Driving around the countryside in Tuscany now is one of my favorite moments.
the wheat is being cut, leaving golden fields with patterns much like corduroy, bright yellow sunflowers already bending with the heat.
Green vineyards, bunches or grapes already full and waiting to ripen.
Figs, both green called dottati, which have been around since the beginning of June and the dark luscious purple figs which we all know. My neighbors are generously giving me bags of figs and basically have invited me to come and take as many as I like. I will be making some jams and chutneys soon, and also perhaps a French fig Tapenade I love!
Last week in class, we grilled fig halves, topping them with cold fresh caprino, goat’s milk cheese and some mostarda di arancia,an orange marmalade with a spicy kick!
My other passion… are capers!
Here they grow wild in rock walls. I was lucky enough to be able to buy some already harvested in Puglia a couple of summers ago, which I salt packed and lasted quite a while.
They are the flower blossom, picked when tiny and most often pickled in vinegar.In the Sicilian Islands,Pantelleria is most famous, they grow on the ground, formed by volcano’s lava flow. The larger caper berry which has appeared in the markets now, as an appetizer, is actually the seed pod of the caper.
