A top Italian food writer has been suspended indefinitely from the country’s version of the television programme Ready Steady Cook for recommending stewed cat to viewers as a “succulent dish”.
RAI, the public broadcasting network, said that it had dropped Beppe Bigazzi, 77, for offering the recipe on La Prova del Cuoco, which is broadcast at midday on the main channel. Its switchboard was inundated with complaints from viewers and animal rights groups. Bigazzi said that casserole of cat was a famous dish in his home region of Valdarno, Tuscany.
“I’ve eaten it myself and it’s a lot better than many other animals,” he told viewers. “Better than chicken, cat or pigeon.” He said that for optimum flavour the meat should be “soaked in spring water for three days” before being stewed.
Elisa Isoardi, the programme’s presenter — who has a cat called Othello — tried to steer Bigazzi off the subject. Reports said that during the commercial break she and the show’s producers tried to persuade him to apologise to viewers but he refused.
Carla Rocchi, the head of ENPA, the Italian society for the protection of animals, said that killing cats was illegal. Francesca Martini, the Deputy Health Minister, said it was “absolutely unheard of for a public service broadcaster to tell people how delicious cats are to eat”. She called for the producers to be investigated for criminal offences involving incitement to mistreat animals.
Bigazzi, a consumer affairs journalist and author of Cooking with Common Sense, has been one of the stars of La Prova del Cuoco for the past ten years. He is noted for his exuberant style and previously caused uproar by boiling lobsters live on the show. Yesterday he said that he had only been joking about the recipe, and he had been misunderstood.
He added: “Mind you, I wasn’t joking all that much. In the 1930s and 1940s, when I was a boy, people certainly did eat cat
in the countryside around Arezzo.” Food historians said that Italians in cities such as Vicenza devised cat recipes in times of economic hardship. Inhabitants of Vicenza are still nicknamed magnagati (cat eaters), and in some butchers’ shops cat's are sold with their heads to assure buyers that they are not cats.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article7029058.ece
From pet to pot
• In his 1529 treatise on cookery, Ruperto de Nola recommended spit-roasting cat basted with garlic and olive oil. He wrote: “Take the garlic with oil mixed with good broth so that it is coarse, and pour it over the cat and you can eat it for it is a good dish”
• The Spanish expression pasar gato por liebre derives from the practice of hunters trying to sell skinned cats as hares. When butchered, the animals are supposed to look almost identical
• In 2007 Australians at a cooking contest in Alice Springs sought to curb the feral cat population by using them in a dish. One judge found the cat casserole so tough that she had to spit it out
Cat Casserole
Ingredients
* 2 (2 pound) cat, dressed and deboned, bones reserved
* 1 tablespoon mirepoix base
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 2 carrots, diced
* 1/2 onion, chopped
* 1 leek, chopped
* 1 turnip, diced
* 2 medium potatoes - peeled and cubed
* 1/2 pound smoked bacon, cubed
* 1 tablespoon tomato puree
* 3 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate, chopped (optional)
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 3 slices white bread
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Season cat bones with mirepoix base, and place in a 9x13 inch baking dish or similar. Roast for 30 minutes, or until browned and fragrant.
2. Remove cat bones to a saucepan, and add enough water to cover by about 1 inch. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium-high heat until the liquid is reduced by half to provide a stock for the recipe. This will take up to 30 minutes depending on the size of your pan.
3. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper. Coat cat pieces with the seasoned flour. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the dish used to bake the cat bones. Cook cat pieces over medium-high heat, or in the oven, just until evenly browned on the outside.
4. Remove cat pieces, and add the carrots, onion, leek, turnip and potatoes. Add bacon, and if necessary, a little more oil. Place the cat pieces over the vegetables. Mix together your homemade cat stock and tomato puree; pour into the baking dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil or a lid. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
5. Bake the cat casserole for about 1 hour, or until cat is cooked through. Adjust the seasonings to taste. If you wish to use the chocolate, mix it in at this time.
6. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Trim the crusts from the bread slices, and slice in half diagonally or into cubes. Fry bread in oil until lightly browned.
7. Serve casserole in the pan, topped with fried bread (or croutons) and sprinkled with chopped parsley.
