Ingredients for 4 people:

1 kg new potatoes

300 gr. dried cannellini beans

3 cloves garlic

1 large onion

Oregano

Salt

The night before put the beans to soak in a bowl and cover with water.

Next morning, rinse the beans, throw them in a pot and add enough water to cover them at least three times over. Without any salt, bring the water to a slow boil, partially cover the pot and stir regularly for two hours in order that the beans don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Drain the beans but keep a couple of cups of the water.

Peal the potates and cut into one-inch cubes. In a large pan heat the garlic in extra-virgin olive oil. Add the raw potatoes, the beans, ½ diced onion and oregano. Add one cup of the bean water and cook, stirring until the potatoes are well cooked, adding more water if necessary, until they reach a partially creamy consistency. Salt to taste. Peperoncino is optional

Here’s the good part: Locals serve this soup using the separated layers of the other half onion as a spoon, enhancing the wholesome flavour with the wonderful aroma of fresh onion.

A variation includes serving the soup over croutons made from stale bread that has been cubed and backed in the oven until crisp and crunchy.

[Show as slideshow]

Scauratielli or scauratieddi is a delicious dessert recipe that is a favorite among children and adults in the Campanian inland. All you need to do is watch Antonietta Rotondo, of the Terre di Conca agriturismo (working farm/culinary center/ongoing organic food extravaganza..yes an Italian Note coming soon). You’ll be hard pressed to see her with anything but a smile on her face as she prepares any regional dish of delicacy in general, and this recipe specifically:

Ingredients for 10 people:
1/2 liter of water
500 gr. flour
(This recipe can be made with more or less flour and water as long as they are used in equal amounts)
a pinch of salt
½ glass of marsala, port or strong wine
1 clove
1 stick of cinnamon
Grated rinds of 1/2 lemon and 1 orange
40 gr of sugar (optional)

Place all the liquid ingredients, sugar, citrus rinds, clove and cinnamon in a pan and bring to a boil for 2/3 minutes in order to fully release the flavours. Remove from the heat and slowly add the flour and salt, mix lightly and turn onto a wooden board. Mash out any lumps with a fork or pestle and then kneed the dough until soft.

Take a small amount of pastry and roll into lengths of 10cm and 1 cm in diameter. You might want to moisten your hands with a little oil to avoid the dough from sticking. Shape into the characteristic form (the two ends crossing over in the middle to form a loop…see fotos).

Fill a deep pan with oil and bring to a boil. Deep fry the raw scauratielli for 2/3 minutes and drain well on paper towels.

Fill a separate bowl with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon powder. Dip the hot pastry into this mixture and serve on a bed of lemon leaves.

Recipe by Antonietta Rotondo for Terre di Conca

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by Stefano Polacchi, editor-in-chief of Gambero Rosso.

“How many chefs today can truly say they are eco-friendly? I try to be… but for me it comes more naturally because of where I live and the the choices I have made; if I did things any other way I could no longer make a living . My cuisine is inextricably tied to the land. But when you are far from the land, how ecological can you be?”

Berardino Lombardo is a troublemaker, most of all for himself. He has a good head on his shoulders and his feet are firmly planted on the ground, but his thoughts are, and have always been, totally focused towards utopia: so much so that a part of his dreams have already born fruit and he is looking to enlarge on them.

Berardino ran a successful and highly-awarded restaurant, La Caveja at Pietravairano (in the province of Caserta). Then he bought a farm where he could produce his own vegetables, fruits and herbs and raise farm animals (black pigs, capons and chickens) in semi-liberty… In the end he left the restaurant and retired to Conca della Campania where he is surrounded by 30 hectares of paradise and everything a man like him could possibly need. It is here that he produces his “treasures” such as the stringata - a monument to pork - which can be found in great gourmet restaurants and is revered like crowned jewels.

You can find him at the center of his dining hall, completely at ease, cooking for his customers as if they were guests at his home… It certainly doesn’t look like a model that can be easily exported. There are however, qualities that can be duplicated. In fact Berardino has a project he’s working on (it’s at an advanced stage of conception and will shortly be visible online): a Relais&Chateaux immersed in the woods, between heirloom fruit orchards and fileds of wild herbs: bitter chicory, borage, thistles and cardoons, porcacchia and berries, Morello cherries and wild plums, sweet and sour apples, chickens and capons. There will be twenty rooms with a kitchen-laboratory totally dedicated to wild produce. a club with fifty members who will be owners and beneficiaries of the structure.

