combinations and yet so perfect. Therefore, if I were to answer the question as is appropriate in any polite and reasonable conversation, I can say that the ideal recipe could be a pappardelle with porcini mushrooms topped with a sauce of cherry tomatoes from the Piennolo and seafood. On Mount Faito, which oversees our Lattari Mountains, you find the most fragrant porcini that would perfectly accompany mussels and seafood from the Great Marina, the fishermen’s beach. The musky and damp smells of the earth brought by the porcini merge with the marine essence of shellfish. The sweetness of both ingredients blends well with the starch of pasta, strictly from Gragnano, to create the third element, which is the element of the dish. As in any marriage, 1 + 1 is equal to 1. A woman and a man who come together in a perfect union create a different “one”, with a life of its own.
Sorrento. At the base of each dish ingredients are the protagonists and, among all, I can almost say that “Deus ex machina” is precisely the oil. Although this element sounds so simple, it is complex and difficult to identify in the kitchen. The oil possesses incredible perfumes already present in the small drupe that holds it. I tend to believe that, unlike wine which can be shaped according to the needs and desires of the producer during the transformation from cluster to wine, oil, in the transformation process, can only follow a particular process. The work of the oil miller is not very far from the role of a midwife. You can only extract from the fruit what is already there. The oils, in general and in particular the PDO types of oil, also possess the characteristics of the land that gave them life, thereby predicting an almost magical aura of anthropomorphism. I could go on for hours talking about my beloved, as every woman in love would, but I believe that words are unnecessary. Oil must Which ingredients do you never be discovered with your senses, work without? so I really hope that, even with my small contribution, the knowledge With closed eyes and without of this ingredient can be increased. any hesitation I can say oil. As I mentioned on my identification card at MasterChef and in my book, The Recipes of Imma, oil is my love but I only realised this when I returned home. My family has been producing oil since three, and I hope many more, generations in 20
OpenKitchen - n. 8 Dicembre 2012