Cucina Povera: The Food of Peasants, Farmers and Fisherman
Make do with what you have, is how the poor survive.

Today when we eat the simple dishes that have made Italian cooking so famous, every bite is a reminder of Italian history, and a food that speaks of a relationship between the past and the present.  These iconic dishes are not only eaten for sustenance, but they are also an unspoken link to a national identity and cultural heritage.

"Cucina Povera,” the food of the poor, is not only based on a simplicity of ingredients and a method of cooking. It tells a story about poverty, struggle, necessity, and the food that sustained people through hard times.

Using what you had, or could scrape together, is the basis of “Cucina Povera” and was a means of survival in a society that was structured around a strict feudalistic system, where peasant farmers and serfs worked the land for the nobility and wealthy landowners. The peasantry paid their rent and debts with a large portion of their crops and produce.

Cucina Povera, the food of the poor, is not only an homage to a simple cuisine and the people that cooked it. More than that, it tells the story of the daily challenge to secure food for the next meal. The meals that came from their kitchens were made from what their small gardens, fields and nature offered. There weren’t any clever culinary concepts in the tradition-rich flora of their cooking

Living under a system that was akin to slavery, the poor were forced to make do with the meagre resources that were available. Meat was not eaten much, as it was beyond their means. If they had any animals, they would have been used as valuable sources of milk or eggs that could be consumed in the home, turned over to the landowners, sold or bartered. If meat was used, it was mainly offal which they could afford, as these came from the parts of the animal rejected by the better classes.

The poor people’s cooking, is sprung from the underlying philosophy, use what you have, cook it with love and care, and turn what might otherwise be wasted into a meal. This influence on Italian cuisine is characterized by the use of a few ingredients, allowing the natural flavors and freshness of each one to shine through. Even today, to many Italians, the trifecta of fresh olive oil, a slice of bread and a sun warmed tomato directly off the vine, are simple favorites that speak of their heritage. 

Pasta also has a logical beginning in the tradition of cucina povera. What was simpler for the poor than mixing wheat flour with water, shaping it by hand, and drying it in the sun?

Simple food is not only a tribute to the rustic cuisine of the impoverished people who ate it. Everyone who enjoys Italian food, owes a debt to the stone hearths and primitive kitchens of the people that worked the land and fished its waters.

The “Five” Quarters of the Animal
The expression “waste not, want not,” is sprung from the frugality and resourcefulness that comes from poverty.

The meat dishes of “cucina povera” follow the tradition of making delicious food from what otherwise would be discarded. For the poor, every part of the animal had value. The blood and the brain, the feet, the tail, the tongue, the intestines, the trachea and spleen, the lungs and the heart were all utilized.

Historically, when animals were butchered in the Roman Empire, the division of the meat was made following a simple scheme. The first and best quarter was reserved for the patrician classes, the second one was for the clergy the third for the middle classes, and finally the fourth quarter was for the soldiers. The poor could afford only the offal and the waste that was euphemistically called the “fifth quarter,” and that with imagination and skill, they turned into delicious meals.

Sustainability: Subsistence Farming

The essence of subsistence farming is being able to get the most from small parcels of land and is one of the cornerstones of Cucina Povera.

Kitchen gardens had to produce enough food to use in the household, with a little left over to barter for other goods. It was also essential to ensure that the land would be productive year after year. Every small farmer knew that different crops replenished the soil: for example, legumes, beans, lentils, peas and chickpeas, basic ingredients in poor people’s diets, restored the nitrogen that was needed by other plants. Ideally, there was a continual mix of vegetables that complemented each other, either at the same time, or alternating over several harvests.

Peasant farmers followed practices that had been refined and passed down through the centuries. Crop diversity was an age-old method of sustainable agriculture. Farming methods that depleted the soil would have deprived new generations of a source of income and food to feed their families.

There was also a need to supplement the diet during and after winter, until other vegetables and fruits ripened. Turnip greens, chicory, spinach and green beans are a fundamental part of a traditional southern Italian diet. They grew at lower temperatures, took up little space in small kitchen gardens, were a source of vitamins, and had the added benefit of replenishing the soil.