons) and fugazzi, a sweet bread flavoured with pastis and white wine, which is made in Bonifacio on Good Friday.
Light acquires a transcendental quality, it is not the light of the Mediterranean alone, it is something more, something unfathomable, something holy. Here the light penetrates directly to the soul. Opens the doors and heart, makes one naked, exposed, isolated in a metaphysical bliss which makes everything clear without being known.
– Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi
You should see the landscape of Greece. It would break your heart.
– Lawrence Durrell, Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays in Travel
Greece
Greece is a land where East meets West, where the past is seamlessly interwoven with the present, where myth and legend are fused with history. It is a land of extraordinary beauty – with dazzling light, dusty red earth, clear blue sea, whitewashed villages wooded hills and rugged mountains. Greece has over 1400 islands, but only 169 are inhabited.
The state of Greece as we know it today is not very old. Half of Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, Crete and most of the Aegean Islands were only united with Greece after the Balkan Wars in 1913. Before then, Greece was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, Franks, Venetians, Catalans, Genoese, Byzantines and the Romans.
Greece as a country has not existed for 2,000 years, yet the spirit of Greece – its language and its strong sense of identity – have survived throughout its long history of invasions and occupations. Around 7000 B.C. early farming communities developed in Macedonia and the fertile plain of Thessaly, where they grew barley and wheat, and kept sheep and goats. In the Bronze Age (c. 3000–1400 B.C.), the Minoan civilization in Crete was the most advanced in Europe. The Minoans were a great maritime power, trading olive oil, wine and honey around the Mediterranean. On the mainland, the Mycenean civilization thrived until 1100 B.C., when the Dorians swept down from the north and plunged Greece into a Dark Age that lasted more than three centuries. Over the following 300 years city-states or polis evolved, the most powerful of which was Athens. This was the beginning of Greece’s Golden Age, when she produced more men of genius – in philosophy, politics, geometry and the arts – than at any other time in history.
The diet of classical Greece was based on cereals, olive oil, legumes and wine. The main staple was maza – a grain-paste or cake similar to the Roman puls but made with wholegrain barley flour. Wheat flour was used to make bread – according to Athenaeus more than seventy-two varieties of leavened and unleavened bread were made. Legumes and seeds were highly prized for their nutritional value. Chickpeas, lentils, broad beans and vetch were boiled and made into etnos, a kind of porridge. Ancient Greeks were fond of onions and garlic and ate a variety of dark green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, watercress, purslane, orache and turnip tops. They also ate plenty of cheese, almonds and walnuts as well as a variety of fresh and dried fruit – especially figs, grapes, apples, pears, melons, quinces and pomegranates. Meals were washed down with wine, often thinned with water, or kykeon – barley water flavoured with mint. The poorest peasants drank diluted vinegar instead of wine.
Meat and fish were luxuries in Ancient Greece. Meat was mainly associated with sacrificial practices as an offering to the Gods, and only small quantities were eaten after the ceremonial rites had taken place. Garos, the fermented fish sauce called garum by the Romans, was originally made in Corinth.
Greece was under Byzantine rule for over 1,000 years, from classical times to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. The Byzantines encouraged a wider use of vegetables and spices and a liking for sweet pastries. This was mainly a result of Christianity and the Greek Orthodox Church being adopted as the official religion, which increased the number of Holy days in the calendar year when the eating of meat was prohibited – including Pentecost, the forty days of abstinence for Lent, and the forty days following November 15 for Christmas. Meat was also never eaten on Wednesdays and Fridays, which is why there are so many traditional pies and stuffed vegetables in Greece that are made without meat. Special pastries were made to celebrate each holy day (as they were in most Mediterranean countries) such as tahinopita (a sweet tahini cake) for Lent, tsourekia (braided buns flavoured with aniseed) for Easter, Christopsomo (a Christmas bread decorated with walnuts and sesame seeds) and vasilopita (a sweet yeasted bread that is made on New Year’s Day). Vasilopita is named after St. Basil of Caesarea – one of the three Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church.
The Ottoman Turks, who ruled Greece for nearly 400 years, were another important influence on Greek cooking. Many dishes in Greece today have names that derive from Turkish: domates (stuffed vine leaves) from the Turkish dolma; bourekia (fried filo pastries usually filled with cheese or vegetables) from borek; pilafi from pilav and so on. The Greeks claim that many Turkish dishes have Greek origins. For example, it is often said that yahni – the Turkish word for food sautéed with onions – may derive from the Greek word ahnizo, meaning ‘to sauté’. Moussaka, one of Greece’s most famous dishes, is often thought to be a creation of Ottoman cooks who were sent to France and Italy to study cooking, and returned with béchamel sauce, which they added to a Byzantine dish of aubergine and lamb. Today there are many vegetarian versions of moussaka.
Modern Greek cooking has much in common with Italian and Turkish cuisines. The Greeks claim their culinary traditions go back to the days of Ancient Greece, and that both the Italians and the Turks have been influenced by the Greek cuisine. It is certainly true that Greek chefs were much sought after in the ancient world. The Romans often employed chefs from the Greek cities of Sicily and Southern Italy (then part of Magna Graecia) to prepare their banquets. It is also true that in the Renaissance the Italians were greatly influenced by the art and culture of Ancient Greece. Also many of the Greek Islands – the Cyclades, the Sporades, Euboea, Crete, Rhodes, the Ionian and the Aegean Islands – had, at one time or another, been ruled by the Venetians. Some dishes on the islands such as pastitsio (a baked macaroni pie) still have Italian names.
The Greeks are avid cheese eaters. Most Greek villages produce their own cheese for local consumption. The most well-known Greek cheeses are feta (a semi-soft, crumbly cheese made from goat or ewe’s milk), Kasseri (a mild creamy coloured cheese that is usually eaten on its own or with bread) and Kefalotyri (a hard sheep’s milk cheese that is mainly used in cooking or for grating over pasta). Mizithra is a soft, unsalted cheese that is often served sweetened with honey or sugar. It is also used in various sweet or savoury pastries.