Italy produces some of the finest cheeses in the world: Gorgonzola, Bel paese, and dolcelatte from Lombardy, fontina and robiole from Piedmont, pecorino from Sardinia, Rome and the south, provolone from Campania and Apulia. The king of Italian cheeses is, of course, Parmegiano Reggiano, which is made in specified areas of Parma, Reggio Nell’Emilia, Modena, Bologna and Mantova.
Many Italian desserts are world famous: zabaione (a frothy mixture of eggs, sugar and Marsala) from Piedmont, panforte (a rich flat cake made with chopped nuts, honey, sugar, dried and crytallised fruit, cocoa and spices) and tiramisù (a chilled pudding usually made with layers of sponge cake soaked in coffee and liqueur, a mascarpone and egg cream and grated chocolate, which is a fairly recent invention from Treviso). There are so many regional cakes and pastries in Italy that it would be impossible to mention them all. Some of the most notable include: castagnaccio, a flat cake from Tuscany made with chestnut flour, sultanas, walnuts, pine nuts and fennel seeds; pastiero, a Neapolitan pastry filled with a mixture of ricotta, crytallised fruit, eggs, spices and grains of wheat that have been softened in milk; and gubana – a rich pastry roll from Friuli that is filled with a mixture of chopped nuts, sultanas soaked in rum, dried figs, prunes, candied orange peel and chocolate.
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Concerning the spices of Arabia let no more be said. The whole country is scented with them, and exhales an odour marvellously sweet.
– Herodotus, The Histories
The Middle East
The Middle East has been called the Cradle of Civilization. The fertile crescent of Mesopotamia and the Valley of the Nile are thought to be the sites of the world’s first cultures. Jericho, which was built around 7000 B.C., is one of the oldest cities in the world. The Middle East lies on the crossroads of three continents – Europe, Asia and Africa. It is also the birthplace of three religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The cooking of Islam extends beyond present day boundaries. It has a shared heritage that, at its height, was the most influential in the Mediterranean world. Little is known of the diet of its ancient inhabitants (Assyrians, Babylonians, Aramaeans, Phoenicians etc), although there is no doubt that these prosperous kingdoms had highly developed cultures and culinary traditions. From the Bible we know that the Israelites ate a variety of beans, chickpeas, lentils, dates, figs, raisins, grapes, nuts, olives, capers, ‘wild leaves’ and ‘bitter herbs’ – which are still eaten for Passover today.
In 539 B.C. the Persians conquered much of the region, followed by the Macedonian Greeks, Romans and the Byzantines. After the death of Mohammed in A.D. 632, the newly converted Arab Muslims defeated the Persians and the Byzantines and took control of Antioch, Damascus, Jerusalem and Alexandria. The Arabs, who were used to a frugal diet based on cereals, dates, milk and small amounts of mutton, quickly assimilated the Persian love of good eating. From the Persians they learnt the subtle use of spices, to add dried fruit and nuts to savoury dishes, and new, more sophisticated methods of preserving foods with salt and vinegar or lemon juice and honey, as well as the crystallisation of fruit. The seat of the Caliphate was set up first in Damascus and then in Baghdad. Foodstuffs from all over the Middle East, as well as exotic spices from India and China, found their way into the markets of Baghdad and the tables of the Abbasid Caliphs. Over the following 100 years the Arabs swept across the whole of North Africa into Spain, Sicily and south-west France – introducing new foods and cooking techniques to more than half of the Mediterranean world.
The next great culinary influence in the Middle East was the Ottoman Empire. Although both Ottoman and Arab cuisines had much in common, there were some differences, The Ottomans had adopted many recipes from the Balkan lands under their control such as stuffed vegetables and vegetable moussakas. The Ottomans also introduced the Arabs to yoghurt, burghul and börek (savoury pastries), as well as sweet pastries such as ba’lawah (baklava) and k’nafeh (shredded wheat pastry).
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was broken up and Syria and Lebanon became independent states under French mandate until the end of World War II when they, as well as Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, finally regained their independence.
Syria and Lebanon lie along the east coast of the Mediterranean between Turkey and Israel. They were once part of one country called Bilad al-Sham (the Land of Greater Syria) and have shared a long history of invasions and occupations by Hittites, Canaanites, (who later became known as the Phoenicians), Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Ottoman Turks.
The cuisines of both countries are virtually identical, although the names of some dishes are different. However, Lebanese cooking is more diverse, with a wider selection of vegetarian recipes. Before the Civil War, Beirut claimed to have the best restaurants in the Middle East.
The variety of Lebanese mezze and salads is enormous. In recent years, many have become world famous such as hommus bil-tahineh (a chickpea and sesame seed paste flavoured with garlic and lemon juice), baba ghanouge (an aubergine and tahini dip), tabbouleh (a tomato, parsley and burghul salad) and falafel (a dried broad bean and chickpea rissole). Mezze are always served with khoubiz (Arabic flat bread). There is a liking for mahashi (stuffed vegetables), especially aubergine, courgettes, peppers, Swiss chard and vine leaves stuffed with a mixture of rice, tomatoes, herbs, cinnamon and summa (sumac), which adds a distinctive tangy, lemony flavour. Various savoury pastries are made including sambousak and fatayer, which are usually filled with spinach, curd cheese or potatoes.
Kibbeh is the national dish. Kibbeh el–Heeleh (vegetarian kibbeh) is made with a mixture of mashed potatoes or pumpkin, burghul, nuts, onion and spices. Kibbeh can be baked, fried or simmered in a yoghurt, tahini or kishk sauce. Kishk is a kind of flour made with fermented and dried yoghurt and burghul.
Various cheese are made from goat’s or ewe’s milk: Jibneh khadreah (a fresh goat’s cheese made in the Lebanese mountains), Jibneh trabolsyeh (a crumbly white cheese similar to feta), Areesh (a curd cheese made with yoghurt and lemon juice) and Halloum (a slightly chewy hard cheese that is sometimes flavoured with black cumin seeds).
Meals usually end with fresh fruit – which Lebanon produces in abundance: red and white cherries, prickly pears, pomegranates, medlars, custard apples, jujubes and mulberries, as well as all kinds of citrus fruit, melons, apricots, peaches, plums, grapes and figs.
Pastries are usually eaten between meals with a cup of Turkish coffee. Ba’lawah (baklava), are made in many shapes and sizes and filled with chopped almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, cashews or pistachios. K’nafeh (shredded wheat pastries) are filled with chopped nuts or fresh cheese. Both ba’lawah and k’nafeh are coated in ater – a sugar syrup flavoured with rose water and orange flower water. Other traditional desserts include tamriyeh, little envelopes of paper-thin pastry with a sweet semolina filling scented with rose water, and kellage, sweet fritters filled with ashtah (clotted cream) that are made during Ramadan. Kellage is the name of the wafer-thin sheets of pastry used. Ma-moul bil-joz (walnut pastries), rass bil-tamer (date pastries) and ka’k el-eed (ring-shaped biscuits) are all Easter specialties.
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