…with apologies to my regulars for a day’s delay in posting.
I’m in the town of Amantea in Calabria, as it happens, on a painting retreat at which I’m (officially) watercolourist in residence - in theory at least, though everyone seems to be getting on with the business of putting brush to paper perfectly well without any help from me.
I haven’t yet got much of a handle on the home-cooking of Calabria (I was here with my sketchbook at the same time of year in 2017), but a visit to the seasonal produce-market in the town provided an overview of what’s around in mid-October: large beef-tomatoes for salads and sauces, plum tomatoes for bottling, dried oregano and bunches of dried wild fennel-heads, the first of the season’s green olives, large-leaf basil sold by the bundle, strings of fresh pepperoncini (the fierce little torpedo-shaped chillis that distinguish the cooking of Calabria from the rest of Italy), apples, quince, garlic, pomegranites, the celebrated mild red onions of the region (now picked by immigrant labor of the non-official kind).
Outside the market in the grocery store, dozens of different shapes and sizes of dried breads are on sale (a sign of the need for storability and portability). Storecupboard ingredients include chickpeas, lentils and speckled borlotti beans. On the deli-counter, local sheep’s cheese (matured - my favourite) and a cow’s milk cheese (whiter and milder), pork-products of the salt-cured kind, particularly the fiery ‘nduja, a soft sausage-paste that’s perfectly delicious when added to anything that needs a lift, including a delicious porcini risotto (recipe to follow).
Locally-recognised edible fungi are porcini (recommended from the freezer rather than dried) and saffron milkcap, Lactarius deliciosus, a pine-tree mushroom - neither of which, though both are possibly in season, I’ve managed to track down.
Fish available to the locals is the little ones from the inshore catch - flatfish, rock-fish, anchovies - flipped through flour and fried when perfectly fresh. The larger fish - more valuable and less inclined to spoil - are sold direct from the boats (unless intercepted by someone in the know, as above), and shipped in refidgerated lorries to the big cities - Naples, Rome, Milan. Fresh anchovies, the cheapest of the catch, appear on local menus and come fried and dressed with oregano and olive oil, or served on pasta, as in Sicily
Er…that’s it folks - I’m off to the beach for a swim.
…more (plus a recipe of porcini risotto with ‘nduja) for my wonderful paid-subscribers in a couple of days.
Meanwhile, check out my website for my fruit and veg prints (plus fungi and fish) - order at https://www.elisabethluard.org/shopMean
I bought some cracked n soaked green ones. Not the same as Puglians - yr right - which are sold ripe. I have the name somewhere. Will report when back in London next week.
Tip from a friend (me, I mean): Look for raw uncured olives for cooking. It's a special variety, can't offhand remember the name, and they are startlingly delicious, get sautéed in evoo (well, I mean, what else?) and served hot, sometimes with oregano sprinkled over.