Reawakening - Lunch at Il Faro Di Capo D'Orso, Maiori (Sa)

    I call it my table.  The table in the far corner of the dining room of Il Faro Di Capo D'Orso, a Michelin starred restaurant located in the town of Maiori on the Amalfi Coast.  I've grown fond of that little corner table, even if I must admit, that this visit began a little different than the others.  The restaurant had just opened for their first lunch service of 2020, their first lunch service after Italy's lockdown.  So after a quick check of my temperature at the door - to ensure that I didn't have a fever- I headed over to my table, took off my mask, and sat down. 

   Feeling comfortable when you go out, particularly as the country reawakens, is very important.  That was immediate thanks to restaurant manager Bonny Ferrara and sommelier Antonio Cannoniero.  I was treated to an aperitif which included a glass of champagne,fantasticaaa finger foods prepared by Chef Francesco Sodano and his brigade, and a little bit of conversation. Here's a look.

      Corn meal disc with smoked goat milk ricotta cheese, herring caviar, and anchovies from nearby Cetara.

A puffed pastry with almond sour cream, pumpkin seed mio, razor clams and fermented caper leaves.

A won ton with pulled beef, shiitake mushrooms and lemon compote.

Burnt wheat crackers with liver fat, cave-aged pecorino cheese and truffle.

A mozzarella handkerchief with a dipping bowl of mozzarella serum.  

    This being the first lunch of the new season, I was excited about new dishes that Sodano had in store.  He had taken out the a la carte options, instead opting for tasting menus which included vegetarian and gluten free options.  I decided to choose to let the chef choose.   Like this new entry.  Leek with ashes, lemon compote and black garlic.

    Another amazing appetizer from the chef's new menu is a dish that he calls Crab between Varanasi and Hong Kong, the reef on a plate.  So let's begin with the plate - the ceramic bowl from Picky Pottery based in Paris.  At the request of the chef, they designed a bowl that looks like a part of the sea shore.  Then Sodano added his salad crab, mussels, sea urchin seaweed and poured a yellow curry sauce (the  Varanasi because it is a city of India famous for curry) and a rice chip with XO sauce (the  Hong Kong for  the XO sauce).

Next, a pair of brand new first course dishes, beginning with these little buttons that Chef Sodano brought to the table himself.  Homemade pasta buttons filled with fermented bread topped with tiny tasty  tomato and bread balls, tomato oil and green chili pepper juice ( aka peperoncini dei fiume).

I firmly believe that Chef Sodano enjoys speaking about his dishes as much as he enjoys preparing them.  So when he came to my corner table with the next pasta dish, I sat back and enjoyed the show.

On his FB page, the chef describes this dish in this way - 

One of the dishes of my "new cuisine" post covid to which I am already fond of I think this is ... the squid lard with "bbq" pepper preserves .... The research of the material is my concept of sustainability marry this philosophy: exloring ideas and techniques from all over the world while respecting and local products .... Eliche pasta cooked in squid extract, liver emulsion, smoked lard, bottarga in beeswax (matured a year), chorizo and “bbq” pepper preserves .... this is my concept of sustainability ... respect and use of  raw material at 360 degrees. Welcome to my #cucinanuova.  

    Before the next dish, Sodano invited me into the kitchen for a look at his new bbq grill shipped in directly from Japan.  He uses this small grill to prepare his tuna dish.

A gastronomic journey fantasticaaa was drawing to an end, as the arrival of Sodano's predessert silently announced.  This one included fermented beet and robiola cheese ice cream.

Then the dolce parade hit full stride beginning with Sodano's pastiera.  Pastiera is a traditional Neapolitan dessert starring cooked wheat, eggs, ricotta cheese, and flavored with orange flower water.  It is served during the Easter season.  Well, since we all were in quarantine, many of us did not get a chance to have a slice or two since it can be quite a challenge at make at home.  Sodano's version is a attractive twist featuring the fragrances and flavors of this classic dessert.  

