Luigi Maria Lombardi Satriani was born in 1936. He is originally from San Costantino di Briatico, in Calabria. He was interviewed for the Granaries of the Mediterranean on March 7, 2013. He taught Ethnology at the University of Rome La Sapienza, Cultural Anthropology at the University of Messina, History of Popular Traditions at the University of Calabria and Italian Cultures and Identities at the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa; he also teaches at the universities of Trieste, Bergamo, Foggia, Reggio Calabria, Palermo and Sassari. It was a Senator of the Republic in the 13th Legislature (1996-2001) and took part in the Culture Committee and the Senate Bicameral Commission on the mafia organization and other criminal realities.
Lombardi Satriani considers memory «a seed that we need to preserve, collect, bring to fruition». Each memory and every human being is a heritage that must be respected. The anthropologist reflects on the role played by food in the construction of memories, evaluating them as the seeds of culture, which restore the sense not only of a season, but of an era.
Going back to his childhood, Lombardi Satriani recovers the memory of the fricò, a Sicilian food brought to his family by his aunt, who was married to a man from Messina. The fricò was made by soaking the bread in the milk and putting upon it peas, boiled eggs, cheese and provolone; then, another layer of soaked bread was reclined on top together with another layer of filling, and again, more bread and more filling. Finally, the fricò was put in the oven until it was gilded.
For the anthropologist, this is not a simple recipe but, instead, it is the means to understand the history of his family, that is tied to memories of conviviality, words, gestures, knowledge, tastes, and handed down from aunt to his brothers and nephews, and from these to their children and grandchildren .
No society, however, remains frozen in time, «even if we wanted to stop in the past, time would finally transform us».
Interview by: Rossella GallettiVideo and editing by: Annalisa Rascato
Subtitles by: Maria Fuciniello, Mariangela Bianco e Rossella Galletti
Document by: Rossella Galletti
Translation by: Maria Fuciniello and Rossella Galletti
MedEatResarch – Center of Social Research on the Mediterranean Diet of the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa, head by Marino Niola and Elisabetta Moro
Realized: 07-03-2013
