8 April 23 | Vol 2 Issue 12
I have a fascination with Gabriele d’Annunzio. I probably shouldn't. People happily read true crime books on real life serial killers. Netflix dramatises the lives of murderers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Charles Sobhraj, played out not as documentary but entertainment. I know I'm out of step here with current views, but I find the idea that these people are made into dramatic characters, given the focus, while the parents, brothers, sisters, partners of the victims they killed are still alive, disturbing and morally wrong. Something brought into focus by Thomas M. Wright's The Stranger, about the killer of a young Australian boy. The victim's parent asked him not to go ahead with the film, as the memory of his death was painful enough. He made it anyway. Reasoning that it was a drama based on what happened, but then filmed in the very same real life locations, including where remains of the body were eventually found. Not much of a fictionalisation.
So excuse me if I find Gabriele d’Annunzio and his place in the hearts of Italian culture intriguing. Who the fuck is Gabriele d’Annunzio you say. Wikipedia lists him as an Italian poet, playwright, orator, journalist, aristocrat, and World War I Royal Italian Army officer.
This is before mentioning he invented Italian fascism, and is credited with inspiring Hitler's oratory style. So yes, I should probably know better. So should Italy perhaps, but they love him.
And to be frank, there's quite a bit to love. He never called himself a fascist. There's also quite a lot to dislike. But if Netflix is going to dramatise suspect people's lives, then Gabriele never raped and murdered a schoolboy. He did write a poem about a cake that is popular to this day. The poem and the cake.
Nietzsche said Art is the proper task of life. 1882 saw The Gay Science published in which he wrote What is called life does not consist in eating, drinking, procreating, and so forth; rather, it consists in Dionysian festivals and in the creative production of works of art. He's often blamed for inspiring the Nazis.
D’Annunzio wrote in his perhaps autobiographical novel 1889 Il Piacere – You must create your life, as you’d create a work of art. It’s necessary that the life of an intellectual be artwork with him as the subject. True superiority is all here. At all costs, you must preserve liberty, to the point of intoxication. He's often blamed for inspiring the Nazis.
He believed the average person was too stupid to have a say in the running of the country, which was better left to the wildly gifted. Him for example. He believed in the politics of spectacle, the sort of sex and violence mix that J G Ballard made his home in High Rise and Crash.
He may have survived an assassination attempt by being pushed from a window balcony — he invented the shouting and waving your arms about dictator balcony speech style after all — or he may have accidentally fallen off after way too much cocaine and alcohol. He was sex mad, his fiction detailed lots of his favourite acts. The door to his office was deliberately short so anyone entering had to in effect bow to him.
During the war he led cavalry charges, naval and air raids, dropping self aggrandising printed propaganda as he went. Everyone loved him. He got elected for a short while into government, but it didn't agree with him. He found his forte when after the war he invaded the city of Flume, and declared it an independent country, named it Carnaro, with him as ruler.
It lasted for fifteen months. A nihilist, Futurist inspired sex-positive, libertarian art state. As well as adoring the spectacle of violence, he made music a central duty of the state, writing it into the constitution, there were firework shows every night, and Government sponsored poetry readings. J G Ballard's work is said to be concerned with "Eros, Thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies". Sound familiar?
Italy demanded d’Annunzio step down. He declared war on Italy, leading pirate raids to steal supplies from his mother country. The Italian people loved him for it. The rule for an intellectual is this: own, don’t be owned he said.
He lost, obviously. He is loved and remembered as a great Italian, his home town of Pescara named their school after him. The cake he wrote a poem about was created by an artisan bakery there.
E’ tanto buono questo parrozzo nuovo
che sembra una pazzia di San Cetteo
che abbia messo in questo tuo gran forno
la terra lavorata dal bue
la terra grassa e lucente che si cuoce
più tonda di una provola su questo fuoco
gentile, e che diventa a poco a poco
Più dolce di qualunque cosa dolce.
Siano benedetti D’Amico e San Cetteo!This new parrozzo is so good
that seems like a madness of San Cetteo
that he put in this great oven of yours
the earth worked by the ox
the fat and shiny earth that bakes
more round than a provola on this fire
gentle, and that becomes little by little
Sweeter than anything sweet.
Blessed be D'Amico and San Cetteo!
A provola is a local cheese.
Gabriele d’Annunzio is perhaps the first pop star.
In 1926 Luigi D'Amico, creator of the Parrozzo cake, which is based on a local corn flour bread loaf, baked till the crust is a dark brown, sent one to Gabriele d'Annunzio. A wise marketing move, he replied with the poem, which graces the packaging to this day.
D'Annunzio's Parrozzo
6 eggs
200g sugar
150g semolina
200g chopped sweet almonds
4-5 chopped armelline (bitter) almonds
2 tablespoons Aurum (typical Pescara liqueur) or Amaretto di Saronno
Grated orange or lemon zest
60ml extra virgin olive oilFor the glaze
200g dark chocolate 60%
30g of butterPreparation
Separate the yolks from the whites. Whip the egg yolks with the sugar until you get a light and frothy mixture. Add the semolina, the almonds, the grated peel of the citrus fruit, the oil and the liqueur. Stir until everything is blended. Don't worry if the dough remains particularly compact. Whip the egg whites until stiff and add them to the mixture, incorporating them delicately with movements from the bottom up so as not to disassemble the mixture.
Grease and flour a zuccotto mold of about 18-20cm in diameter, pour the mixture and cook in a hot oven at 160° for about 40-45 minutes.
