In this installment
Whole Hand Peeled Tomatoes from Masseria Mirogallo
This is my 20th year traveling around finding food for a living. And ever since my first tour of Italy, I’ve loved but have never truly figured out the best way to use and sell whole tomatoes in a jar. It’s a simple product: beautifully red, sweet, delicious. But what would I use it for? Can’t I get fresh tomatoes from the farmer’s market? And so—unable to make a decision one way or the other—I punted. I knew they had a role to play in our pantries, I’m just embarrassed it’s taken me so long to figure it out.
I had the good fortune of touring Italy recently and it finally clicked. I get tomatoes in a jar now and I think you’ll love ’em, too. I learned a quick and easy recipe for them I think you’ll enjoy. But first, let’s talk about how they’re made.
In the shadows of the ancient (and I mean ancient) city of Matera lays Masseria Mirogallo, the Belfiore family farm and production site. It’s in the Basilicata region of Italy, which isn’t exactly a popular place for tourist, yet humans have continuously lived here for more than 100,000 years. Seriously. Matera is considered the third oldest “city” in history behind Aleppo and Jericho. It was named European Capital of Cultural in 2019, so I’m sure it’s about to enjoy some popularity now that the pandemic is over. They filmed “The Last Temptation of Christ” there because it still looks like its 2000 years old and it’s amazing. And right outside this ancient city sits the farm where these tomatoes were grown. (What a segway.)
They’re all hand picked at the peak of freshness—which sounds like a marketing line, I know, but they told me a story about a failed apricot endeavor that made me believe they’re not just words to the Belfiore family. The tomatoes are quickly blanched then hand-peeled by a crew of about twelve women and hand-packed into the jar with a leaf of basil. That’s it. No water or salt is added, just all hand-peeled whole tomatoes…and a leaf of basil. It tastes like summer and smells like it, too. When you open the jar you’ll see what I’m saying.
As far as how to enjoy them—well, I’ve found a simple recipe from my friend Rolando Berimindi, who got the recipe from the matriarch of the Belfiore family. She made it for lunch for us the day we visited and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It’s fresh, it’s flavorful, and it’s really easy to make for a lunch or even as an appetizer before a meal or with wine.
Spaccatelle di Pomodori – Broken Tomato Halves
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 jar whole hand-peeled tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbls salted capers, rinsed and drained
sea salt to taste
crusty bread, semolina if possible
Put the thinly sliced garlic in a shallow but somewhat wide bowl. Top with the tomatoes and drizzle with the olive oil. Seaon with salt and sprinkle the capers over the top. Serve immediately with fresh, crusty bread and let people scoop/sop it up. This is a dish that’s meant to be eaten by using your fingers so don’t by shy. Sop it up, take a bite, close your eyes and think of summer.
Noccioliva Hazelnut Spread from Il Colle del Gusto
This is a love story that’s about more than hazelnuts.
Antonio delle Corte met Anna-Marie Conti in 2013. He was working in Rome and had came to be known as the “Mixologist of Gelato.” Some called him the Willy Wonka of ice cream.
She ran a Bed & Breakfast out of her family farm in the Sabine Hills outside of Rome, surrounded by groves and farms and natural beauty.
He stayed at the B&B, they fell in love, and they figured working together would be the easiest way to spend more time together, so they started Il Colle del Gusto (translation: the hills of taste) and have been growing ever since.
That’s the Cliff’s Notes version of the love story. Back to the gianduja.
That’s what this is: gianduja. That’s a northern Italian confection made from ground hazelnuts and chocolate and popularized the world over thanks to Nutella. But the real stuff is something special and that’s what we have here, except Antonio and Anna-Marie have given the recipe a bit of a twist. Instead of using dairy/butter to create their confection, they use olive oil from the neighboring farms as the texture contributor of the recipe. The result is an ultra-lux, ultra-smooth, rich, chocolatey spread that hums with the flavor of hazelnuts with a long, lingering finish. For years I’ve been telling folks to spread this on toast or gelato/ice cream, or on top of cheese cake, or even with some light desserts like pane cotta or something. But the easiest, most delicious way I’ve found is just to dunk cookies or biscotti right into the jar and eat it that way. We enjoyed a wonderful, lounging three hour lunch with Antonio and Anna-Marie after we visited their production facility and we finished it all off by dipping crisp cookies into the jar and crunching away. I suggest you do the same.