In which our hero rebukes the notion that fast food is bad food, and takes his with a little oregano
ood trendies, left-wingers and liberals among you will know Italy as the home of so-called slow food. This is where they take days to make dinner because it's good for the soul or something. Personally, I think it all sounds a bit frustrating. Say Italy to me, and I think of fast food. And say fast food to me and I don't necessarily think of crap food.
As slow food has become synonymous with good food, it seems fast food has become synonymous with bad food. Fast food is food that is morally wrong, makes you a bad parent and a lazy, childish person who can't defer gratification. Fast food is apparently at the root of obesity, responsible for the disintegration of the family unit and the general collapse of society.
It seems the Italians are counteracting all this by the whole family -- eight, maybe nine generations of them -- getting together every time there is a meal to be cooked, and rearing, chasing, killing and then butchering the meat, before braising it over an open fire for a week until it is like butter. Then they will all sit down and eat it together, along with one glass of wine, wine being something they have a very healthy attitude to, unlike us, who might have two, three, or even a dozen glasses in one sitting. From the age of two, Italians are given wine with their slow food. And they drink that really slowly too. And most impressive thing is that they do all that every day.
To which you'd have to ask: have these people never heard of pizza or pasta? Or, for that matter, have they heard of a salad? Or an egg? Has it never struck them that cooking everything to death might be getting rid of all the goodness? Did they never think of trying a nice, fresh stir-fry, where you eat loads of vegetables that are practically raw?
This all comes to mind because I was in Italy again recently, and we ate fantastically, and most of it was fast food. To be honest, unless you get to go to someone's house, I don't think you're really going to get a very good slow-cooked main course in Italy. But the primi are always good: fast, fresh and light. They'll rattle you up a bowl of spaghetti with vongoles in 10 minutes and it's as authentic as any old heavy, slow-cooked bit of gnarly meat.
And then there's pizza. Giving your children pizza in this country is practically a criminal offence. Then again, pizza in this country can be a criminal affair -- thick, bready bases, covered in processed ingredients. And that's just the fresh ones. Those frozen ones that people seem to favour are even worse -- the ultimate in dead, empty, fattening calories.
Imagine this: in Italy I ate pizza and pasta every day for two weeks, along with loads of ice-cream, and I didn't put on any weight. As someone who normally doesn't eat many refined carbohydrates or much sugar, I should have ballooned. But I didn't. The pizzas, like the pastas, were generally light and fresh -- nice, thin, crispy bases covered in fresh, healthy ingredients; essentially tomatoes, vegetables and fresh mozzarella cheese.
And the great news is you can now make your own fresh healthy pizzas at home. The Artisan Pizza Company is making the most amazing thin pizza bases. They are better than any dough you'll make yourself, and they are the ultimate in fast food. They cook in about five minutes in a really hot oven. If you freeze them, you just need to take the base out of the freezer for 10 minutes before cooking and it will defrost.
Then, you just add some passata mixed with a little oil and oregano, and on top of that whatever you're having yourself. At the moment, we are favouring really thinly sliced chorizo and thinly cut caramelised onion on nice mozzarella. Or else a little bit of sauteed mushroom. I honestly don't think I've tasted a nicer pizza, even in Italy, and even if you need to cook a few of your ingredients beforehand, the whole thing won't take you more than 10 minutes. They seem to have them in most fancy food shops. Their website is www.artisanpizza.ie.
On a more slow-food note, I got a lamb. I'll tell you about it next week.
brendanbites@independent.ie
- Brendan O'Connor
