Campania products
About the products of Campania, this is what Settimia Cincinnati wrote in Mangiamo così.
Delfino Editions – Naples, 1977
Poor cuisine, that of Campania, but fanciful and spicy: it has no magnificence of meat, but abounds in vegetables, it does not have the push of greediness, but it does enjoy simple and I would say witty combinations. In front of the sumptuous seventeen-gram Florentine steak, the slice of “peasant” bread with a tomato and a basil leaf is no less impressive in taste and smell.
But how much plant richness in what was once Campania Felix! How much life in the “spaselle” overflowing with fish brought to shore by the trawlers and lamps! What Arcadian simplicity in dairy products born perhaps in caves of the caveman and now rampant all over the world! As a macaroni monument, “divine food”!
Here are our treasures: lobsters from Ponza, oysters from Fusaro, tomatoes and peppers from agro nocerino, chestnuts, Avellinese walnuts and hazelnuts, dairy products from Salerno, lemons, oil and Sorrento butter , the salted anchovies of Cetara, the cedars of Sapri, the melons of Marigliano, the figs and olives of Cilento, the strawberries of Afragòla, the apples of Melizzano, the peaches of Calvizzano, the onions of “della Rocca” of Cicciano, the tòtani from Capri, the capocollo of Montesano and Mugnano del Cardinale, garlic from Nola … and then a sea of vegetables – peas, fava beans, green beans, courgettes, asparagus, cauliflower, artichokes, pumpkins, chickpeas – vegetables of all kinds from broccoli to basil, a glory of orange groves and orchards and olive groves in every corner of Campania.
Here are the sweets, the nougats, the liqueurs of Benevento, the triumphant nocillo and the conventual centers; here are the great wines dear to Horace and Apicius; buffalo milk products wandering in the Pesto plain and in the Giuglianese area … what more? The pasta, sorry if it is little: the macaroni, the vermicelli, the very dear fusilli because still worked by hand, with knitting needle; pasta of all shapes and sizes, created with the imagination and gold of Naples, that is the innate sobriety and patience of our people.
And let’s not forget the kids, the pigs, the rabbits, the poultry, all the Serie B cattle which also gives Campania delicious and famous sausages.
This we wanted to remind those who will read this book dedicated with love to the land that has seen us born and of which we will never cease to appreciate the gifts.
