The first time you see a burrata sitting on a plate, tilted, you might be puzzled. The burrata is as white as mozzarella but has a strange narrowing at the top, like a giant dumpling. With a knife and fork, you prick the bag, knowing that something is hiding under that initial layer of cheese. With a firm blow, you cut the bag in half, and the filling of cream and mozzarella strips spreads and spreads on the plate. You roll the mozzarella strips with your fork like spaghetti, and with dripping cream you have the first bite: an explosion of milk mixed with sweet cream and mozzarella. An explosion of milk mixed with sweet cream and mozzarella You can find burrata all over the world, mostly in high-end grocery stores and restaurants. According to the Italian dairy association Assolatte, $ 56 million worth of burrata was produced in Italy in 2018 and then distributed to cafes in Rome, markets in Tokyo and restaurants in New York. Italian immigrants exported the recipe all over the world, and today the burrata is produced in places from Estonia to Argentina. The cheese is used to garnish Neapolitan pizzas, next to shrimp or as an accompaniment to spaghetti al pomodoro.Burrata has become a global cheese, but its history dates back to the 1920s in the southern Italian territory of Murgia (part of the Puglia region). , on the outskirts of the town of Andria, in the shadow of a castle. It was born out of a need to minimize food waste and is a delicious example of human ingenuity. Murgia, which in the Apulian dialect means “stone”, is the tail of the Apennines, the mountain range that crosses Italy like a spine. Majestic oaks, wild olive trees and almond trees cover the hills that are now part of Parco Nazionale dell’Alta Murgia. In the center of the park, overlooking the plains of Puglia and the Adriatic Sea, stands Castel del Monte, a majestic castle built in the 13th century by Federico II di Svevia, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. In the valleys around the castle, hidden under the shadows of oak trees to protect themselves from the summer heat, the grazing cows provide the milk which contributed to the birth of the burrata. You might also be interested in: • Italy’s favorite 3-ingredient pasta dish • How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master • Massimo Bottura: the best chef in the world According to a study carried out in the early 20th century by Michele Sinisi, professor at the Istituto Agrario di Andria, when the burrata was created there were only a few hundred cows in the area. Nevertheless, their milk, delicate and less fatty than sheep’s milk, had the right chemistry to create the beloved cheese.Riccardo Campanile, an Apulian historian who devoted a significant part of his life to the study of the history of Murgia, stated that burrata was officially born in the 1920s in a masseria (farm) near Castel del Monte called Masseria Bianchini. According to Campanile, who has had numerous interviews with the elderly population of Andria, it was local cheese maker Lorenzo Bianchino Chieppa who invented the burrata. However, there is no written record of the claim, which has led to tensions among the main Andria burrata makers who have also claimed the invention. The word burrata first appears on the Guida Gastronomica D’Italia (an inventory of Italian regional recipes) published in 1931 by the Italian Touring Club, which classified burrata as a typical local product of Andria, according to Campanile, which has interviewed the son years ago. from Chieppa, the burrata was born to use the leftovers from cheese making. “The cream came from the dense layer formed above the morning milking,” Campanile said. At the same time, the cheesemaker was making the stretched curd mozzarella and had a little more. These pieces of mozzarella were skinned with the fingers, mixed inside the cream and used as a filling for the burrata. “Back then, the pouch was made by blowing the inside of the mozzarella,” Campanile said. The cheesemaker energetically blew on a piece of hot, malleable fresh mozzarella to make an inflatable balloon – a technique long abandoned for air compressors for food safety reasons. At the time, there was no refrigeration to keep the cheese fresh during the trip to the market, and they had to travel on horseback, which could take a day. According to Campanile, Chieppa’s invention overcame some chemical and logistical challenges: the cream would act as a preservative, preventing the remaining strips of mozzarella from turning sour; and a leaf wrap protected the burrata from the heat of the scorching sun.Angela Asseliti, 75, was born and raised with her grandfather Michele in another masseria a few hundred meters from Castel del Monte, where she lived until he is 30 years old. Brother Domenico Asseliti now runs the family dairy Caseificio Asseliti e De Fato with his son and nephews, she has played an essential role in the fame of the burrata. In the 1980s, she invented the burratina: a smaller version that you could eat in one bite. “I used to sleep in the barn with my grandfather and the cows,” says Angela. “We woke up at four o’clock to milk the cows, and at sunrise I took them to graze in Murgia.” Angela remembers how they soaked the freshly made burrata in brine to harden the outer layer of mozzarella, before dressing it with leaves of the asphodel – which the Greeks believed to be the plant of the Elysee, the place of the afterlife where the souls of those loved by the gods rested – to keep the burrata moist and keep cool for the 18 km journey into town. on a horse, to lawyers and aristocrats who could afford it, ”Angela said. A complex cheese to