WATCH: Does Your Recipe Have What It Takes To Be A Part Of Malta’s Official Food Registry?
Us Maltese love our food, right? From fighting over whose mum makes the best torta (pie), to over-eating at every single social event, to literally naming the ftira as a piece of UNESCO World Heritage; we’re pretty passionate about food.
The Agriculture Directorate in the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change is putting together an official database called ‘The National Register of Traditional Agro food product of Malta’
It’s basically a food Bible that details the ideal way to prepare meals using traditional Maltese agricultural food products. They’re collecting recipes from the public in the search for best traditional recipes.
The concept of ‘traditional Agricultural-Food Products’ is subject to interpretation, since everyone has a different idea about what traditional really means.
You could interpret traditional as something being a typical dish only prepared and served in Malta, but someone else may include various foods brought in by foreigners and integrated throughout the years as a Maltese product.
The purpose of a registry of this kind is to serve as an official reference to the genuine traditional agro-food products and to acknowledge our culinary heritage.
If you think you have a recipe that you think should be included in The National Register of Traditional Agro food product of Malta’, you can submit it here
We’re going to be sharing some of our own recipes with you guys too, just in case you need some inspiration. Here’s a couple that we’ve already worked on! The first two ingredients we used were locally grown potatoes and cauliflower. Whilst these ingredients are not exclusive to Malta, we can call these recipes ‘traditional’ since we cultivate these two crops locally and developed specific recipes based on these products and have been doing so for years.
Patata fil-forn
Three large Maltese potatoes, sliced, placed in a dish, and seasoned with pepper, salt, fennel seeds and olive oil.
Cauliflower fritturi
One Maltese cauliflower, chopped and boiled, dipped in a mixture of egg and parsley, fried on olive oil, and seasoned with salt, pepper and chilli flakes.
What other traditional agro-food products would you like to see us use? And do you have a recipe that you think deserves to go down in Malta’s history? Be sure to submit it online now!