A wholesome and nutritious food, bread was once considered the perfect snack, especially for children. The recurring question of grandmothers and mothers during those afternoons seventy years ago was clear and direct: “What do you want with bread?”
The combinations varied: in summer, red, juicy tomatoes were rubbed on it, reddening and softening the milky slice; in winter, the tangy flavor of olive oil soaked into its porous texture. There were also more exotic variations, such as butter and anchovy, or honey and walnuts, not to mention the timeless bread and salami.
Since bread was baked weekly, it was common to use stale bread, and the result was perhaps even tastier: this is the case with bread, sugar, and wine, a snack that children, attracted by the red color and velvety texture of granulated sugar, eagerly awaited. Thus, while the more affluent consumed mandarins, bananas, or oranges, the children of the common people indulged in slices of bread—in central Italy, strictly bland—soaked in new wine and then covered in sugar.
Wine is good for the blood
We were in a period in which it was commonly believed that wine “made good for the blood,” although, since the Great War, numerous campaigns against alcoholism had been launched. It was true that old habits died hard: in 1866, none other than Louis Pasteur had published Studies on Wine, in which he proposed heating it to 57°C (135°F) to eliminate microbes and impurities. This solution had won him the Grand Prix at the 1867 Universal Exhibition and officially sanctioned the invention of the process that, to this day, bears his name: pasteurization. Wine had thus become “the healthiest and most hygienic of beverages,” so much so that it was even offered in schools.
All European pharmacies were also stocked with medicinal wines, called enolites, along with a prodigious Vin Mariani, capable of “nourishing, toning, and refreshing,” which became a universal medicine thanks to its miraculous effects. Renata Covi, in her Tacuinum de’ Spetierie, tells the story of its inventor, the Corsican Angelo Mariani. Intrigued by the effect the leaves of a shrub, Erythroxylum Coca, had on the Peruvian population, accustomed to living at very high altitudes and working with great effort in the silver mines, he decided to make an infusion. The taste was terrible, so he decided to add it to one of the most renowned wines in France, Bordeaux. The effects were almost miraculous: actors began using it to be able to perform on stage despite seasonal ailments, followed by kings and popes, who made it a true must-have.
When it was finally discovered that cocaine was an alkaloid capable of acting on the mind and body, Vin Mariani fell into oblivion; yet, in the wine-producing countryside, where it was difficult to believe that such a prodigious beverage could be harmful, simple red wine continued to be considered an excellent tonic until 1960.
Alcoholic, yes, but not too much.
Subsequent generations, now the product of well-researched studies and widespread awareness, had to settle for a snack of bread and sugar, softened with water. The luckiest could naively enjoy bread, ricotta, and sugar, often topped with… alchermes. Alcoholic, yes, but not too much. Today, curious adults can relive the flavors of childhood by dipping bread in the sublime wines of Montefalco, Torgiano, Corciano, and all those Umbrian villages renowned for their excellent wine production.