I enjoyed that dish so much, Sodano sent out another dessert; licorice, galatina, sour caramel.

Then the Il Faro Di Capo  D'Orso piccoli pastries...from left to right -Haribo is the goodness that can be enjoyed at any age, cotton candy dumpling with raspberry gel and hibiscus powder, absolute hazelnut, salted caramel truffle, and  matcha green tea truffle.

A meal by Sodano is not complete without the arrival of his signature Shave the Chef.  A chocolate disc with a smiling Sodano, a side of foamy mint shaving cream and barber's brush.  

    As I shaved the chef, it gave me time to reflect.  Familiar, refreshing and a fun way to end a meal. 

 And maybe that is what some of us need - something familiar and refreshing as a drive on the Amalfi Coast, a glass or two of wine, a chit chat.  Maybe some of us need to sit down at a corner table, try new dishes...take of the mask for awhile. Maybe.  Something to think about at least.  

As I put on my mask and  got up to leave, Sodano invited me back into the kitchen for one last thing.  A little something for the road.  A piece of warm nerissima bread featuring a mix of flours handpicked and baked by the chef himself.  Sodano's bread has been voted the best bread in Italy by Gambero Rosso.  And now I had a loaf to take home.   

I mentioned earlier - Feeling comfortable when you go out, particularly as the country reawakens, is very important.  

The team

A Wine Tasting Gone Wild -Lunarossavini, Giffoni Valle Piana (Sa)

Chef Angelo Borghese and all of us!

My first baby steps into the blog world were those as a wine blogger.  I loved walking through vineyards, speaking with producers, tasting wines with professional journalists, and attending wine events such as Vinitaly.  In fact, it was that way back in 2012 in Verona I tried a wine from Lunarossavini.  Quartara 2008.  A fiano, that I learned was fermented in amphora.  Amphora? I asked myself.  For me it was the first time I tried a wine of that type.  I will never forget, however, the brilliant straw yellow color of that glass.  Nor the message from enologist Mario Mazzitelli a few days later who 1) apologized that he wasn't at the stand when I stopped by and 2) invited me to taste some wines in his winery Giffoni Valle Piana in the Salerno province.
Well, I time went by learned and appreciated a crucial and  important point, that wine was meant to be paired with food.  Over time, my visits to wineries, ahime', were few and far between in exchange for visits to some of Campania's top restaurants.  And on those restaurant's wine lists, I noticed over and over wines form Lunarossavini.
So I thought - wouldn't it be great to combine a visit to the winery with one of my best friends - who is also a chef?  A fusion of fun.  A wine tasting gone wild...so to speak.  Wine tasting as it should be. Unpretentious.  With friends - where you learn about the wines, the territory, food.  And, magari, have a good, no, great time!

When I arrived at Lunarossavini- that late Saturday morning, I was greeted by Mazzitelli.

Mario Mazzitelli 

 Mazzitelli, enologist and owner of the winery took me right into the cantina to show me around.  The winery has been around since 2006 - after years of Mazzitelli working for other wineries throughout Italy and Europe.  Here's a fun fact - Lunarossavini is the first winery in Campania to use amphoras.  To Mazzitelli it seemed natural.  The ancient Romans used them...why shouldn't he?  They have many benefits over  wood barrels - especially for a Fiano -porous, a longer life.  Mazzitelli gave me a quick run through of how his wines are produced,  His Quartara, for example.

A fiano grape grown in clay rich soil is harvested in rounds.  The first beginning in August.  A series of grapes that are macerated and fermented in amphora, then passed to barrels, then eventually bottles.  As he was explaining the similar vinification  process for his Borgomastro Aglianico wine,

that is when 'the chef' arrived - Angelo Borghese of the nearby Settanta Neo Bistrot. It was time to get wild.

Wines deserve a dish to go along with it. During a series of appetizers prepared by Borgheese which included algae chips with tuna, tasted bread with butter and anchovies, cheese and various deli meats, we had a chance to try a range of Lunarossa wines...
Costacielo 2018 - red, white and rose'.  The winery's  base wines, even if I hate that term.  Fiano and aglianico wines fermented in steel tanks and aged in amphora.

