Two staples of Italian cuisine — pasta and risotto — have once again become pawns in a century-old ideological row that has shifted the playing field of Italian politics from parliament to the kitchen.
Giorgia Meloni’s party is increasingly using food to broadcast national pride and political allegiance. Joe Formaggio, a restaurant owner and Veneto regional councillor for the prime minister’s Brothers of Italy party, has created an “anti-communist risotto”, a creamy concoction with black truffles, that has rattled Italy’s left-wingers who have long championed pasta as the food of the Italian worker.
“Friends sent me the propagandist images of leftists eating sauceless pasta … and I thought, ‘we have to do something’,” said Formaggio who was raised in the Veneto region’s Berici hills that are famed for their truffle risotto. “There’s a difference between an insipid, sauceless pasta dish and a rich risotto with truffle that has now become the culinary symbol of anti-communism.”
Black truffle risotto is characteristic of the Berici hills
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The connection between pasta and left-wing politics was cemented during the Second World War. In July 1943, seven brothers from Campegine, in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, celebrated a brief taste of freedom amid the wreckage of war. Benito Mussolini had been arrested on the orders of King Victor Emmanuel III, triggering scenes of euphoria across the country. The Cervi siblings — farmers and militant communists — marked the moment by serving plates of white pasta with butter and Parmesan to the entire town.
Adolf Hitler’s paratroopers freed Mussolini two months later in an airborne raid before installing him as leader of a Nazi-backed northern Italian puppet state. In the armed resistance that followed, the Cervi brothers were captured and killed by fascist officials for being partisans. Their culinary gesture lived on, however, with leftists up-and-down the country eating plates of “antifascist pasta” on July 25, the day of Mussolini’s arrest.
Italy has come a long way since the stark divisions of the “years of lead”, from the 1960s to the 1980s, when far-left and far-right extremists traded deadly terrorist attacks. The collapse of traditional parties following the tangentopoli corruption scandal of the 1990s ushered in a new era of personality politics dominated by the TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. But nostalgia lingers, with leftists marching on adopted national holidays and enjoying their antifascist pasta.
Joe Formaggio’s ire was raised by photos posted of Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, right, enjoying a serving of antifascist pasta
This month’s food war commenced after Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, and Chiara Luisetto, a Veneto region councillor for the same, posted photos of themselves on Facebook enjoying the pasta. Formaggio responded with a press release accusing Luisetto of classroom politics, stating that fascism had been dead since the 1980s and presenting his risotto as an alternative.
The politician, whose surname means cheese in Italian, once said he wanted to prevent Italy being turned into a “second Africa” and has admitted on camera that he sleeps with a shotgun under his pillow. He told The Times that some had noted what they saw as right-wing allusions in the dish’s dark ingredients (Mussolini’s paramilitary followers were known for their black attire). “It is a dish tied to the land, the traditions and roots of Vicenza, a territory that has little to do with communism,” Formaggio said.
Mussolini, Italy’s former dictator, weaponised food in a propaganda campaign against pasta made with imported grain
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Playing identity politics with food is nothing new. Mussolini waged a propaganda campaign against pasta made with imported grain, and instead promoted rice. Influenced by the early 20th-century Futurists, he saw pasta as a symbol of weakness, lethargy and foreign influence. “Our peasants ate broth, soup and polenta,” Alberto Grandi, a food historian at the University of Parma, said. “Italians mostly discovered pasta in America and brought it to Italy.”
For Meloni’s government, food is about national pride. The prime minister’s newly renamed ministry of food agriculture, food sovereignty and forests has pushed patriotic initiatives including sending Barilla pre-cooked pasta to the International Space Station last year.
Albertina Soliani, the 80-year-old president of the Alcide Cervi Institute, which promotes the Cervi brothers’ memory, said the organisation relaunched the antifascist pasta tradition 30 years ago. This year’s initiative in the town, she said, drew 2,500 people. “Liberty for humans and human values are extremely threatened as they were during fascism,” said Soliani. “The antifascist pasta is the opposite: it’s the sign that we all stand together for a world of peace, progress and equality.”
However, Grandi said left-wing politicians’ attachment to the tradition signalled trouble. “It’s the sign of an ideological crisis,” Grandi said of the pasta fetish. “Going back and reinventing the tradition … basically suggests a lack of ideas and clinging to history in order to have an identity.”
Formaggio said the right-wing risotto was here to stay — and not just on July 25. “We plan to have a good truffle risotto every day, so any excuse is good,” he said. “I’m happy that the battle between communists and anti-communists has come down to the dining table.”
Dining and Cooking