I love the Italians. They're so human! Despite all DOP's and DOC's and
other bureaucratic attempts to codify wine and food products and,
amazingly, recipes, they manage to circumvent regulation. The following
article is typical of those I've seen coming out of Italy for decades
describing dilutions and "sophistications" of wine and food.

'Latest Italian Food Fraud Charge Involves Mozzarella
By NICK FOX
Italy¹s agriculture minister ³said he had disbanded the consortium of
producers which guarantees buffalo mozzarella quality after routine
inspections had shown that even mozzarella produced by Luigi Chianese,
the consortium¹s president, had been Œwatered down¹ with cow¹s milk,²
The Times of London reports.

The minister, Luca Zaia, said, ³In November, checks in major
supermarkets in Italy found that 25 percent of the cheese sold as
buffalo mozzarella was fake because it contained 30 percent cow milk.²

It¹s not the first scandal involving buffalo mozzarella. In 2008, some
was found to be contaminated with dioxin.' -from the New York Times

Another aspect of this kind of regulation is well expressed by Daziano
of the Italialicious food blog-

"In Italy, now there¹s a tendency to define the original and true recipe
of Italian staples: the original recipe of pesto Genovese, the true and
only one ragù alla Bolognese recipe, the ultimate Neapolitan pizza, and
so on. In its very conception, this search is a contradiction with the
soul of Italian cuisine. In fact, it¹s impossible to choose only one
recipe because in Italy each region, each town, each village and each
mamma has their very own recipes."

There is a possible plus side to this but it will never be seen here in
the U.S. And that is consistency of menu terminology. For example, the
term 'Bolognese' is currently used for almost any pasta dish with sauce
containing tomatoes and meat. No, there's too much emphasis on novelty
and fashion in today's restaurants to be so banal as to serve truly
traditional dish.

D.M.