Rossoamarea 2012 - an aglianico with a small percentage of primitivo fermented in steel tanks, then long termed aged in barriques (reds need a bit of wood) and then bottled.

Borgomastro 2015.  Aglianico wine - fermented and macerated in wooden barrels for about 30 months, then aged in bottles for one year.

Then- it was time- to tatste Quartara with Mazzitelli nearby. And he did not disappoint- we had some time to make up!  I had the chance to try 3 vintages, 2017, 2014 (paired with Borghese's tortelli with genovese) and a 2013.

A wine tasting gone wild.  Wine tasting in the company of friends, where you feel free, have fun...and yes, learn something about a territory that maybe you did not know about. There was also a chance to try Lunarossa's Fuorilinea - a moscato orange wine, that was macerated and fermented in amphoras. One of the beautiful things about this wine, besides the taste and aromas, was that the 1,250 labels for the bottles are designed by children AND a portion of the profits go to children's charities.  Wild! 

Thanks, Mario and Angelo for the chance to be wild!
Note - the winery calls itself Lunarossa Vini e Passioni - Wine and Passion.  Coincidence??? I think not!

A Pepper by Any Other Name...Azienda Agricola Vincenzo Egizio, Brusciano (Na)

Vincenzo Egizio

I guess you could say the motto of my visit to Brusciano that Saturday was everything you wanted to know about papaccella Neapolitan peppers but were afraid to ask...
But  i really wasn't...afraid to ask, I mean.
So when I called up Vincenzo Egizio, Azienda Agricola Vincenzo Egizio, one afternoon I shared with him my sudden can't wait until summer desire to learn about that Neapolitan prized pepper - the papaccella.  Sure it would have been nice to walk through the fields, see them.  But it was late February. The last papaccelle peppers were harvested several months ago - just before the first frost.

But my visit with Egizio, I believe, was timed just right,  considering that these Neapolitan peppers had recently (and finally) been recognized as part of the Slow Food Presidia brand.  These tiny peppers are NOT your typical bell peppers.  They are smaller, sweeter - perfect to conserve in a variety of ways.





I've been in this business for around 15 years, and over time we have organized a 'Vesuvian basket' where every product represents a producer.  These are mine.  Let's begin with the Neapolitan papacella.  Like wine, when we purchase a product, we need to know and understand where it comes from. We need to know the producers.  When we taste it, we can't tell if pesticides were used.  Looking at it, however, we can tell it it was grown in a green house or in an open field, if these was sun or bitter cold.  Even by its color we can tell if a large amount of fertilizer was used.  We can understand many things.  So that is why it is very important to know the producer.  How he/she works.  A perfect shiny papaccelle on the shelf may be appealing, but it may also be full of pesticides, etc.  The product must have flavor, but also needs to be good for you.  Even the terrain is important as well as the environment it grows in.  Alll of this contributes to the economic value of this product.  It is also imprtant where the product is grown.  Neapolitan papaccelle expresses itself best in Brusciano or the surrounding valleys such as Pomigliano.  I cannot grow the same product elsewhere  If I give these seeds to another producer, who may be better than I am, if the terrain is not the same, the plant will not be either.


So my next mission - to speak with Egizio about how he conserves the peppers.  Three ways; sweet and sour, marinated in vinegar, and grilled.
Each has its conservation process, each has its own type of dish to accompany it with.  Check out the video, and take a look at my paraphrased translation underneath.





The recipes are mine, prepared in the lab this way, with no conservatives or chemicals- just vinegar, salt, extra virgin olive oil and sugar.  Then pasteurized properly, obviously.  One type of conserving these peppers is the classic way- whole.  

The peppers are washed, then place in a jar with water and vinegar.  They can be used in the classic Neapolitan reinforcement salad or served with pork or cod.  

Another way to conserve them is the sweet and sour method.  Agrodolce.   

