Il rompicapo di Ketchup

If there is one thing which is very important for italians, then it is cooking. The italian kitchen is one of the best in the world and it is something the italians can be proud of. But what happens if you try do to pasta with ketchup right in front of an italian? Yeah, right, something incredibile will happen. And the only reason why it is not working is because "You can't do this!". But I have to tell from the beginning:

Pasta with Ketchup - the evil itself? :)

A friend of mine had nothing left in the fridge than pasta and ketchup. Of course this is normally something for children, but because there was nothing else, she decided to put the ketchup in the pasta. But this is an absurdity for italians. And even other italians say that "You can't do this!" The situation escaleted quickly when we were at a dinner at our place and we had a little argument between pro-ketchups and contro-ketchups. And now all this guys think that in germany we would always eat our pasta with ketchup. So please, cari italiani, who read this: No. Normally we don't do that, but at least we have the opportunity if there is nothing else left in the kitchen :) Something you apparently don't have!

 

And this is just the story of the ketchup issue! What about the incredible bechamèl issue?

Yeah, italians and food. I love the italian kitchen so much, but what I don't understand is why they always say that everything was their invention. It is not said that pasta was invented in Italy, because the chinese (maybe!) invented something similar even before. But anyway I think it is nonsense if you try to date food on a specific time. It is not that difficult to put things like eggs and wheat together, and I think that this happend a lot of times before in history. You cannot say "Yeah, now I have invented a new sort of food", you just name it.

Caterina di Medici, Queen of France

We had the problem with bechamel sauce. Originally it is made out of milk, butter and pouder and of course there was an issue where it was used first. The italians said that it has to be italian because it has an italian name "bechamela" (sounds more french to me but who am I to discide something like that :)) And me and a friend said, it sounds french and even in german we use the french word. So I asked the german wikipedia on my phone and - oh surprise, surprise - it has not said that it was german but that there are 4 theories about its origin: 3 say it is a french invention and the other one said that it came to France with the italian cooks who came with Caterina di Medici.... Of course the italians felt confirmt and we had a new argument.



Lasagne with bechamèl mady by my housemate

I think it is hard to dicuss about cooking and italian kitchen with italians. I love the italian kitchen - it is one of the reasons I dindn't go to Spain (phui, paella :)) but I'm tolerant and objective enough to say that there are other very good cooks and dishes in the hole word :)
So please, cari italiani, don't feel offended by this post. You really make the best pizza and pasta :D But please be a bit more relaxed when we talk about food :)