Emilia - Romagna:
Articles

D.

Hors d'oeuvre, says an old Italian book, are those things after which one eats nothing else. What are hors d'oeuvre?

R.

It is the first entry of a meal, served before what Italians call primo piatto (pasta dishes or soups). The hors d'oeuvre includes several kinds of food, often cold and in small quantities, intended to stimulate one's appetite. The use of hors d'oeuvre is traditionally widespread in great cuisine presentation as well as in rustic and familiar meals. The traditional Italian hors d'oeuvre include mostly affettati misti (cold cuts), pickles, vegetables pickled in oil, sardines, anchovies, tuna, boiled and stuffed eggs and potato salad. Seafood hors d'oeuvres usually include a a variety of shellfish, shrimp and squid, boiled and seasoned in various ways.

The tradition of the hors d'oeuvre started originally in France and was served before the main course, as France cuisine did not use to include the primo piatto as it was the case in Italy.

As mentioned before, the goal of hors d'oeuvre is to awaken one's appetite, so I must be fancy, and pay special attention to the tiniest details and to the visually attractive. It is usually less nourishing than pasta and main courses and sometime is made with salvaged vegetable and meats.

D.

There are cold and hot hors d'oeuvres, how and when should we serve them?

R.

First of all it depends on the season. In summertime people tend to favor cold hors d'oeuvres, though it is not wrong to serve warm starters even during the warm season. Another factor to take into account is the nationality of the guests as well as the type of event they will be served at.

There's just one little rule that we must follow when serving hors d'oeuvre: never use ingredients that are part of the following entries. If we serve chicken as a main course, we must not include chicken in our hors d'oeuvre.

D.

What are the typical hors d'oeuvres from Emilia-Romagna?

R.

Cold cuts and e sausages make up the lion's share here. They include the well known prosciutto from Parma and Modena, the exquisite culatello, the local salame, the coppa from Piacenza (or fiocchetto), the cooked pork shoulder the bacon, the mortadella from Bologna (bologna) among others. Other popular hors d'oeuvre from Emilia-Romagna include mixed vegetable and seafood salads and, of course, the variety of local breads such as the piadina romagnola, the spianata, the tigelle from the Modenese Apennines, the fragrant"coppia" (couple) from Ferrara, the gnocco fritto, the fried cake, the burtleina, the crostini, the focacce (kind of pizza), the chizze and the deliciouserbazzone from Reggio Emilia.

D.

Can you give us some examples of hors d'oeuvres?

R.

The hors d'oeuvre can be either very rich, including a wide variety of choices, or sober and down to earth, offering the choice among a cold and a warm starter. Meat, fish and seasonal vegetables can all be included in the hors d'oeuvre. At times though, an abundant presentation of local cold cuts accompanied by local vegetables pickled in oil can do the trick!

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Which are the most requested hors d'oeuvres?

R.

Antipasti all'italiana (hors d'oeuvre Italian style), canapés, salted cakes, crostini (kind of canapé), salted pies, salted cream puffs, and mixed stuzzichini (appetizers).

It's not easy to find the right definition for "stuzzichino". The word evokes thousands of small appetizers and, in fact, there are countless recipes that fit the definition. The core ingredient could be anything from bread, to pizza, to crackers or piadine, to crab, or smoked trout or salmon, to cold cuts, cheeses or fruits.

With regard to salted pies, the region's tradition counts on a wide selection that can be used as lunch or dinner starters, or even served as piatto unico (single entree, as is customary in the United States and other parts of the world) accompanied by a simple green salad seasoned with salt, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Some pies must be served hot, while other can be served either warm or cold. Vegetables, seafood, meat or eggs are the main ingredients, while the "wrapping" can be either pasta sfoglia (puff pastry) or salted shortcrust pastry.

The tartine (canapés) make for excellent stuzzichini to serve at cocktail parties or as hors d'oeuvre at either lunch or dinner. Often they are served with with the afternoon tea along with other salted stuzzichini.

Here are some examples:
garnished salted biscuits; polenta crostoni with Dublin Bay prawns; tartine delicate (delicate canapés); tartina with wild boar and pate; mixed vegetables pie; salted cheese cake; salted pumpkin bloom pie; ricotta cheese and artichoke cake; savory zucchini pie, tuna and ricotta cheese; crescentine (similar to gnocco fritto) with cold cuts, just to name some.

D.

Some seafood based hors d'oeuvre:

R.

All kind of frutti di mare (shellfish), as well as crab and swordfish are excellent to prepare hors d'oeuvre because they contain iodine and are truly versatile, thus they may be cooked with different kinds of oil and sauce.

Some examples include anchovies in green sauce; spicy anchovies; tuna mousse; crab salad; salmon canapé; canapé with walnut and prawns; savory pie with caviar and salmon; cuttlefish and artichokes; impepata with mussels and clams; marinated sardines and eelsamong others.

D.

Some meat based hors d'oeuvres:

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Meat based hors d'oeuvres usually include cold cuts, vegetables and crostini. To comply with a low calory diet however, it is advisable to eat raw and cooked-vegetable-based hors d'oeuvres, as they provide more vitamins, mineral salts and healthy fibers, possibly accompanying the vegetable with dry fruits, oranges and pineapple. In addition, vegetable-based hors d'oeuvres give an immediate feeling of satiation and help cleanse one's body. Using olive oil and lemon juice as seasoning helps the body in assimilating the iron in them.

That said, some examples of meat based hors d'oeuvres include crepes with prosciutto and ricotta cheese; prosciutto, melons and figs; yogurt kebabs; stuffed fagottini; cheese flan; melon with prosciutto and goat cheese; prosciutto mousse; truffle crostini; plum and bacon ragù (meat sauce) with prawns and green beans; millefeuille filled with apples, artichokes and spek (kind of prosciutto).