These pepper can be eaten straight from the jar though some chefs have used them in sauces.  This method takes up to 5 days.  The peppers are washed, sliced and seeded then placed in a container with vinegar, salt and sugar.  The peppers soaked for about 48 hours, turning every now and then.  During this process, the peppers release water but soak up sugar.  The peppers are then dried for about 2/3 days.  Then placed in jars with extra virgin olive oil.   

Grilled peppers are a little quicker to prepare.  This particular jar has green peppers, which have more acidity.  

Many green peppers are on the market becauase they are the ones harvested last.  The harvest season is from August to November, and during November, producers notice that the frost is about to arrive so they harvest the remaining plants on the vine - many green.  The grilled pepper process is as follows:  the peppers are slice then boiled in water and vinegar aith a certain percentage of salt.  They are then drained, grilled, then placed in jars with parsley, garlic and extra virgin olive oil.  A perfect side dish.

So, it didn't matter that I didn't get a chance to walk the fields with Egizio in the height of the summer harvest season.  That will come later, for sure.  Because I first would like to hang out with him as he plants the seeds - very very soon.

Country Rich - Officina Vesuviana, Somma Vesuviana (Na)

Allora, Karen...I'll send you the GPS coordinates.  Let's hope that it doesn't rain....

And that's how my day in the country Campania began with Giuseppe Rea and Francesco Manzo of Officina Vesuviana began.  Well, sort of.   I had been hoping to have a visit - in the country - in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius for quite some time.  Years maybe.  I don'y know how many times in my 25 + years of living in the Campania region have I seen these pieninelo tomatoes hanging by the roadside during the summer months. 
But it wasn't until recently that I decided to take a bite, so to speak, of these pomodori - those special ones - that can only be found  in the Vesuvius area.  Those ones label PDO. Those that only grow in this particular territory. This pear shaped tomato with a pointy end.  Full of strong acidic flavors thanks to where the soil that they call home.

 Yeah, I could have done a little research on the internet, but I wanted something di piu'.  I wanted to see these tomatoes up close and personal.  To talk about them with those who know what they know what they know.
So let's go back to my message from Giuseppe (aka Peppe) Rea. My appointment with the guys from Officina Vesuviana was for 1:30 pm ish on a cloudy Saturday morning.    I pulled up around 1345 - Rea met me with  a smile and a 3 wheeler piaggio which I followed as he opened up a gate that led me to a goose bumpy world of complex simplicity.
Dark grey fertile volcanic soil - exhilarating aromas of fava beans in the air.  Fantasticaaa!
But I came for tomatoes - even though it wasn't tomato season.  You see, that is the beauty of these piennolo tomatoes from Vesuvius.  Though harvested in the summer, they are conserved in a special way - on braided twine - they can be consumed well into the spring.
So I was treated to a spectacular show - simple for Rea and Manzo, but memorizing for those of us who had never seen it up close and personal. 

Giuseppe Rea

Francesco Manzo

Rea sat and went to work, Manzo explained the process. 
And who imagined that as the months went by that the tomatoes' aromas and taste would change/mature - just like a fine wine.

These tomatoes - three varieties - yellow piennolo vesuvio, red piennolo vesuvio dop, and tigrato-tiger stripe - a wild variety from the Galapagos islands.  These tomatoes have a unique flavor - sharing the unique flavors thanks to the fertile soil from the volcanic soil where they grow.

The guys even  harvested an orange tomato, but we will have to just have to wait until next season for a taste...

As Rea worked, I got to learn a little more about Officina Vesuviana - its philosophy, its products.  Besides fresh tomatoes, they make can their tomatoes as soon as they are harvested.  Canned, but in reality they are jarred and vacuum packed in large glass jars.  I had a chance to try and appreciate assai their various pate' made from each variety.  And since we were located nearby the Vesuvius National Park, it would be a crime to not try their mandarin marmalade.  I did.

But I wanted a quick recipe-  here Manzo shares one for a quick tomato sauce- olive oil, garlic and a few of their fantastic tomatoes....

