Italians See Red After Seeing Blue Mozzarella

This is an amusing story that reveals the depth of affection that Italians feel for mozzarella cheese. Italian police recently seized 70,000 balls of mozzarella cheese that were reportedly produced in Germany. The reason? The cheese apparently started turning blue -- probably due to a bacteria -- soon after packages of the mozzarella were opened by Italian consumers.

The case matters so much to the country that Italian prosecutors are now involved. Italians eat a lot of mozzarella, and they understandably get rather concerned when it looks differently than the photo above.

Thomas Jefferson Ponders Parmesan

Stopping by the Italian village of Rozzano in the spring of 1787, Thomas Jefferson happened upon a farmhouse where parmesan cheese was produced. America's future president was captivated by the process and described it in painstaking detail in his journal.

Jefferson wrote that the milk used to make parmesan was "scummed" and then placed in a large copper kettle. After four hours in the kettle, he wrote, "the whey begins to separate" and a small portion of saffron is used to "give colour" to the cheese. Then it is heated "by a quick fire," wrote Jefferson, until the curd hardens and separates.

Jefferson used nearly 500 words to record just about every detail of parmesan making -- from the amount of salt that was added to the precise number of days it took the cheese to "ripen."

(Note: Jefferson's culinary observations during his travels to Europe during the 1780s are contained in this book, edited by Anthony Brandt.)

Heading to Italy? Leave Your Cat at Home

Many restaurants in the Italian region of Tuscany offer wild boar on their menus. But apparently things can get much more exotic than that. According to the Associated Press:

Italian state TV has suspended a cooking show host who shocked the nation by saying cat stew is a Tuscan delicacy he swears he has enjoyed many times.

... When his 27-year-old female co-host looked stunned as (Beppe) Bigazzi said he has eaten cat stew "many times," the white-haired grandfather figure defended his tastes. "Why, people maybe don't eat rabbitt, chicken, pigeon," Bigazzi said.

... "Cat, soaked for three days in the running water of a stream" in Tuscany, "comes out with its meat white, and I assure you -- I have eaten it many times -- that it is a delicacy," Bigazzi continued.

The Italian Health Ministry issued a statement reminding Bigazzi and the public that cats "are pets protected by law."

The Foodies of Pompeii

It was 1,930 years ago this month that Mt. Vesuvius erupted in Italy, destroying the city of Pompeii. Roughly 20,000 people inhabited the city when the volcano erupted.

In their book, Life Is Meals, James and Kay Salter write that the residents of Pompeii devoted a lot of time and energy to good food:

. . . [Pompeii] was known for its fish sauces, its cabbage, and its luxurious villas. There were forty bakeries, many producing the traditional round loaves still made in the area.

Nearby were cultivated oyster beds and shellfish that produced the deep purple dye used for royal togas. There were elaborate wineries with machinery to press and strain grapes, and shops to sell what was made.