“lingue senza esercito e senza marina”

Dialects are, for Linguists,

: proudly pronouncing I’m Italian also means feeling that you belong to a familiar dialect from childhood, listened to by the elderly, by parents, no longer spoken, but understood.

I’m Italian… sure, but the bottom of my glass of wine, if genuine, has a dialect (mine is Piedmontese Asti, lands of Barbera, Moscato, envious of the nearby Barolo delle Langhe, now also proud of Nizza ....)

For those who are far away at the transoceanic level, remember that, as the famous Italian American writer J. Fante teaches, in the beautiful novel “The brotherhood of the grapes” there is always a dialect before our conventional Italian, without an army and without a navy. , but the dialect is also important in the heart and in life, even a “grape brotherhood” to say I ‘m Italian, even for those who live in “Merica, as our emigrants of the early twentieth century said and as poets and writers as G. Pascoli, C. Pavese, L. Sciascia remember.”

“Who knows, may our readers not think of sayings… of an Italian memory, linked to food, to dishes that now they don’t even know how to cook anymore….”

And who knows if they know the famous “bûnet”, so called from the shape of a farmer’s hat that goes to mass on Sundays.

Recipe: Piedmontese BÛNET

It is essential to find the mold: better in aluminum and not in steel.

fresh whole milk 400 ml 4 eggs amarettti from Mombaruzzo or in any case from Piedmont two cups of mocha coffee 5 heaping tablespoons of sugar 2-3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa or 50 gr. Dark bitter chocolate.

Procedure: divide the egg white, to be beaten by hand (it must not be “stiff”), incorporate the sugar and egg yolks very well. Melt the macaroons in the milk. Incorporate milk, eggs with sugar, egg whites, chocolate, coffee in a bowl, mixing well. The mold must be prepared by caramelizing the sugar: 3 tablespoons of sugar, at least half a glass of water and over low heat allow the sugar to caramelize until golden; it must not burn and then, holding the hot mold with a grip, descend over the entire surface, so that then the internal walls are all coated.

Cooking in Bagno- Maria. Place a pot with water that does not exceed the level of the mold placed on it, but remains at least 3 -4 cm below. When the water boils, carefully put the mold (or already when it is cold), but boil over low heat, without the water ever entering the cake, possibly covered by a corperchio. Cook slowly for 40 minutes. With a knife, try to see if it has congealed, otherwise cook again, even up to an hour. Leave to cool in the water and also serve lukewarm or cold from the fridge. Accompanied by: Sweet Moscato.

To obtain a good result, without holes forming in the cake, it takes several attempts…. It takes patience ... as in love for everything that gives us joy and pleasure .

I’m Italian means not only knowing how to speak and write Italian, but also cooking! “