It's philosophy?  As it turns out, Manzo is math, science and history enthusiast.  Did I mention the goose bumps I had when I arrived?  They came back.  We spoke about mathematical sequences, mathematicians, acidity, soil and future projects as he pointed out wild herbs, sprouts, and everything else under that cloudy volcanic skyIt was hard to keep up, honestly.  But no problem - because I made them promise to invite me back ---when the fava beans are ready to harvest.  As well as other spring vegetables such as contogiorni peas.  And in the summer?  I did notice that small vineyard of Catalanesca grapes next to the apricot orchid.
Fantasticaaa!

Staj With Me - Staj Noodle Bar, Naples (Na)

I chose a Saturday afternoon smack in the middle of the holiday season to take a walk through one of Napoli's  snazzy chic parts of town.  A crispy clear cold sunny day, you know - the kind that Naples is famous for this time of year.  I chose that particular Saturday to take an early afternoon stroll, window shop, but most importantly - have lunch at Staj Noodle Bar.

Staj - opened up last June and is noted as the first (and only) noodle bar in Naples.  To some a risky decision taken by Chef Lucio Paciello and Rosario del Priore. Naples loves their pizza and traditional dishes.  We'll see. 

I arrived a few minutes before 1 pm - right before the lunch rush.  That was a good thing, because I needed some time to study the menu, absorb all that Staj had to offer.  I must confess that I was a little overwhelmed at the choices - I didn't know where to start.  That's where Paciello stepped in, and sat down.  

Chef Lucio Paciello

He helped me narrow down my choices so that I wouldn't over do it on my first visit to Staj. Including the choice of beer -Whatever - produced by friends of his that he met during his time in Australia.

So we agreed on the following journey- starting with the starters.

Yakitori - grilled chicken skewers, glazed in soy sauce, with sesame and chives

Fried ravioli filled with vegetables,  mustard mayonnaise and rice vinegar

 Fried tofu cubes, with spicy mayo and shitake mushrooms marinated in black tea and soy sauce

 Then it was time to move on to the buns - the bao buns.

 We narrowed the choices down to two...

Bao bun with fried chicken - tartar sauce, daikon, pickled carrots, coriander and toasted sesame

Bao bun with braised pork belly - daikon, pickled carrots, soy glaze and crunchy almonds

 I still had some room - for what really had my curiosity.  Ramen!  Not that add hot water to a cup ramen that got many of us through our college on a budget years - but that real ramen.  Like the type that I enjoyed when I lived in Japan.  That type that you see in the anime movies, as my son would say.  It has been over 25 years since I have eaten real ramen and had forgotten how complex this noodle dish can be.  Paciello and I decided on Ramen Shoyu and he even invited me into the kitchen as he plated up.


Ramen Shoyu - chicken and dashi broth, chashu pork shoulder, soft yolk egg, noodles, daikon, narutomaki and watercress.  By the way, Paciello's noodles are homemade, prepared with soft wheat flour and with buckwheat.

I followed the dish out to my corner table.  Paciello followed me.  He was curious if I knew/remembered how to eat ramen the right way.  He gave me a quick lesson.  Raise the ramen out of the broth with my chopsticks and place the spoon underneath.  Blow softly to cool it down.  Then the crucial part - eat.  Eat it all, without breaking it up.  In other words slurp! 
Here's how it went down.  You be the judge.

Fantasticaaa! - In fact the whole meal - including the beer of choice -

Unfortunately I didn't have room for dessert, though the choices were tempting.  Yea, I eavesdropped on the table next to me as the dessert menu - which included cheesecake - was being read.  No no - resist resist.  That will give me something to look forward to my next visit.  And the one after that.  And the one after that.

So back to my earlier observation - you know - the one about opening a noodle bar in Naples.  Was it risky?  Sure!  As the saying goes - you gotta play to win.  Months of full houses and hot press tells me that the risk is paying off.

So glad I finally staj-ed!