 |
|  |
|
| |
The Plains Pumpkins
|
|
If there were such a thing as a Squash King in Italy, the holder of this dubious distinction would have to be Arneo Nizzoli, proprietor of "Nizzoli's Locanda del peccato di gola" in Villastrada di Dosolo (Via Garibaldi 8, ph. 0375-89150) A stone's throw from the Po, Nizzoli has put together a menu with no less than 17 pumpkin dishes: pumpkin rind with a sauce of apple, wine and bacon, pumpkin cream with white wine, pumpkin lasagne with green pepper, pumpkin nests with bits of Montasio cheese, pumpkin tortelli with fried onions in lard, pumpkin ice cream.... All skilfully prepared using locally grown squash, identifiable by a yellow corrugated cardboard wrapper which certifies its Padana origins. These are seductive dishes, basic and sensual with a rich, full color. Champion of the simple squash, could Nizzoli be condemned for pumpkin overkill? |
|
|
The pumpkins of the plains are endowed with very special characteristics, imbued with the local mists and moods as they are. They are so much a part of the culture that Girolamo Folengo, the extravagant 16th-century poet from Mantova, exalted the pumpkin's nutritive, sedative and diuretic properties in verse. And yet, there are those who don't think well of the poor pumpkin. Who, for example, would take kindly to the description "pumpkin-headed"? The Italian language is laced with pumpkin-related epithets, insensitive comparisons running from ugly to stupid! But a pumpkin's got thick skin and holds its peace, while numerous chefs in the Padana, are trying hard to avenge it-- if only at the table.