Taste: My Life Through Food

Tucci defines the aperitivo in his chapter on Marcello Mastroianni as a way “‘to open up the stomach,’” as Mastroianni puts it (177). Often rendered as “aperitif,” using the French, this pre-dinner drink aims to engage the appetite for the meal to come. It is most often an alcoholic beverage, such as the “scotch on the rocks” that Mastroianni orders at their dinner together. Tucci himself prepares the reader for the meal that is his book, Taste, by providing a recipe for another aperitivo, the Negroni, on page 9.

This is the kind of cooking—“poor cooking”—that Tucci appears to admire most in his travels. The simplicity and authenticity of locally sourced, usually humble ingredients prepared without a lot of fuss define this food that derives from necessity. Tucci describes the “canon of Cucina Povera” as “[u]sing very few ingredients” to create a “rich and hearty dish” (132). Respect for seasonality and the freshness of ingredients is also key. When he discusses the variety of seafood stews across the continent, he describes them in relation to Cucina Povera: “For the most part, seafood stews were created by fishermen to make use of the less marketable bits of their catch or any good bits that went unsold” (235).