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It is time to re-learn simple food

13 September 2013

Jamie Oliver has got into trouble in his new book for suggesting that the poor would do well to copy the diet of a Sicilian street-cleaner whom he claims to know, and who feasts on mussels, cherry tomatoes, and pasta.

He has a point. Simple food can be sustaining, healthy, and free of the gunk that clogs arteries and leads to obesity and early death. As someone who has always been overweight (although nearly always on the virtuous side of the clinical state described by the "o" word), I acknowledge a potential addiction to junk.

But I recently had a food experience in Italy which made me think that Oliver was right. I was in Italy on holiday. My companion and I had travelled to Naples, determined to take in the cathedral, the museum, and the catacombs of San Gennaro. It was blisteringly hot.

After seeing the cathedral, we climbed up cobbled streets to the museum, only to find that it was shut. It was lunchtime. Exhausted, we found ourselves in a small unprepossessing café crowded with Formica-topped tables and chill cabinets for ice cream and fizzy drinks. The menu was pizza or pizza; so we both ordered a Margherita. It felt too hot for anything but the plainest possible variety.

When it came, it was a revelation. The dough base - the part I usually find rather boring - was so light and exquisitely seasoned that it was a treat in itself. The tomato passata was bright and tangy; the cheese a sweeter, mellow contrast. Right in the centre was a twin leaf of oil-soaked basil. Its perfume was so concentrated that it made me mildly dizzy. The ingredients, of course, were spanking fresh and locally sourced. The dish arrived straight from the oven.

I couldn't help thinking with shame of the pizzas I have ordered, and not really enjoyed. Why do we go for the weird additions of pineapple, or ground beef, or chicken? I thought of those horrid creations, the crusts of which have been injected with soft cheese; and of pizzas claiming to be virtuous, yet piled up with anchovies and capers, sultanas, pine nuts, and spinach.

What is it all for, this excess? A plate needs three flavours; any more is indulgence. All of us, rich and poor, would eat better, and to God's glory, if we re-learnt to keep it simple. (This is at least for everyday eating: I am not so reformed that I have stopped watching Masterchef.)

The Revd Angela Tilby is Diocesan Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and Continuing Ministerial Development Adviser for the diocese of Oxford.

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