Listen to the podcast and improve your Italian in 10 minutes
Hai mai sentito parlare della cucina povera? Non farti ingannare dall’aggettivo povera, perché in realtà è una cucina ricca di ingredienti semplici, genuini e salutari. È una parte importante della storia gastronomica d’Italia e ora la stiamo riscoprendo, insieme al valore delle specialità culinarie e dei prodotti locali. Gli ingredienti chiamati poveri sono in realtà ricchi di proprietà nutritive e possono dar vita a piatti saporiti. In questo episodio conoscerai la cucina povera, un pezzo importante della cultura gastronomica italiana.
What cucina povera is
Cucina povera – ‘poor cuisine’ rich in simple, genuine and healthy ingredients is an important part of the gastronomic history of Italy. The notion of poor cuisine began to be used in the 1960s in reference to a way of cooking born from economic needs but cultivated over time for its simplicity and genuineness.
How to prepare dishes of cucina povera
The recipes of the poor cuisine use mostly vegetables and legumes. Simple and traditional methods of preparation are used, such as cooking food in clay pots.
Regional recipes of cucina povera
If you want to take a journey into the peasant tradition and discover the typical recipes of each region, you can start with pappa al pomodoro, a simple Tuscan dish made with ripe tomatoes, stale bread and oil.
Also, the Milanese cuisine gives us a peasant dish such as cassoeula, it is a decidedly substantial dish that has small variations from area to area, but which have in common the use of cabbage and the poorest cuts of pork meat.
Trippa is a typical Roman poor dish, bovine stomach cooked with the tomato sauce, mint and pecorino.
A poor Apulian dish that is handed down from generation to generation are fava beans and wild chicory.
