Instructions
Australia’s romance with Italian food is not dead.
Despite the winds of fashionable change that periodically blow through our national cuisine – now Spanish, then Japanese, then Argentine – the Italian influence has been powerful for nearly 100 years. From the early part of the 20th century, as the first (mostly northern) Italian migrants made their way down under, a slow but steady reworking of our ideas about food has occurred.
At first it was through the market gardens that change began. Like the Greek migrants who arrived at about the same time, the Italians who came to Australia found the local vegetable offering disappointing. But rather than bemoan the lack of choice, they set about reinvigorating the industry, planting large swathes of new farmland on the outskirts of our major cities.
Within a generation tomatoes had become commonplace. While the availability of tomatoes might seem obvious when viewed through our modern eyes, to the Sydneysiders of the 1920’s this was a revolution. The change continued – within a decade the providoring industry had been transformed. Suddenly there were zucchini, fennel, broad beans, eggplant – a whole range of new tastes to savour.
By the 1960’s pasta and parmesan had begun their rise to power, and today you’ll find a risotto or lasagne in as many homes as ‘meat and three veg’.
What has made Italian food so approachable for Australians is the straightforwardness that underpins its philosophy. Where French chefs try to transform the ingredients they work with, Italian chefs accept nature the way they find it. This leads to an essential and unmistakeable simplicity that is the key character of the Italian kitchen.
This is as true in most Italian restaurants as it is in an Italian home. While there are a scattering of fine-dining Italian eateries around, most are called a ‘trattoria’ or ‘osteria’, building their offering around elegantly uncomplicated rustic recipes. It may be a simple steak, but it is cooked perfectly. The smoothness of a sublime gelato doesn’t need lashings of garnish to bring it to life.
Italian cuisine is a food for people who know how to live. Is it any wonder we Australians have fallen in love with it?
Grissini with prosciutto and scallops