May 22, 2011
Not long ago she lived in trendy Trastevere among wine bars and super-chic Romans. She wore stilettos and took her coffee on Piazza Santa Maria.
Now Roberta wears rubber shoes and lives among cows and pigs, horses and dogs, carobs and rocks. Gnarled olives sway in yellow skies; she’s landed in a Van Gogh canvas come to life. Out in the direction of Africa, there’s the distant glint of the sea.
“I’m not a country girl,” she insisted a few years ago when she bought the tumble-down Sicilian farm house.
I watch now as she saws the lettuce root off with a knife. She rinses the leaves in an outdoor sink, tucks them into a tea towel, and spins her arm around like a windmill.
“Is that a Sicilian farmer’s technique?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “I did the same thing hanging out my window in Rome.”
How virtuous it feels to eat lettuce just five minutes out of the ground, seasoned with a just-plucked lemon and Sicilian sea salt.
Note how Italians slice their lettuce into ribbons thin as fettuccine.
We also eat a salad of carrots, provolone cheese, basil, and almonds.
And the traditional Sicilian cucuzza soup. Cucuzza is the baseball bat-size zucchini that’s in all the markets now.
***
Roberta Corradin is the author of Taste and Tradition: A Culinary Journey Through Northern and Central Italy. (Yup, I helped.)
We now live in the Walla Walla Valley. On the hill in back of our house we have seen as many as 30 deer at one time. Deer love gardens!!! This year we have signed up for a weekly delivery of organic veggies from Monteillet (www.monteilletcheese.com) gardens. I hope they are as beautiful as Roberta’s.
Dennis–that sounds pretty chic, getting veggies delivered each week. I see that place also runs workshops in how to make cheese. Hmm… maybe a new project for you? Have you finished your cabin? Roberta doesn’t have deer eating her garden, but there are rabbits to contend with, and her dogs dug up the onions…
A true taste of the good life.
Looking at the picture of those cucuzzas reminds of how we always had them growing on the fences, in our yard, here in Houston Texas. Sadly since my dad and nonna are both gone, there hasn’t been a cucuzza vine since. I think it is time to rekindle the old tradition, along with all the other things that used to grow in the garden…Now longing to get back to my Sicilian farming roots…thank you Jann and thank you Roberta…
ciao
Ciao Liz–a great idea to get your cucuzzas growing again! Can you easily find the seeds for these in the US?
Yes, this post leaves my mouth watering! Our local farmers market opened last week and I WILL go on Tuesday! I have been inspired. Strawberries and asparagus??
Hi Sandee–“Strawberries and asparagus” sounds like the name of a good film. Yum.
a woman after my heart…go grrrrl
I guess now’s the time to change the title to Roberta’s Culinary Journey to include Sicilian Taste.
What can I say,enjoy and continue making me jealous of everything you guys do.
Everything, John??? Were you jealous of my hospital stay, too?
Being quite the lover of zucchini, I would be thrilled to get my hands on a baseball-sized one from Sicily! What a lovely post, Jann, and like always, your photos are stunning! Roberta looks fantastic in her shots! I hope you’re fully recovered, by the way! 🙂
Thanks Bella–I think that salad was the final step in my cure.
Roberta is – among other things- my Dogwalker! She even dedicated a book to my dog, Caruso!
Caruso now has two tiny, super-cute Sicilian brothers named Chien and Dog.
But where do you keep the “stinco di maiale”?
Abbracci grande,
John
John, the thought of that makes me gag. But the neighbor’s pigs will soon turn into “stinco” (stinchi?) I’m quite sure.
Ciao Jann and Roberta! Roberta, you look so natural in this setting! 🙂 Can’t wait to sample some of your wonderful cooking! Hope all is going well…….
p.s. love the shoes
Nice.
Hope you are feeling better. I have these neighbors who keep giving us things — just last week – lettuce directly from the ground & this very baseball-sized zucchini. How did you know? (Ha.)
Have a great week.
D