Un Mattone per ricostruire un paese: le traiettorie di costruzione di tipicità della torta Mattone di Bressana Bottarone (PV)

Abstract

The article addresses the theme of the “typicality” of a community’s products by proposing a performative reading of this category. It ethnographically demonstrates how identifying so-called “typical” products is a process that engages a community in constructing the product and its meaning in response to the challenges it faces. To this end, the case study of the Torta Mattone from Bressana Bottarone (PV) and its history is explored. The article highlights how, over the course of fifty years, this dessert has been created and recreated as a symbol of the community to respond to the pressing needs it has faced amidst socio-economic changes. In doing so, these pages detail this gastronomic micro-history, showing how the Torta Mattone becomes part of an affective economy (Ahmed, 2004) that is functional to maintaining the social and cultural cohesion of the Oltrepò Pavese area.