no plate like home: Zuppa alla Frantoiana from Tuscany via Grenada & Falmouth
This month I interview Nico, a sailing instructor and skipper from Lucca, Tuscany currently living and working in Grenada
One of the things I love most about writing “no plate like home” is the learning; I always take something away from each interviewee that I didn’t know before. I LOVE Italian soups and make them often but this is a new one for me and I’ve made this bean and vegetable soup multiple times since interviewing Nico, and I think it will stay on rotation. The dish is designed to use up whatever seasonal vegetables you have available but since the tradition is to make it around the time of the first olive harvest (Frantoio literally translates to ‘press’) all the recipes I found contained the same: pumpkin, potato, cavolo nero and borlotti beans, finished of course by a slick of beautiful olive oil.
I’ve had to slightly adapt it for what is available in the UK - for example, I’ve used canned borlotti beans instead of fresh because nowhere could I find fresh (we tried to grow borlotti beans this year but it was a feeble harvest) and even dried were hard to come across.
Firstly I used a “cooking pumpkin” from the supermarket, then I tried with butternut squash which I expected to wow me but it really didn’t. Then I tried a crown prince pumpkin that I found in my local farm shop and unsurprisingly that was the best.
Seguing out of summer and watching the world around us wither into hibernation it’s easy to be fooled into thinking that this colder end of the year leaves us lacking but this soup defies that, encapsulating the beauty of winter. Squashes, dark, bitter winter leaves, beans and pulses all signal that this is actually a very special time of year for produce.
What was it like growing up in Italy?
I grew up in the country side of Lucca, Tuscany…I could describe my childhood there in many words but I’ll summarise by saying it was healthy, fun and delicious. There was a strong sense of community and an even stronger sense of family. We had a lot of outdoors activity and spending time in nature but also had a beautiful medieval city in which to hang out with friends. All social and family life religiously is based on and facilitated by high quality food.
What were typical dishes that you ate as a child?
Well as clichéd this sounds I typically ate pasta, pizza, prosciutto, mortadella, parmigiano, mozzarella, pomodoro and local, fresh vegetables and fruit. Meat was always local also and of course I ate gelato and typically, almost all of the above in every meal. I loved also le merende snacks with panini or focaccia. A very simple snack my grandmother used to make was panino con pomodoro strusciato – a slice of homemade bread, with olive oil, a little salt, a tomato rubbed on it and some basil – simply incredible, the flavour of my childhood in Italy
And where do you live now? How did you come to live there and how long have you lived there?
I spend most of the year in Grenada and I came to live here following my love for the sea and sailing. I am working as a sailing instructor and Skipper on sailing yachts, both private and charter. I spend summers between Cornwall in the UK on my little 26ft boat and in Italy visiting family
What do you find are the most significant differences between the two places? And what do you miss the most?
Well pretty much everything is significantly different, it easier to say what the two / three (I love Cornwall too) have in common which is a lot of beauty. What I miss the most is my family and the food. To be honest I love to go back to Italy as a tourist but I won’t be able to live in Italy again. These days I can drink a cappuccino after dinner and even tolerate pineapple on pizza and that is breaking a bridge in Italian language!
What is your earliest food memory?
We are going back to my grandmother’ panino con pomodoro strusciato that I have already spoken about, but in general merende with panini and focaccia after playing outdoor with friends are my earliest food memories, as well as getting some money from my parents and cycle to the local gelateria to get a gelato in the summer.
How and where did you learn to cook?
I started learning to cook when I moved out from mamma’s kitchen, in my mid 20s (I know, but that’s quite early for Italian standards) but I didn’t move far away and was living with my girlfriend at the time so I was not really cooking by myself. I would say I really learned when I moved to London where I lived for seven years, five of which were as a single man in a share flat. And how? Well in the beginning it was a sort of survival exercise but I slowly got more confident and to be honest it’s only since I left city life and lived at sea full time that I have really started enjoying cooking and become much better at it.
When was the last time you visited Italy and what food instantly transports you there?
I was home 6 months ago for three weeks. The food I love and that takes me instantly home is the one very difficult to find abroad and typical from Lucca: Zuppa alla Frantoiana, but also a simple dish like Caprese with fresh Italian tomatoes, basil and olive oil – and I personally love a few slices of parmesan cheese and rocket which my mum puts on the table for me to welcome me home
Any kitchen disasters?
Yes of course! In my “cooking to survive” phase, time was a challenge, either burning things or not cooking them enough. One that I particularly remember more recently is tagliatelle ai funghi, I homemade the pasta, made the sauce and then I utilised an important Italian trick of adding a little of the pasta water to the sauce…well I added too much water and instead of a creamy sauce, it was watery.
What, if anything, about food is important to you?
It is very important to me to know the source of the food I eat; for both quality and environmental reasons and I try to use local products as much as possible and not industrially processed foods.
Food heaven/hell?
Food is heaven as long as it’s not fast food in which case it’s hell
If you could cook a meal for anyone – dead or alive – who would it be and why?
I would like to be able to cook a meal for Nelson Mandela – I don’t think I need to explain why
If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
All the people who know me well would not hesitate to say Pizza!
And finally, what recipe do you want to share with us today, and why?
A dish from Lucca I love and I am very proud about Zuppa alla Frantoiana
Zuppa alla Frantoiana
makes: 4 servings
preparation time: 20 mins
cooking time: approx 60 mins
ingredients:
1 x 400g can borlotti beans
2 onions
1 celery stalk
2 carrots
200 g pumpkin (excluding waste)
2 medium potatoes
1/2 bunch of cavolo nero (about 4/5 large leaves)
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
method:
Chop the celery, 1 carrot and 1 onion roughly into small pieces
Heat olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the celery, carrot and onion with a pinch of salt until soft & translucent, about 15 mins
Add the borlotti beans and enough water to just cover the beans. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer for approx 10 minutes until everything is soft and tender
While this pan is simmering, peel and chop the potatoes and pumpkin, chopping both into small, even size pieces. Chop the onion and carrot finely
Remove half of the bean mixture from the pan and blend to a smooth puree using the liquid left in the pan. Set aside the other half of the mixture to the side for later
Add a little more olive oil to the now empty pan on a medium heat and again, with a pinch of salt, add the carrot and onion along with the potatoes and pumpkin and sauté for a few minutes allowing them to start to brown and caramelise
Remove the rib of the cavolo leaves then thickly chiffonade them (lay them on top of each other, roll them up into a tube shape and slice them about an inch thick so that when you unroll the tube you have nice thick slices). Add to the pan along with the bean puree and the earlier mixture you set aside
Bring to the boil then lower the heat and place the lid on the pan, allowing to simmer for approximately half an hour
Taste, season with salt & pepper then taste again and season further if necessary
Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top