Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE RULES
» Make eye contact when toasting and never clink using plastic cups; it's bad luck!
» Pasta is eaten with a fork only.
» Bread is not eaten with pasta - unless you're cleaning up the sauce afterwards.
» It's fine to eat pizza with your hands.
» If in doubt, dress smart.
» If invited to someone's home, take a tray of
dolci
(sweets) from a
pasticceria
(pastry shop).
Vegetables & Fruits
Poverty and sunshine also helped develop Campania's prowess with vegetables. Dishes
like
zucchine fritte
(panfried courgettes),
parmigiana di melanzane
(fried aubergines
layered with hard-boiled eggs, mozzarella, onion, tomato sauce and basil) and
peperoni
sotto aceto
(marinated peppers) are common features of both antipasto buffets and the do-
mestic kitchen table.
Some of the country's finest produce is
grown in the mineral-rich volcanic soil of Mt
Vesuvius and its surrounding plain, including
tender
carciofi
(artichokes) and
cachi
(persim-
mons), as well as Campania's unique green
fri-
arielli
- a bitter broccoli-like vegetable
saltata
in padell
a (pan-fried), spiked with
peperon-
cino
(red chilli) and often served with diced
The word
melanzana
(aubergine) comes from
'mela insana', meaning crazy apple. In Latin it
was called
solanum insanum
as it was thought
to cause madness.
salsiccia di maiale
(pork sausage).
In June, slow-food fans should look out for
albicocche vesuviana
(Vesuvian apricots),
known locally as
crisommole
and given IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta; Protected
Denomination of Origin) status.
DOC (Denominazione di Origine; Certified Designation of Origin) status is granted to
another lauded local, the
pomodoro San Marzano
(San Marzano plum tomato). Grown
near the small Vesuvian town of the same name, it's Italy's most famous and cultivated to-
mato, best known for its low acidity and intense, sweet flavour. Its sauce,
conserva di po-
modoro
, is made from super-ripe tomatoes, cut and left to dry in the sun for at least two
days to concentrate the flavour. This is the sauce that adorns so many of Naples' signature
pasta dishes, including the colourfully named
spaghetti alla puttanesca
(whore's spa-
