Gastronomic Heritage in Mediterranean wetlands ebook

Prominent among the services provided by wetlands has been nutrition. Mediterranean wetlands have
been a major food provider and central to people’s lives when it came to fulfilling their subsidence needs.
What better places to look for food than wetlands? Animals that used wetlands for water were easy prey,
especially for early humans with primitive hunting tools. Wetlands were also great sources for plenty of
fish and molluscs, whereas their fertile land offered plants and fruits in abundance. When agriculture
was later developed, the same fertile lands were used for the first crops, taking advantage of the ease of
irrigation they provided.
All resources that wetlands could offer were used since antiquity: plants, animals, soil and water. These
products were originally used for people’s survival and later on, after societal and technological advances,
they also provided people the opportunity to accumulate wealth. Wetland resources were also a source of
inspiration for the development of several methods, tools and techniques associated with food, a cultural
wealth distinct for each region. Later in this publication, the reader will discover a number of characteristic
recipes with wetland ingredients from around the Mediterranean, based on these methods and techniques,
which are part of the gastronomic heritage of the areas they come from. They are based on the iconic
wetland products presented below.
Fish and molluscs
Fishing was central to people’s diet since ancient times, as testified by the fish bones and shells found
during archaeological excavations. Dwellers of caves in France 16.000 years ago depicted fishing scenes
and so did ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks, and Romans. With thousands of kilometres of coasts
around the Mediterranean basin, and in its numerous lakes and rivers, a many fishing techniques were
developed as societies evolved over time, resulting in an incredible cultural wealth that passed on from
generation to generation. Today, fish, molluscs and their products such as fish roe (an esteemed delicacy
made of salted, cured fish roe pouch of Bluefin tuna [T. thynnus], Flathead mullet [Mugil cephalus], or
Swordfish [Xiphias gladius]) are among the most prominent foods associated with wetlands. They are
key ingredients in recipes from all over the Mediterranean, from the wetlands of Cyprus to the islands
of Tunisia, cooked in a variety of ways.
The lagoon of Orbetello in the province of Grosseto (Tuscany), Italy.
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