make, with a short shelf life, burrata has always been viewed as a premium cheese. Nowadays, cheese makers make burrata using modern machinery and wrap it in plastic which, due to EU hygiene regulations, replaces asphodel leaves. Instead of transporting it on horseback, cheese reaches all corners of the world by plane. “The process starts at 3:00 am,” said Maria Teresa Santovito, quality control manager at Caseificio Olanda, another dairy. to Andria. Along with her husband Riccardo and the rest of the family, she relies on the burrata as a major source of income. Fifty percent of their burrata production goes in the morning to places like Germany, Tokyo and Hong Kong. “We buy some of our milk from a masseria in Murgia,” Santovito said. Today, Murgia’s farms supply only a fraction of their dairies’ milk quota, and most of the milk used to produce the burrata comes from other regions of Italy or from EU countries. To protect the authentic burrata making process against imitation, Caseifico Olanda, together with Caseificio Asseliti e De Fato and six other dairies, came together in 2018 to create an Indication of Geographical Protection (IGP), naming it Burrata di Andria IGP. Any Apulian dairy that respects the consortium’s regulations can join: the milk can come from outside the region, but the production must be carried out in Puglia according to a specific recipe and method.Felice Sgarra, Michelin-starred chef and co-owner of Casa Sgarra restaurant in the nearby town of Trani, has long used burrata in its dishes, from antipasti to desserts – including a parmigiana (a dish typically made of fried eggplant, tomato sauce, basil and mozzarella ) with burrata and tomato ice cream. “Burrata represents Andria,” Sgarra said. “Fat cream is her secret which, along with the sweetness of mozzarella and the sweetness of milk, makes it a unique food.” You close your eyes and it takes you straight back to childhood According to Sgarra, the world’s most popular foods contain a fat component. And burrata has that. “You can use burrata for anything, but it doesn’t need to. nothing. You just have to open it and eat, “Sgarra said.” You close your eyes, and it takes you right back to childhood. ” While burrata can now be found all over the world, you have to travel to Puglia for the truest experience. Enter a caseificio, buy some freshly made burrata and head to Castel del Monte. the shadow of the castle, open the wrapper and bite into the burrata. Let it spill over your hands. And as you eat it, step back a century to when human ingenuity took hold. created the most delicious, creamy treat. Culinary Roots is a BBC Travel series connected to rare, local foods woven into a place’s heritage. Join over three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. If you liked this story, sign up for bbc.com’s weekly newsletter titled “The Essential List.” A selection of handpicked stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered in your inbox to us on Fridays. .
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Tag Archives: Europe
Universal Healthcare is offline due to ‘IT security concerns’ | Instant News
(Reuters) – Universal Health Services Inc, one of the largest non-profit hospital operators in the United States, said on Monday that its network had been shut down after unspecified “IT security concerns”.
UHS, which runs about 400 hospitals and care centers, mainly in the United States but also in the UK, did not specify the nature of the problem, saying in a brief statement that it was using an “established backup process” to restore.
Text messages reviewed by Reuters show UHS instructing employees to avoid having their devices exposed to the company’s corporate networks, something one expert said was a sign of a ransomware outbreak.
“I can’t think of any other reason,” said Gabrielle Hempel, a researcher who studies medical device safety and said she had contacted the people who handled the incident.
Ransomware, which works by locking victims from their computers until a ransom is paid, has long been a dangerous threat to hospitals and healthcare providers. The coronavirus pandemic has raised concerns that cybercriminals could target medical facilities.
The UHS statement said “our facility uses a predefined backup process including offline documentation methods”, adding that patient care “continues to be provided safely and effectively”. It said no patient or employee data appeared to have been compromised.
In text messages to employees, the company said the disruption “could last 24 hours or longer.”
“DO NOT try to connect to UHS email or any other UHS network application,” one of the messages said.
The nature of the disturbance in the UHS case is unclear. The company has not yet answered questions about the size and scope of the problem. Hempel said the cyber attack on hospitals should be taken seriously.
“Data is definitely at risk here, but you also have the lives of people at risk,” he said.
Reporting by Raphael Satter; Edited by Bill Berkrot and David Gregorio
Universal Healthcare is offline due to ‘IT security concerns’ | Instant News
September 28 (Reuters) – Universal Health Services Inc said on Monday that its network had been shut down after an unspecified “IT security issue”.
The company, which runs about 400 hospitals and care centers across the United States and Britain, did not respond to emails seeking further details about the incident.
In a brief statement posted to the company’s website, UHS said it was working to restore its network using a backup. It’s unclear whether the issue involves a ransomware attack, which is often used to paralyze organizations by taking their data hostage.
