'Un Estate Fa' - Chef Lorenzo Montoro, Osteria Al Paese , Nocera Inferiore (Sa)

Un Estate Fa - Chef Lorenzo Montoro

Sunday evening - stand number 40, Vico Equense (Na), FestaVico 2015.   Chef Lorenzo Montoro ( Osteria Al Paese) stood in the doorway of  the town's  small butcher shop with his dish 'Un Estate Fa'... loosely translated as last summer.  I showed up just in time to get one of the last platefuls of this jazzed up down-home country salad. And though it was late, and the chef had surely explained this dish over a hundred times, it was hard not to notice the sparkle in his eyes and the emotion in his voice as he and his brigade explained the ingredients.  
Unable to take notes with a fork, plate, and camera in hand, I wrote the chef the other day asking for a recap of the ingredients.  
What I received instead was a poesia...a poem.

è una tartare di pomodoro S Marzano appassiti e conservati sott olio poi tagliati a coltello come  per una semplice tartare di carne,poi  ci sta un po di buratta, un acciughina, una maionese di melanzane sott' olio, e briciole di pane cafone tostato,tutto aromatizzato con delle aromatiche del aromatiche mediterranee timo , finochietto,basilico,.. un estate fa.. perché i due elementi principali il pomodoro e le melanzane sono dell' estate scorso coltivati , lavorati e conservati da noi, perché i pomodori di quest' anno non sono ancora maturi,in effetti insieme poi alla polvere di olive vanno a formare gli ingredienti tutti di una caponata estiva. ps dimenticavo la cipolla e rappresentata dai suoi fiori.

A    tartare made with San Marzano tomatoes that have been dried and conserved  in olive oil. They are then cut with a knife like a simple steak tartare,  a bit of buratta cheese,  anchovies, mayonnaise,  marinated eggplant, and toasted peasant bread crumbs, All of it is  flavored with the aromas of  the Mediterranean such as aromatic thyme, fennel, and basil, Un estate fa...Last summer-because in this dish we use  summer's principal ingredients; tomatoes and eggplants, cultivated, processed, and stored by us from last summer's harvest since those from this year   mature yet.  So, these ingredients, along with olive powder  form all the ingredients of a summer caponata. ps I forgot to mention onions  represented by its flowers.

Each line taking me step by step on the plates construction, the flavors, the colors.Down-home country flavors-jazzed up for the summer....
A summer...
.
Un estate fa...