Italy is rocked by a cheese war. Food critics claim that Parmigiano-Reggiano was invented in another country, and that neither gorgonzola blue nor even mozzarella are 100% Italian.
Food expert Alberto Grandi says Parmigiano as we know it today was first made in Wisconsin by Italian immigrants in the 1900s and was called “Wisconsin Parmesan.” He added that the mozzarella cheese used to make Pizza Margherita was born in postwar America, and not in the medieval convents of Naples, as the history suggests. From an Italian perspective, it was shocking.
Grandi’s theory is that all of Italy’s other iconic cheeses, such as sheep’s milk Pecorino Romano, teardrop-shaped caciocavallo, and provolone, were transported by Italians to the United States and from there spread around the world. , it is no longer native to Italy.
My hair stood on end.
So is Gorgonzola, the iconic blue cheese made in Piedmont and Lombardy. First commercially produced by monks in medieval monasteries, a sad dairy boy who had recently been dumped by his girlfriend forgot his cheese pot outside one night and returned it the next day. There is a more romantic story about noticing that green stripes are forming, but mold.
The French claim that their blue cheese, Roquefort, is older than ours, dating back to nomadic Gauls who needed energy-rich, readily available protein. But it wasn’t until they were conquered by the Romans that the Gauls began making Roquefort…
“Mais c’est pas vrai!” exclaimed a French chef when I asked him if Roquefort originated in Italy. “Le Roquefort Est Le Roi des Bleus”.
A cousin who lives in Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, told me that the local tourist board promotes a local product called zigra as the ancestor of ricotta. Zigra is a soft sheep’s milk cheese that is very sweet and pairs well with honey. . Ricotta refers to whey cheese that has been processed several times and “re-cooked.” The same goes for Corsican brochu, another form of ricotta. Both Corsica and Ticino were under Italian rule in the past (Ticino’s official language is Italian), so it’s clear that Italian ricotta influenced local varieties.
But then I spoke to ancient Roman food scientist Giorgio Franchetti. He said that most of our signature cheeses are actually older than the Middle Ages and even ancient Rome.
“According to historical sources such as Pliny the Elder, Grana Padana is similar to Parmigiano, but softer and less strong in flavor (and cheaper), and was first developed by the Etruscans on the border of Liguria and Tuscany. “It is said that it was created in the city of Luni,” an Italian tribe that existed before the ancient Romans and was wiped out of existence by the ancient Romans, Franchetti said.
This Etruscan seasoned cheese was sold in large circles engraved with images of the moon, like primitive labels, and was also given to slaves to maintain their physical strength.
Franchetti then told me that ancient Roman cookbooks talked about placenta. Placenta is a cake made with honey and the oldest type of ricotta cheese produced by shepherds living in the hills of Rome and sold to Roman aristocratic families.
But dulcis in fundo (“the icing on the cake”), as the Latins say, the best part of my culinary journey was learning that cheesecake doesn’t come from America. It’s romantic.
The ancient Romans were obsessed with cakes made with goat cheese (also known as ricotta) and topped with a rind of honey called savirum. This is believed to be the true ancestor of modern American style cheesecake.
Savyrum spread throughout the Roman Empire and around the world, eventually landing in America with Italian immigrants several centuries later.
The first recipe was written by Cato the Elder, a famous ancient Roman senator, army general, and gourmand, in the 3rd century BC.
In his seminal treatise “De Agri Cultura”, Cato suggests pouring honey and sprinkling poppy seeds on baked savirum to enhance the flavor.
I can imagine my Roman ancestors 2,000 years ago eating it with their bare hands, without even looking at the Gauls.