Never mind the fact that it has eleven colours on it (one for each of the eleven members of a soccer team and the eleven languages of South Africa, geddit?) and that it is going to be seen in action from the 11th of June to the 11th of July. Forget that this Adidas official World Cup ball had to pass wind tunnel tests, being kicked to death by a robot kicking machine and being test-dropped ten times on to a steel plate from two metres with only a ten centimetre difference allowed between bounces.
Ignore the mutterings of those malcontent goalkeepers who reckon its in-the-air projectile characteristics favour strikers. (Rubbish, say the experts: it’s straight as can be in the air.) Shrug off the fact that this state-of-the-art 440g spherical object is match-priced at around R1125 each – you can get an official lookalike from Amazon for R135 to R187.50. Don’t let’s query our World Cup ball being named the Jabulani (to celebrate in isiZulu). What worries me is that there’s a move afoot to distribute some of the hundreds of these balls used in training as well as for the matches by the competing teams to kids in shack towns, squatter camps and the poorer areas of townships. Some of them, I hope, from the shack towns bull-dozed to make way for World Cup facilities and who have not yet been re-housed. This is all very well and the kids could make some useful dough selling-on such great souvenirs. But I think that they should be warned that these super-balls are made of space-age artificial materials. They are not like the old-fashioned leather balls. You can’t soak and stew them when you are really desperately hungry and Dad is still waiting for one of the 500 000 new jobs promised but still nowhere in sight.
THE COOKING OF THE POOR – ITALIAN STYLE CUCINA POVERA… The recession has done some good. It has revived the Italian art of feasting on not very much. The centuries-old tricks of peasant cooking are getting new respect from people who just can’t keep up with R150 main dishes in restaurants – and R100 to R150 is the new R60 to R70 this year. They laugh at some of our interpretations of Italian classics. Our staple spag-bol – spaghetti Bolognese – doesn’t exist in Italy. Its nearest and most preferable alternative would be the combination of fettucine al ragu. This is the wide ribbon-like pasta combined with a slowly cooked brown meat sauce – mince or leftover meat. Add tomato and it’s a Neapolitana sauce. Italians don’t leave left-over pasta to dry and go sour in the fridge. They turn it into a deliciously different texture as pasta frittata. Here’s one such recipe:
Fried pasta with eggs and cheese. For 4 to 6. Get together: 250g cooked pasta – noodles or macaroni, etc. 6 eggs. 4 to 6 tbs grated cheese. 250g minced pork or chicken. 180g thinly sliced soft cheese. Vegetable oil. A good pinch of dried oregano. Chop or cut the cold, cooked pasta into small pieces and mix with the oregano. Beat the eggs with the grated cheese – the stronger flavoured the cheese the better. Stir this into the pasta mix and stir well. Heat 3 tbs of oil in a frying pan. Add the pork or chicken and brown over moderate heat. Crumble and stir with a fork until well browned. In another, larger frying pan heat 3 tbs of oil and pour in half the pasta mixture, place slices of soft cheese on top and spread with the cooked meat. Cover with the remaining pasta mix. Fry over moderate heat until brown and crisp on the bottom. Turn or flip out of the pan on to a plate. Slide back into the pan to brown the other side. Serve hot. Making your own pizza is cheap and simple: all you need is yeast, flour and water. On top go any chopped left-overs, chopped onion mixed with smashed garlic – whatever you have at hand. Bacon, basil, rosemary, tomatoes and frozen peas are all good. And a lot cheaper than delivered pizzas or the version out of supermarket freezers. Avoid imported and out-of-season vegetables and fruits. Local is fresher, more nutritious and cheaper. Good food doesn’t need to be elaborate or tricky. You can even use the water in which pasta cooks. Boil it down quickly to reduce by half, add a dash of good oil, garlic and chopped or cherry tomatoes. Boil on and there you have a creamy (from the pasta) sauce for some fish or the beginnings of a soup. Cucina povera, the cuisine of the poor, is now fashionable in New York. But the irony is that this cuisine was the necessary way to cook for Italians of very limited means. Now rich Americans pay plenty for Cucina Povera.
Try Neapolitan Polenta. For 6, get together: 500g mealie meal. 1 tsp salt. 2lt of water. 500g pork or beef sausages. 80g grated strong cheese. Black pepper. 60g butter. 1 tsp paprika. 400g thinly sliced mozzarella. Bring the salted water to a boil in a large pan. Add the mealie meal, pouring it from a height into the bubbling water while stirring – just like making pap. Carry on stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until it is thick and comes away from the sides of the pan. Scatter the paprika on some clean paper. Prick the sausages and then roll each in the paprika. Put them in a frying pan with a little water and cook them slowly until the water evaporates, then continue frying them in their own fat until brown. Take from the pan, cool, skin and slice. Take any fat left from the frying and mix it with the grated cheese and a little black pepper. Mix thoroughly with the polenta. Rinse a large bowl and pour in the thick polenta. Leave until cold then turn it out on to a board. Cut into slices about one centimetre thick. Grease a deep baking dish with the butter. Cover the bottom of the dish with a layer of polenta slices. Add a layer of mozzarella. Cover with the sliced sausage meat. Continue these layers until all is used, finishing with a layer of polenta on top. Dot with butter. Bake in a moderate oven – about 180C – for 30 minutes or until a golden crust forms. Serve hot.
