ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION (1936): “ … Italy is the bounteous mother of all continental cooking and her range of viands is greater than that of any other country. There are enough Italian specialties to make sprightly every one of the thousand meals in the year: succulent sausages, salami of Verona, mortadella of Bologna (now exported in cans); ravioli in every imaginable style; chicken livers genovese; capretto (kid); the maremma, tortoise and wild boar of Tuscany; the fish grills of Genoa; Umbrian baked pudding of rice and chopped pigeon; festive fish, eels, frogs’ legs, swordfish, tuna, mussels, Roman red mullet (truglia), frutti di mare, octopus; endless rice dishes (risotto); corn meal mush (polenta); eggs in unbelievable array; bistecca (beef steak); exceptional raw hams; osso buco (marrow bones); animelle (sweetbreads); artichokes and cardoons, pungent squashes; frittata; almonds and walnuts eaten green, chestnuts roasted. Ices, Neapolitan and tutti-frutti ice creams. Zabaglione. Distinctive wines and cheeses from every province: pale mahogany Marsala and heady Corvo from Sicily; Chianti, Capri; Parmesan cheese, Bel Paese, Stracchino, Bra and Southern Caciocavallo. A full rainbow of figs, a cornucopia of fruits. Watermelons red as lipsticks …”
