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?

Pomodoro Passion - San Marzano Hunting in Lavorate di Sarno (Sa)

Karen, guarda qui... Look over here...

Those were the words of Lorenzo Montoro as he accompanied me on my recent trip to Montoroerbe in Lavorate di Sarno.  I was back 2 weeks after my first visit trying to satisfy my San Marzano tomato infatuation that has been increasing at a baffling rate since my first visit.  The more I learn, the more I love...
So maybe that is why I didn't notice the heat as I explored the tomato garden that had changed dramatically since my previous visit.

We can't harvest yet, Dario Montoro told me.  We just sprayed the plants with copper.  We'll harvest in a couple of weeks he said with a smile.
A couple of weeks with the hope that this incredible heatwave that has hit Italy will ease up just a bit.

I strolled the the farm with Lorenzo, Dario, and their father, Giuseppe Montoro.  And as I did, I thought back to what I have learned lately...

The San Marzano tomato is one of the popular ones for many chefs in Campania and beyond, primarily due to its meaty flesh and particularly full fantastic flavor.  It has gone through several mutations over the years, but when you find one that is original and packed with power like the ones the Montoro family produces, it is hard to turn back.

It isn't an easy tomato to cultivate.  It requires a lot of manual labor - for example, as these photos show, the tomato vines grow pretty high.  Usually three rows high.  These seem like simple photos of women in the field but they are not.  These photos, sent to me  by chef Lorenzo Montoro show his mom, la Signora Corona along with Signora Carmela-Dario Montoro's mother in law working. Here, as lorenzo wrote me,  lei si occupa di legare le piante di san Marzano un operazione indispensabile e particolare perché in questa operazione , si pratica anche la "sfemminatura " cioè di tolgono a mano dalle Piantine i ramoscelli che sono in esubero.
that is, she is tying the San Marzano tomato plants to poles, an indispensable and particular operation. at the same time, she is also completing a task known as 'sfemminatura' which means that she is getting rid of all the excess twigs. everything is performed by hand.

The tomatoes ripen in different periods. Three rows, mean three different tomato harvests, beginning with the bottom rows which ripen first.  

So as we strolled, the chef pointed out the tomatoes that were piu belle...more beautiful than the others, red and almost ready...

But to me they were all beautiful.  For this girl who grew up in the suburbs, exploring a tomato garden and stopping to observe every little inch of the vines was exciting. mesmerizing...captivating. 

Allora, Karen...Torni quando raccogliamo i pomodori? Will you come back when we harvest the tomatoes?

Dario Montoro only had to ask me once...
Actually, he didn't even need to ask.  
Date saved.
Pomodoro Passion to be continued...  

Una Passeggiata a - Osteria al Paese, Nocera Inferiore (Sa)

After bumping into the team from Osteria al Paese at a couple of events this summer, I decided that it was time to visit the small tavern in Nocera Inferiore (Sa). I arrived with Chef Lorenzo Montoro after a quick visit to his family's farm where Montoro picked up a few ingredients that he wished to use that evening. Chef Montoro headed to the kitchen while I strolled around checking the place out.  It was early, I was the first guest that evening, so I took advantage of the opportunity to chat with owner Luca Ingenito, check out the comfortable wine cellar/tasting room and decide on where I'd like to spend the rest of my evening.

I chose a corner table on the small cool outdoor patio at the back of the restaurant.  The perfect spot to get a look and a listen on all Osteria al Paese has to offer.

Menu - page one said it all...

a walk in the country ... 

a relaxing stroll in the country that delights the soul, the body ... but also the eyes, the nose, the palate...

I was ready for my walk...

Osteria al Paese has an al a carte menu as well as two tasting menus.  I opted for Il Volo, the flight - which included five dishes - two appetizers, first and second course, and dessert chosen by Chef Montoro. 

The chef  thought that a fresh cool appetizer would hit the spot. one that highlighted the same products that we had seen earlier. Montoro's "Caponatina d'estate" with tomatoes, onions, eggplant, and crumbled 'biscotti di agerola' .  He was right...

Caponatina d'estate

Next up, was an amazing appetier that I wrote about earlier in the week.  The chef's version of a cool salad for summer with octopus and  potatoes.

Octopus and potato salad

As the evening progressed, I was joined on the small patio by other diners.  Diners who were familiar with the osteria.  Diners who felt at home.  The main dining room filled up as well with other guests and light conversation. 

Wait? Was that English I heard being spoken? 

Yes, it was.  Guests in town from the United States also decided to spend the evening in Nocera Inferiore - and were being treated well by sommelier Domenico Sarno.

I decided to stretch my legs a little at this point and visit the chef in the small kitchen.  The chef was about to prepare my first course using peeled Sam Marzano tomatoes that his family produces. 

He opened the can ( fresh ones were still green on the vine) and got to work.  A simple sauce with quality ingredients.  The right tomatoes - the right pasta  and the right know how all combined together to make one of my favorite dishes - spaghetti al pomodoro/spaghetti with tomato sauce.

Spaghetti al pomodoro

Second course?  Simple and tasty- Sauteed cod with a fresh fennel sauce.

Sauteed cod with fennel

Then dessert...chocolate (of course!) with anice.  

Chocolate and anice

Dessert over, my volo came to an end.  Ingenito, curious, came over and asked me how my evening went.  

Luca, I answered with a smile.  It was relaxing.

Just like I had noticed in the menu earlier...

a relaxing stroll in the country that delights the soul, the body ... but also the eyes, the nose, the palate...

Osteria al Paese
Via Papa Giovanni XXIII,11. 
Nocera Inferiore (SA). tel.: +39 081 5176722

Our Daily Bread - Km 0, Sant'Agata Sui Due Golfi (Na)

My favorite bread when I was young was Home Pride Butter Top Wheat Bread.  I remember the commercial, the knife cutting through the loaf..hot melted butter drizzled on the top.  I remember how soft it was, how it lasted for almost EVER thanks to preservatives and all that fun stuff.
Since then, I have become pretty particular about the bread that makes it to my table.  Bread that is made fresh, preferably in a wood burning oven.  Even better with lievito madre, aka sourdough.
Like the type of bread that amico mio Mimmo De Gregorio uses in his family's trattoria Lo Stuzzichino, (recently named La Guida Espresso's Trattoria of the year for 2015!).
So after our morning on a shrimp boat, I went with De Gregorio to pick up some bread at his friend Peppe
s house.  Peppe, along with his wife Pina have an artisan bakery located at their home in Sant'Agata Sui Due Golfi not far from Mimmo's trattoria.
The dough is made rigorously by hand every day.  Then, always by hand, shaped into the various fors required.

After rising the required time, which can vary depending on the humidity and temperature, it is placed in a wood burning oven.

During our visit, Peppe prepared us a loaf of  pannuozo bread.  A loaf of normal bread needs about an hour to bake, but pannuozo, designed to be stuffed with all kinds of delicious goodness.

With our bread in paper bags and seated on the back seat of Mimmo's car, it was hard not to pull over and tear off a chink or two to eat on our way to the trattoria.
Thank goodness the ride to the trattoria took less than five minutes!
It didn't take long for that pannuozo to meet its perfect match.  Lo Stuzzichino's eggplant parmigiana!

All local, all Km 0 ...
All good...