kenuchelover,

Thanks for the great information. I had no idea the hideous squash was reintroduced. I like some squashes, but the zucchini I get always seems to be overcooked and slimy -- sorta like okra (a word I can barely bring myself to type). And there's the fact that everyone grows it and then wants to get rid of it. I have to admit I like the blossoms -- they're nice stuffed with a forcemeat or cheese, but nobody ever brings them as extras. Why don't they grow something tasty like kohlrabi?

Italian cooking is so regional, it's hard to say that the cuisine as a whole "relies" on much. Even the ubiquitous tomato isn't that common in cuisines of the north, and anyone who thinks he’s going to get a plate of pasta swimmmmmming in sauce in, say, Milan, is in for a surprise. Chili peppers are more important in the south, I think; they figure prominently in Neapolitan and Sicilian cooking (the Italian side of the ancestry is from Sicily), as do beans in things like pasta fazool ("proper" Italian = fagioli). My understanding is that while most beans, legumes are New World, fava beans lentils and chickpeas (which get a lot of use in Sicilian households) were used by the Romans.

Good points on corn. I had forgotten the one about corn grown for livestock. Years before the Berlin debacle, when were living in Austria, my blissfully ignorant parents stopped by a farm growing corn and bought some. It was, of course, horrible – tough and rather bitter. Ignorance exists on both sides of this divide, however; my mother knew a German war bride who tried to please her husband by cooking corn, but despaired because the cob just wouldn’t get tender.

Interesting stuff on the wool. I think I’m with Hermione on sheep raised indoors. It’s a creepy image – like a sheep mental hospital with padded cells.

Best,

Lee