In Italy, people eat pasta with cheese and butter on July 25 to celebrate the end of fascism. Anti-fascist pasta
How can a pasta dish be anti-fascist, you might ask? Well, in fact, Mussolini tried for years to brand pasta as something hostile and un-Italian. And in 1943, a simple pasta dish became the symbol of the anti-fascist struggle.
HOW CAN A PASTA DISH BE ANTI-FASCIST? Well, actually Mussolini and co. had been trying for years to brand pasta as something hostile and un-Italian. Firstly, an incredible amount of wheat was imported for pasta production in those years, and in that way you were financially supporting the enemy – the others – when you ate pasta. He was more of a rice fan and famously said “A nation of pasta eaters cannot recreate Roman civilization.”And Tommaso Marinetti, the father of the provocative art movement Futurism – and a great fan and friend of Mussolini – wrote as early as the 1930s about the food-Italy of the future: “We must fight against puddles of sauce, disorderly piles of food and above all against flabby, anti-virile pasta.” So it wasn’t just economic support for the enemy, it was also gastronomically problematic with that pasta. The Fascists simply had the abolition of pasta as one of their political principles, because it had made Italy lazy and lazy
Therefore, when the rumor of Mussolini's capture on July 25, 1943 – and thus a hope for the end of oppression – sounded here in the Emilia-Romana region, the now famous Cervi family with their seven sons treated their entire village to pasta with cheese and butter.
A gastronomic rarity in a war-torn and starving country, but also a symbolic political decision, a celebration and a defiant act all in one. The euphoria was great, but the happiness was short-lived, because Mussolini was released, the war continued for two more years, and all seven brothers of the Cervi family were captured, and each one was executed for their resistance before they could see the end of the war. That is why a tradition is kept alive, with hundreds of restaurants serving this pasta dish to this day on the day of the Cervi brothers' gesture.
HOW CAN A PASTA DISH BE ANTI-FASCIST? Well, actually Mussolini and co. had been trying for years to brand pasta as something hostile and un-Italian. Firstly, an incredible amount of wheat was imported for pasta production in those years, and in that way you were financially supporting the enemy – the others – when you ate pasta. He was more of a rice fan and famously said “A nation of pasta eaters cannot recreate Roman civilization.”And Tommaso Marinetti, the father of the provocative art movement Futurism – and a great fan and friend of Mussolini – wrote as early as the 1930s about the food-Italy of the future: “We must fight against puddles of sauce, disorderly piles of food and above all against flabby, anti-virile pasta.” So it wasn’t just economic support for the enemy, it was also gastronomically problematic with that pasta. The Fascists simply had the abolition of pasta as one of their political principles, because it had made Italy lazy and lazy
Therefore, when the rumor of Mussolini's capture on July 25, 1943 – and thus a hope for the end of oppression – sounded here in the Emilia-Romana region, the now famous Cervi family with their seven sons treated their entire village to pasta with cheese and butter.
A gastronomic rarity in a war-torn and starving country, but also a symbolic political decision, a celebration and a defiant act all in one. The euphoria was great, but the happiness was short-lived, because Mussolini was released, the war continued for two more years, and all seven brothers of the Cervi family were captured, and each one was executed for their resistance before they could see the end of the war. That is why a tradition is kept alive, with hundreds of restaurants serving this pasta dish to this day on the day of the Cervi brothers' gesture.
