You've probably heard the stories of huge butter mountains and wine lakes, and moneybags landowners living the high life thanks to subsidies from unwitting urbanites.
If you cook the battuto gently in olive oil or butter to coax out the vegetables' sweetness and inviting fragrance, you create a mixture known as soffritto.
The flavors of the day were lemon sorbet, coffee chocolate chip, mint chocolate chip, strawberry, butter pecan, vanilla, chocolate, and, appropriately, birthday cake.