Eating Simply

Finally, it has gotten hot enough in Sciacca to get Paolo and Ignatzia to spend more time at their summer place in Baia Ranella. Among other things, that means I get to see them more often, I get to hear Paolo tell stories about how things used to be, how they are, and to interpret for me the news of Italy and the news of Sciacca.

It also means that I get to eat some of the wonderful food Ignatzia makes more often than usual. I mean, I get to eat it more often, she makes it every day year round. That includes her fresh bread for Pane Cunzatta on Sundays, sometimes fresh pizza on Sundays, sometimes I sit down with them on Saturday when they do not have the kids and grand children filling their table.

However, when that happens, I often get a call from her telling me to come down and pick up some food. She may have made fresh sauce, and fried eggplant. One of my favorites. And she has always packaged more than enough for me to use. She also asks if I have spaghetti each time, as she must be worried that I would run out of that staple, or else Paolo has just found some on sale, and has bought five or ten two kilo bags.

At anyrate, the last time it was indeed fried eggplant and fresh sauce. Of course the eggplant was local. Of course the tomatoes for the sauce were local. I brought it home, prepared the spaghetti, put the eggplant on top, poured over the sauce, and mama mia, what a wonderful meal.

The next day I cheated. I just took some of her fresh bread, layed the leftover eggplant on top, poured sauce over that (sparingly, as I wanted to save some), and then grated fresh Grana Padanna cheese on top - like parmigiano reggiano, but with a bit more of a bite to it.

Of course I did not take pictures of any of that. So finally, the next day, when to my dismay I found out I was out of orrechhetti, I fixed fussili, heated the sauce, poured it over the pasta al dente, and then scooped out fresh ricottta. The ricotta was still warm from cooking, the sauce was indeed reheated, and it was a feast.

A great thing about simple cooking. It is simply delicious.