“True Italian Taste”: Sardinian piglet, risotto from Veneto and meatballs from Calabria

Four years ago, at an international agri-food exhibition, representatives of a major project of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Affairs, The Extraordinary Italian Taste, took their place among the exhibitors. The aim of the project was and is the promotion of Italian products, cheeses, meats, fruits, vegetables and wines. At the same exhibition, a little further on, were presented packages with mozzarella and ready meals that bore the label of the Italian flag and names reminiscent of Italy while advertised as dishes based on parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano). These products had nothing to do with Italy and were made in other countries. The mobilization of the “Extraordinary Italian Taste” team was immediate: the chamber, the Italian embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were quickly informed, while with the intervention of the Italian state, all three kiosks promoting these products were sealed.

With similar interventions and after complaints, the production of a product called Prosciutto Parma stopped in Canada, while in Germany the sale of local dairy products of certain non-Italian dairy products, but bearing the Italian flag on the label, stopped. “A PDO product like Prosciutto Parma, is so named because it is produced in the Italian city of Parma from its local products”, explains to APE-MPE the general secretary of the Hellenic-Italian Chamber of Thessaloniki Marco Della Pupa, who points out that in recent years too many products of the wine industry are traded all over the world with Italian names and brands, having nothing to do with Italy and causing huge damage to the financial sector of its agri-food sector.

And in Greece this year the “True Italian Taste”

This is, after all, the reason why the Extraordinary Italian Taste initiative was launched six years ago with the aim of tackling this problem and promoting genuine quality and high nutritional value Italian products through seminars, tasting events, educational activities. but also evenings and tributes with Italian food. This institution comes to Greece this year on June 8, simultaneously with similar actions in 27 countries around the world, with the project “True Italian Taste” promoted and funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and implemented in cooperation with the 41 Italian chambers abroad. Specifically, the wine gastronomy from the regions of Sardinia, Veneto and Calabria will be presented in Thessaloniki through recipes such as the piglet from Sardinia, the risotto with Italian PDO asiago cheese from Veneto and the polpette meatballs in sauce from Calabria.

Mr. Della Pupa points out that behind every PDO product in Italy is a consortium that undertakes the protection and promotion of the product. The consortium includes a representative of the Italian Ministry of Rural Development, producers and actors from all over the production chain, who make decisions according to strict standards, certifying that the food that has reached the consumer’s table is genuine and fully controlled. The label that now bears the Italian products and indicates where they are produced, from which raw materials, the names of the producers and those who package it, has also contributed to this process.

Greeks love Italian food

On the other hand, the general secretary of the Hellenic-Italian Chamber of Thessaloniki estimates that Greeks and Italians are very similar, as Mediterranean peoples they are, while Greeks love Italian food and Italian cuisine very much and know the authenticity of the raw materials that used in it. As for the flavors preferred by the people of Thessaloniki, he remembers that in the event that took place three years ago on the pedestrian street of Agia Sofia with the action Street Food Italia, within the Thessaloniki Food Festival, the Neapolitan pizza made by a pizzeria from Naples had a special impact in a wood oven, the real carbonara, the piadina romagnola, a pie made of flour and water stuffed with mortadella, prosciutto and cheese and of course the fresh Italian handmade ice cream.

In the same vein, George Palisidis, professor of Gastronomy and member of the Board of the Hellenic-Italian Chamber of Thessaloniki points out to APE-MPE that there is interest in Italian cuisine in Greece, considering that in many taverns across the country the menu includes Ceasar’s salad and bolognese sauce. “Also the trend that is now shaping and transforming coffee into a bistro, has led us to create here trattorias serving risotto, pasta, pizza and pincers, the precursor of pizza that appeared before it in Rome, is made with yeast and is always baked in wood oven “he adds.

Mr. Palisidis also expresses the view that the Italian motif can be adopted in Greece, so that the recipes are prepared with local products. “Wherever we go to a fish tavern, we will eat Ecuadorian shrimp, squid from Morocco and squid from Thailand. It is not possible to prepare a Greek salad with Bulgarian feta cheese, Turkish vegetables and seed oil. On the contrary, a predominantly village salad of Central Macedonia should contain tomato and cucumber of Basil, onions Lagada, green olives PDO Halkidiki, feta PDO Neochorouda, oregano Mavrouda and cucumber oil PDO Halkidiki “,

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