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ANSA. Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia is to unveil a 'fridge of horrors' next week in order to raise public awareness of the problem of counterfeit versions of Italian products, he said Monday. (Read the article)

ART DAILY. Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), was honored with a special recognition from the President of the Republic of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano. A medal was presented by the Italian Ambassador to the USA, His Excellency Giovanni Castellaneta, at a ceremony at the MFA. The award is the Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Commander of the Order to the Merit of the Italian Republic), one of the highest honors presented by the President of the Italian Republic. It was accorded to Rogers on the occasion of the opening of the MFA exhibition, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice. The exhibition, which includes 13 masterpieces lent by Italy, is presented under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic. (Read the Article)
 

THE WEEK. It all began in the spring of 1968, when a largely unknown writer named Mario Puzo walked into the office of Robert Evans, the head of production at Paramount Pictures. Puzo had a big cigar and a belly to match, and the all-powerful Evans had consented to take a meeting with this nobody from New York only as a favor to a friend. Under the writer’s arm was a rumpled envelope containing 50 or 60 pages of typescript, which he desperately needed to use as collateral for cash." I’ll give you 10 G’s for it as an option against $75,000 if it becomes a book,” Evans said, more out of pity than excitement.  A few months later, when Puzo called and asked, “Would I be in breach of contract if I change the name of the book? I want to call it The Godfather.”

Once Puzo finished his novel, Paramount’s original plan was to make the movie down and dirty, with a budget of only $2.5 million. But Puzo’s 1969 book was a runaway hit, and as its popularity grew, so did the movie executives’ ambitions. (Read th Article)
 

EXAMINER. I challenge you to come up with some low cost, healthy and delicious recipes using leftovers and inexpensive ingredients – just like the Italians do. As you may know, Italians throw nothing away and utilize every part of the animals they consume (think of head cheese or pickled pigs feet)! This is true now more than ever. Some of my favorite meals as a child resulted from my father or mother using kitchen leftovers. Most people know about the delicious Tuscan soups (like ribollita or pancotto) made utilizing breads – usually stale breads. Have you heard of polpette (meatballs made from leftovers - sometimes coated and fried) or fresh pasta ravioli with stuffing made from leftover fish or meat? Have you heard of soups or pasta sauces made with fish bones and fish heads or those flavored with parmesan crust?

The current depressed economic situation is international. My friends and family in Italy are not as frightened as people in the U.S. over this deep recession. Perhaps it is because Italy has undergone thousands of years of invasions, famines, and wars (including two brutal wars in the last century) before being ranked as one of the top 10 world economies. Italians know how “make do.”

The Italians are not despairing. They have rolled up their sleeves and gone back to basic principals of La Cucina Povera (cooking rooted in old and rustic traditions). Even restaurants in Italy have joined the trend. (Read the Article by Serenella Leoni)