The dessert will be cooked when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Remove from the oven, leave the cake in the pan for about ten minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack. Let it cool.
Once ready, prepare the glaze by melting the butter and chocolate in a double boiler. Spread over the surface of the parrozzo, it should not be smooth but coarse, giving the typical rustic appearance of the dessert.
The recipe is from www.sofficiblog.it/2016/03/01/il-parrozzo-dannunziano, a blog by Ilaria Talimani , who opens the post with I love D'Annunzio.
What should you serve with a slice of Parrozzo? Why, Pad Thai.
OK, I admit it's an odd combination, but are you aware that Pad Thai is a recipe created by Thailand's Plaek Phibunsongkhram? Known in the west as Phibun, he helped lead the military coup that dethroned Thailand’s monarchy of absolute power, crushed a royalist rebellion, and became Prime Minister. Well non non-elected dictator Prime Minister.
Phibunsongkhram also loved Mussolini. He and ideological spin doctor Luang Wichitwathakan, copied the propaganda techniques used to create a cult of the leader from Hitler and Mussolini, who of course had cribbed them from Gabriele d’Annunzio.
Aligning with Japan during WWII made the supply chain with China awkward, and floods further bringing about a shortage of the national staple food, rice.
His edicts include everyone having to wear hats in public, how long to sleep, how often to call relatives, and changing the name of the country from Siam to Thailand. If the last wasn't a claim to fame enough he invented (or led to) a new nationalistic, rather national dish. One using the more readily available rice noodles, rather than rice itself. Pad Thai.
It also deliberately steered away from the wet or dry style of Chinese noodle dishes. I wonder if they had meetings debating the merits of calling it damp or moist noodle.
Here's how to make a great Pad Thai from hot-thai-kitchen.com/best-pad-thai
Ingredients
For the sauce
Tamarind paste - This is a key ingredient for the sauce, and homemade is recommended for best flavour. Here's how to make tamarind paste from pulp. A store bought one is fine to use to make life easy, but do make sure it is a product of Thailand or Vietnam, not India, and should be a brown liquid with a pourable consistency.
Palm sugar - Choose high quality palm sugar when possible, for more info check out my ultimate guide to palm sugar. If not available, substitute equal weight of light brown sugar.
Fish sauce - Good fish sauce is perhaps the most important thing for flavour. For more info, here's my guide to fish sauce. If you're vegetarian, check out my vegan pad thai recipe.
For the Pad Thai
Shallots
Garlic
Dried shrimp - Can be omitted if not available or allergic.
Pressed tofu - Sometimes labelled as bean curd, this is the firmest of all tofu. Extra firm tofu can be substituted, but if you feel like they might break in the wok, pan-frying them first will firm up the exterior and prevent breaking.
Sweet preserved radish (chai po waan) - Can be omitted if not available. These sweet-salty chewy bits of preserved daikon is always added to pad thai in Thailand. You'll likely need to go to a specifically Thai grocery store to find these, and it may come whole or pre-chopped. Japanese sweet preserved daikon, takuan, makes for a decent substitute and is much easier to find. Note that there is also a salty Thai preserved radish, which cannot be used instead.
Chili flakes - Optional but recommended. Pad thai is really much better when it's a little bit spicy!
Eggs
Roasted peanuts
Rice noodles - I recommend size medium which is the traditional size used in Thailand. If using a different brand, you might need to adjust the amount of water and soaking time.
Bean sprouts - Go for mung bean sprouts, not soybean sprouts.
Garlic chives - If you can't find these at your regular Asian store, try looking at Japanese or Korean markets also. You can substitute spring onions but the two really do taste different. If using spring onions, finely chop them as they have a much stronger taste than garlic chives.
Lime wedge for serving.
To make the sauce, melt and caramelise the palm sugar.
Add water to stop the caramelisation.
Add fish sauce and tamarind and bring to a simmer.
Off heat and let it sit until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Process shots for making pad thai, steps 5-8
Cook off the shrimp (or any other protein you're using). Remove from pan.
Saute shallots, garlic, tofu, dried shrimp, preserved radish, and chili flakes.
Add the soaked noodles.
Add the sauce.
Process shots for making pad thai, steps 9-12
Toss until the noodles have absorbed all the sauce.
Push the noodles to one side and add the eggs to the space you've made and break the yolks.
Put the noodles on top of the eggs and let it cook for 15-30 seconds.
Flip and toss to mix.
Process shots for making pad thai, steps 13-16
Add the peanuts, bean sprouts and garlic chives.
Turn off the heat and toss until the beansprouts are incorporated and slightly wilted.
Plate and top with more peanuts and shrimp.
Don't forget to add fresh lime before eating!
This week featured
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_D%27Annunzio
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaek_Phibunsongkhram
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._G._Ballard
This week's heroes are Gabriele and Plaek, drawn with force by our artist in residence, Fatima Fletcher. Show your appreciation by following fatima.fletcher on Instagram. Her work is for sale at fatimafletcher.com, where she’s available for commissions. Her wonderful orchid place mats are for sale at fatima-fletcher.square.site/s/shop.
Buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/vfnIE9P0Ta
Further reading
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-sex-obsessed-poet-who-invented-fascism
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/gabriele-d-annunzio-and-the-free-state-of-fiume/
https://www.sofficiblog.it/2016/03/01/il-parrozzo-dannunziano/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_State_of_Fiume
https://thaiginger.com/the-history-of-pad-thai-how-the-amazing-dish-came-to-be