Exploring the Flavors of Procida - the Famous Lemon Salad at Calacala' Rooms, Restaurant & Farm Experience

                                   

Ciao guys!! Last week I visited the island of Procida. Have you heard of it? It is the smallest of the 3 off of the bay of Naples.

And though I’ve lived in Campania for 30 years, I haven’t been to Procida in over 25!!! So why did I feel inspired to hop on a 30 minute ferry from Pozzuoli on the first day of spring? To 1) beat the crowds and 2) check out the famous insalata di limone- lemon salad which you can only find in Procida.

Surely there are those of you have heard about a lemon salad and have tried to create it at home using lemons from the supermarket or from your garden (guilty!!!!) but it is not the same! Salvatore Costagliola Di Polidoro of Calacala Rooms,Restaurant & Farm Experience showed me why.

Now that I understood the why, I wanted to see the other ingredients that he used from his garden and how he prepared them.

No problem!

 

I was a bit skeptical at first. But I must admit that this blend of fresh ingredients from the garden - lemons, mint, garlic, chili peppers mixed with salt and extra virgin olive oil (Salvatore uses olive oil produced from Casa Setaro in the Mt Vesuvius area). The salad leads towards sweet and not bitter. Salvatore shared that the salad must be prepared al momento, meaning that it must be prepared right before being served or else it will not be the same. The flavor changes.

He’s right! What a pleasure to eat dishes straight from the garden. An organic garden. What a pleasure to visit an island which is still intent on maintaining traditions and spirits of the past.

So what do you think? Let’s go back to Procida?