The literature part is the story by the author of Montedidio (2002) and Mikado rules (2024) Episodes of his life each time linked to memories of meals, his childhood like those he shared in the old Italian “Trattoria”.
Erri de Luca: “Everyone has a double-round, the charm is in the misunderstanding”
We find Erri de Luca since his early childhood where he was allergic to milk, then reluctant to the studies he stopped in the early 1970s, to become a mason and revolutionary farm in the far left at Fight continuousuntil emerging since the year 2000. He is the major writer whom we know with his formidable humanity, the one who came to the aid of Sarajevo besieged by the Serbs, as to the Ukrainians attacked by Moscow, the one who continues to alert to the Mediterranean who has become a cemetery of immigrants.
The man also reads the Bible in Hebrew and is passionate about solo climbing. He likes to face the vertical wall alone and explains to return in the evening to the mountain cottage, “A little crumpled outside, but all clean inside”.
Eat well
Each short chapter of his memories has a sometimes surprising name like: “Fountain water and baker bread”; “At the table we fight with death”; “Hunger, satiety, thirst”; “Himalayas”; “The strawberry pie”.
And each time, the short story of the writer is followed by the commentary of one of his friends, the nutritionist Valerio Galasso who explains the benefits or misdeeds of what the writer evokes by means of scientific information and practical advice for healthy eating habits. A way of having two very different books in one!
It is southern bread, which is shared bread.
The doctor thus advises us, for example, both to drink two large glasses of water before each meal and to reduce our consumption of cheese and milk so that you can offer us more calm ice and quality cheeses!
The memories of Erri de Luca are full of nostalgia, coming from an era of sober food, far from that of the starred chefs of today, a return to the simplicity of Neapolitan traditions.
He explains in the preface that it belongs “At an anterior food era, based on the small quantities and the lack of variety. He remained in my mouth a crude palace, capable of distinguishing the voucher from the bad, but poor in intermediate nuances.”
The first chapter relates to fasting, including its benefits. But he recalls that “Hunger is the most humiliating human condition, a curse that has persecuted humanity since its origin and which is the cause of mass emigration. “
His recipes
In the chapter devoted to salt, He explains: “For a long time, I have not put it in the cooking water of pasta or rice. I add instead a few drops of anchovy extract in the seasoning. I put in any dish, even on the hard egg.” He adds: “For those who were born and grew up in the sea, salt is the one on the skin wiped after a dive. I prefer to keep it on me, like protection. I like its smell.”
For the nutritionist, the two grams of salt per day recommended by the World Health Organization were very quickly affected: “Just rinse the vegetables in a box, eat capers or drink a glass of energy drink”.
“Montedio” in 2002, Erri de Luca, the wonderful griot
The book shows an Erri by Luca Ascetic, lonely and solar at the same time, petri not the sacrosanct rules of hospitality and human solidarity, backing up, said his mother, journalists by the smell of garlic he liked to crunch. “I sometimes speak on my own, to hear a voice. I don’t have electricity, I stopped paying and I was cut it off. I manage with candles and the fire of the fireplace.”
The book even ends with fifteen old recipes of dishes dear to the Neapolitan writer like the Macaroni omelette (omelet of macaroni), the Meat sauce (meat sauce) or Casatiello (Neapolitan Easter bread).
⇒ Familiar flavors | Story | Erri de Luca with the comments of Valerio Galasso, translated from the Italian by Danièle Valin | Gallimard, 256 pp. € 18, digital € 13
EXTRACT
“Our arrival at noon was welcomed by a cry of right ragù in the nose. This sauce was screaming, it was a standing stadium after a goal, a embrace, a jump and a waterfall in the nostrils. I will never find this assault at the top of my senses. At, table, in front of this dish of pasta in the ragù, never with cheese which was an insult, I was sitting very wisely. plate.”
