U of T prints Artusi

Famous cookbook originally printed in 1891

Italians take food seriously. And the University of Toronto Press is giving its imprimatur to that noble subject by publishing a lavishly illustrated version of Pellegrino Artusi's classic 1891 cookbook, La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene (The Science of cookery and the Art of Eating Well).
Artusi's cookbook will be the first volume of the University of Toronto Press's The Da Ponte Library. The series is being sponsored by Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Fondazione Cassamarca in Treviso. Among its 100 titles in translation will be Cesare Beccaria's Del delitti e della pene (Of Crime and Punishment), and Norberto Bobbio's Politica e cultura (Politics and Culture).
The series is being edited by Luigi Ballerini and Massimo Ciavolella, both from the University of California at Los Angeles.
"This is the greatest Italian cookbook, the first which was not about regional specialties," explained Prof. Ciavolella. "It was done 30 years after the unification of Italy, and they thought even the kitchen should be unified. It was a masterpiece of Italian prose. It is a work of literature and not just a book of cuisine."
About 70 percent of the books in the U of T series have never been translated into English, said Ciavolella. "There's no reason to retranslate Dante."
The new edition of La Scienza in Cucina is illustrated Giuliano Della Casa, a well-known painter and ceramist born in Modena in 1942, The artist will be present at a reception being held June 4 at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (496 Huron St.). The exhibit of his watercolour illustrations continues through August 23.
Besides Della Casa's illustrations, the U of T edition of the classic Italian cookbook includes a vast variety of delicacies like Cappelletti, Saltimbocca alla Romana, Vitello Tonnato, Gnocchi alla Romana, Cacciucco (Livorno's fiery fish stew), Mamme Ripiene (stuffed artichokes), Ricciarelli di Siena, and Nocino. They're all here, along with hundreds of other forgotten recipes and clever variations on perennial favourites of the Italian table.
But first, a bit of background.
In 1891, Pellegrino Artusi, a 71-year-old retired silk merchant, gave up on trying to find a publisher for his cookbook and self-published it. It took him four years to sell 1,000 copies.
The next edition sold faster, so he increased the print-run of the third. Then book was discovered by Italy's burgeoning middle class. Sales skyrocketed, and continue undiminished to this day.
L'Artusi, as the book is called in Italy, is a household icon, a source of inspiration for generations of cooks, a family heirloom passed from mother to daughter.
Why would Italians prefer a book by a retired silk merchant to one penned by a professional chef? For several reasons. First, Artusi wrote his book entirely in Italian - this at a time when most professional chefs were French-trained, and their books were so sprinkled with French terminology that they were (and still are) hard for the uninitiated to follow.
Second, Artusi provided his readers with tasty, easy to follow recipes. Though he concentrated on the dishes of his native Romagna and his adopted Tuscany, people throughout the peninsula sent him recipes, and he included those he thought would be accepted nationally to the successive editions of his book.
Thus, the cook who leafed through L'Artusi was almost certain to find something that whetted his or her fancy. And, in the mean time, he or she had a collection of clearly written recipes upon which to build, as well as advice on serving combinations and menus. In this sense, as many food historians have pointed out, Artusi laid the foundations for modern Italian cuisine as we know it.
The third, and perhaps most important reason for book's continued popularity is that it's a fun read. Artusi was a bon vivant, noted raconteur and celebrated host; he knew many of the leading figures of his day and read widely in the arts and sciences. Almost half his recipes contain anecdotes or snippets of advice on subjects as varied as regional dialects and public health.
While you may open the book to find out how to make Minestrone, you will probably read on to find out how Artusi escaped cholera, or what the Austrian troops who occupied northern Italy in the 1840's were like.

Giuliano Della Casa will be present at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 496 Huron Street, on June 4. For information call 416.921.3802.

Publication Date: 2002-06-02
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