“Our facility uses a predefined backup process including offline documentation methods,” UHS said in a statement, adding that patient care “continues to be provided safely and effectively.”
The company said no patient or employee data appeared to have been “accessed, copied or compromised”. (Reporting by Raphael Satter Editing by Bill Berkrot)
Exclusive: Germany’s EU chairman proposes adherence to the rule of law as the key to getting money from the bloc | Instant News
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Germany, the current president of the European Union, has proposed a scheme linking access to EU money, including a 750 billion euro recovery fund, to respect the rule of law, a document seen by Reuters showed on Monday.
The proposal will support negotiations between the European Parliament and 27 EU governments, which in July approved such a mechanism in principle but ignored many details to avoid a veto from Poland or Hungary, whose nationalist governments are accused of violating EU democratic norms.
Warsaw and Budapest are under an EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media and non-governmental organizations, and both could lose tens of billions of euros in funds if a rule of law mechanism is established.
In the recovery fund alone, excluding the related long-term EU budget for 2021-27, Poland would risk losing access to 23 billion euros ($ 26.84 billion) and Hungary to six billion.
“The rule of law requires that all public powers act within the limits established by law … under the control of an independent and impartial court,” reads the proposed bill, which requires the approval of the European Parliament.
But most EU lawmakers want the relationship between money and the rule of law to be stronger than agreed in July and Germany’s proposals – which stick to the leaders’ summer deal – are all sure to upset the assembly.
EU Liberal German MP Moritz Korner, who heads the chamber’s work on the matter, said Berlin “embraced” the eurosceptic nationalist rulers in Warsaw and Budapest.
“Without an automatic sanctions system, Germany’s proposal fails to maintain the rule of law and the correctness of EU budget spending,” he told Reuters when asked about the scheme.
According to German documents, penalties for violating the rule of law would include suspension of flows of EU money to capitals deemed to violate democratic checks and balances. It will be decided by a majority vote of EU governments based on a recommendation by the EU executive European Commission.
This allowed other governments to override opposition from Poland and Hungary.
But those seeking a stronger relationship argue that the majority of EU governments should refuse, rather than endorse any recommendation from the Commission, to suspend funding for those who break the rule of law.
That formula would make punishment more likely by leaving the government less room for the political horse trade.
“FINGER BET”
Some have warned, however, that seeking an overly ambitious solution could backfire, given that Warsaw or Budapest might withdraw their support if the proposals are changed from what they signed in July after four days of tortuous talks.
“It is important that all parties stick to the subtle compromises that are reached. What did not have the support of (the leader) at that time, will definitely not be found now, ”said an official dealing with the matter.
Germany has asked EU lawmakers to speed up work on approving the next bloc’s budget, recovery funds and related legal provisions so money can start flowing, including into the ailing southern part of the EU, from 2021.
Asked about the Reuters news on Monday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland would stick to the July agreement.
“There is no agreement in Poland to allow arbitrary application of various clauses and fighting each other just because someone doesn’t like our government,” he told reporters.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has threatened to veto a related decision if the July agreement on rule of law mechanisms is not respected, which would derail the EU’s next budget and pleasure of restoration, together worth around 1.8 trillion euros.
($ 1 = 0.8568 euros)
Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Additional reporting by Marcin Goclowski in Warsaw, Written by Jan Strupczewski and Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Mark Heinrich and Nick Macfie
Black designers celebrate at Milan fashion week | Instant News
MILAN (Reuters) – Black designers presented collections at Milan fashion week in a show aimed at raising awareness of the lack of diversity in the industry.
The five designers are part of Black Lives Matter in the Italian fashion group, a name inspired by the international movement leading worldwide protests against racial injustice.
The digital program “We are Made in Italy” was filmed at Milan’s grand Palazzo Clerici and hosts a spring / summer 2021 collection of Fabiola Manirakiza, Mokodu Autumn, Claudia Gisele Ntsama, Karim Daoudi and Joy Meribe.
The event is one of the first fashion week virtual shows since the coronavirus pandemic.
The five designers are mentored by Italian-Haitian Stella Jean, the only black member of the Italian fashion board, which campaigns against racism in the industry.
“Made in Italy is represented around the world as a white concept, it’s no longer like this. The new Italy is not this and it doesn’t want to be like this, “said Jean.
Jean demands sector regulators support black designers and has called on Italian fashion houses to do more to confront racism.
“In Italy we have a race problem and if we don’t start opening wounds to heal them, wounds will never heal,” he said.
Reporting by Emily Roe; Additional reporting by Claudia Cristoferi; Written by Angelo Amante; Edited by Janet Lawrence