Food

The Italian comedies of the 17th century, either those of the Commedia dell'Arte or the Commedia sostenuta, always stage one or more valets who have an intense and constant interest in food. The plots are punctuated by the exclamations of the valets complaining about the lack of food and who seek every opportunity to steal it from their master. This element is very amusing and is the pretext of many lazzi much appreciated by the public. However, the humour of such buffoonery is also a tragic reflection of contemporary society as the starving valet is not solely a character of fiction.
The Italian economic crisis has serious repercussions for a large part of the population which endures famine.
The Commedia dell' Arte, in its habitual manner, on the one hand alleviates this tragedy for the common people by providing the outlet of laughter, while on the other hand reminding the aristocratic audience of the deprivations that are suffered by their own servants or the peasants on their land.
The Bean Eater
by Annibal Carrache, Rome
   
On stage, the valet is not content with simply demanding food; he also names the dishes and their ingredients in a way not found in other European theatre at the time.
Indeed gluttony is then an Italian characteristic and at the French court in particular, the insatiability of Catherine de Médicis is legendary. But Italy is also distinctly ahead of her neighbours in gastronomy and the art of the table.
Many dishes and the manner of their presentation originate in the peninsula before spreading to the European courts which gradually adopt the fork as used in Venice or Milan.
   

The plays of the convitato di pietra give an insight into the products and dishes that were sought-after or eaten with pleasure and, although they might appear common today, some were novelties at this time.
It is notably the case of pasta and especially macaroni, which will later become the stereotyped picture of southern Italy.

Cicognini mentions them repeatedly in the Il Convitato di pietra, and they show the valet's profound attachment to this dish (Act I - Scene 7) :

Don Giovanni :
But why do you cry ?

Passarino :
Because I shan't eat macaroni anymore.

The best way that he has to calm his hunger
(Act III - Scene 5) :

Don Giovanni :
You have an appetite, hey, Passarino ?

Passarino :
I am hungry as a wolf, quite starving, in fact !

Don Giovanni :
Hurry up: bring him a chair.

Passarino :
Quick, servants, mongrels, cuckolds, a chair.

Don Giovanni :
Serve him some of this macaroni.
The Pasta Eater
   
Stage set for Polichinelle -
Teatro alla Scala - Milan

The implication is then very relevant because the dry dough, or pasta asciutta has only just reached Italian tables. The first process of drying dough in an industrial manner appears in Naples in the 16th century and gradually improves to reach the optimal technique of conservation at the end of the 18th century.
Furthermore, with the discovery of the tomato, imported from America by the Spanish, and recently acclimatised in Naples, the dish of pasta becomes popular fare capable of calming the hunger of a nation.
Pasta had existed in Italy for a long time, but in the more sophisticated form of fresh pasta, a mixture of flour and water forming a kind of “ lasagne ”, rolled in spices and honey, often fried and accompanied by cheese and subsequently reserved for the table of the nobility.
It is therefore in the 17th century that pasta attains the statute of national dish, and the successful association of dry dough and tomato sauce changes the standard of living of the poorer people. It is thus quite natural that the Commedia dell' Arte should often sing its praises.
In the 18th century, the lazzi about pasta are going to increase, such is the popularity of the dish throughout the country.
Finally, the word macaroni comes from the Neapolitan dialect and can be traced to Mascherone, one of the oldest characters of the Commedia dell' Arte who wore a grotesque mask and was reputedly a big eater.

   

Apart from pasta and the culinary revolution that it helps to bring about, the Commedia dell' Arte also mentions many products well known in Italy but which have hardly started to reach other European tables. If the valets of the plays of the Convitato di Pietra are afraid of not being able to find these dishes while outside their country, it is not without good reason.

When in Perrucci (Preudarca) Convitato di Pietra (Act I - Scene 6) Coviello says :

JI flee to Castille, to look for other loves. Salads and broccoli, farewell, I leave you.

Then, in Act I - Scene 10,

Polichinella :
Who knows if over there I will be able to find some chitterlings, artichokes and all the rest ? Oh Naples that I adore, keep well, I depart; stay well trees; Macaroni, farewell !

Family of Punch - Naples
 

It is necessary to know for example, that salads were eaten hot and stewed and served at official receptions, notably at the Court of Milan in the 15th century, but that they only become known in France under Louis XIV. The same applies to cabbage, introduced in France by the Genoese under Henri IV, or the artichoke which is one of the gastronomic novelties brought to France by Catherine de Médicis.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, it is from Italy that many products and dishes are exported to the other European countries, which only later attain the sophistication of Italian cuisine.