Making bread means to love
Making bread is a ritual and it means not only preparing the dough and shaping it. Actually it starts with the wood oven fairing and preparing the mediterranean essence sticks (olive and heather sticks) to have a stable oven temperature. It happens when on the oven ceiling a white patch appears..it's a magical ritual!
Tomato &Lycopene: a perfect duo for our health
Lycopene is one of the best natural colouring. In fact, it’s the pigment giving the tomatoes the red color; as a result, the more ripe/red the tomato, the higher the concentration of lycopene in it.
The tomato, in turn, is the largest source of lycopene, which has multiple properties. It is indeed one of the greatest natural antioxidants, very effective in the fight against cholesterol and high blood pressure, as well as statins, the most commonly drugs used to treat these cardiovascular problems. But the beneficial properties for the health of this carotenoid are not finished: it has antitumour activities and is active against cardiovascular diseases and the aging of the body cells; according to some studies, then, lycopene would also decrease the incidence of arthritis, the proliferation of free radicals and some diseases, including Parkinson’s disease.
It is fundamental, therefore, in a balanced diet, to choose the tomatoes as red as possible, preferably cooked, perhaps combining them with a good extra-virgin olive oil, since it has been verified that the absorption of lycopene is greater when combined with fat.
If we then take into account that fruits and vegetables from organic agriculture have more antioxidants than conventional ones, then…. Bio is better!
Buy the organic tomato sauce here: https://www.agriturismoimoresani.com/en/shop-en/
Farmer Hospitality
I have always been convinced that it's important to welcome our guests as well as possible. The best availability is usually given by farmers and by their families.
At a farmer's home, a guest is welcomed by a smiling housewife with a glass of wine and a slice of cheese...the whole family welcomes the guest with enthusiam making him feel part of the family. That's the usual hospitality in a real agriturismo...you will feel the warm hospitality of someone that, even if he's meeting you for the first time, he makes you feel like at home.
http://www.agriturismoimoresani.com/en/
Mediterranean Diet & Quarantino Tomato
The Mediterranean Diet is made up of healthy products but also of stories of farmers and fishermen. Agricultural and fishing traditions merge to give life to a unique and healthy lifestyle.
Farmers and fishermen together persist in researching and preserving local biodiversity concretely, without mimicking models that have no connection with our area. It’s necessary to consider both farmers and fishermen as the real repositories of the Mediterranean food. They are the authentic custodians of this priceless heritage left to us by our grandparents and it is necessary to remember that without them, without those people who work preserving authenticity, we would risk to create fakes.
Today I introduce the Quarantino tomato. It’s a very old variety, with a long history.
Our grandparents used to cultivate these tomatoes that were highly requested by the canning industry, especially after the Second World War, when, a processing centre was built in the Sele Valley. Here, thousands of tons of tomatoes produced in the Alento Valley were delivered.
Since some years I have resumed the cultivation of this tomato resistant to parasites and adaptable to the climate and the soil; it can be cultivated also in dry weather anticipating the planting in spring.
I am in love with this plant but, more than with the plant, I am in love with its history, linked to us, our area and our culture.
I would like to dedicate these few lines to Santino Scola, an 80 years old passionate custodian farmer.