“I am already in contact with italian and international professionals. Soon the project will be online, and subscriptions are already available… There are 20 hectares of incontaminated grazing land where one can live in tune with nature, where one can cook what one has picked in the field…” Simply put, a slice of utopia, a utopia directly cloned from Berardino’s farm; it’s not only a way to maintain physical health and mental wellbeing, but also a means of defending the environment and protecting hectares and hectares from cementification, contamination and fires.

This is an idea that could be repeated in a forgotten corner of Australia, England, or Japan. In the meantime Berardino lives and thrives here. People travel from far and wide to eat at his tables. Soon there will be a Relais… and a depressed area of southern Italy will find a new life, and many people will benefit, for a while at least.

Stefano Polacchi, caporedattore Gambero Rosso.

“Ma chi può fare oggi attenzione all’ecologia? Lo faccio un pò io… Ma perchè non potrei vivere: per me è una questione naturale, di vita. La mia cucina è legata agli elementi del territorio. Ma lontano da qui, come fai a fare l’ecologia?”

Berardino Lombardo è un provocatore, prima di tutto verso se stesso. Ma è anche un bel cervello, coi piedi per terra e il pensiero fisso all’utopia: tanto che lui, la sua utopia, l’ha in parte realizzata, e punta anche ad estenderla. Lui aveva una trattoria pluripremiata, la Caveja di Pietravairano (nel Casertano) e allo stesso tempo aveva cominciato a realizzare un’azienda agricola dove produrre verdure, frutta, erbe naturali e allevare animali allo stato brado: maiali neri, capponi, polli… Alla fine ha lasciato la trattoria e si è ritirato a Conca della Campania: 30 ettari di paradiso dove prende tutto ciò che gli serve. Da lì alcuni dei “tesori” che produce - come quel vero e proprio monumento al maiale che è la stringata - prendendo la via dei grandi ristoranti gourmet, dove vengono trattati come veri e propri gioielli. E lui, nella sua postazione al centro della sala, cucina per i suoi ospiti: in totale naturalezza, con i suoi prodotti, come a casa… Cert, come modello non è molto esportabile. Però una qualche replicabilità ce l’ha.

Tanto che Berardino ha già nel cassetto (anzi, è già online in fase di progettazione avanzata) un Relais&Chateaux immerso nel bosco, tra giardini di frutta antica ed erbe spontanee: cicorie amare, cardi e cardelletti, porcacchia e bacche, amarene e prugne selvatiche, mele e melette, polli e capponi… Qui in mezzo una ventina di camere e una cucina-laboratorio interamente dedicata ai prodotti spontanei. Come realizzarla? Con una formula simile alla multiproprietà. una specie di club con una cinquantina di soci che diventerebbero proprietari e fruitori insieme della struttura.

“Ho già diversi contatti con professionisti italiani e stranieri. Prestissimo il progetto sarà visitabile virtualmente in rete, e già sono aperte le adesioni… Sono 20 ettari di terra, un pascolo incontaminato, dove vivere in sintonia con la natura, dove imparare a cercare a cucinarele erbe del bosco…” Insomma l’utopia realizzata, anzi clonata: l’azienda di Berardino e il suo doppio. un modo per tutelare il corpo con cibi sani, ma anche per difendere l’ambiente, per evitare che ettari e ettari di terreno vengano contaminati, bruciati, cementificati. Certo, lo stesso potrebbe anche essere realizzato in un angolo dell’Australia, o Inghilterra, o Giappone. Lui ci vive, quì. In molti vanno a mangiare da lui. Presto ci sarà anche il Relais… Una zona “depressa2 del Sud troverà vita nuova, e in molti, lì, avranno un a vita migliore, almeno per un pò.

One and a half hours south of Rome - an easy drive down the A1 motorway - lies a very special restaurant run by a very special man. The estate is called Terre di Conca, with an 18^th century casale in tufa rock set in 40 hectares of woods and organically-grown farmland. The man, Chef Berardino Lombardo, is credited for having single-handedly saved the autochthonous breed of black pig, or maiale nero casertano. In 1955 there were only 25 specimens alive and the breed was listed in the FAO World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity as at risk of extinction. The particular characteristics of this species are that they have black skin, are practically hairless and have a protuberance, similar to earrings, on either side of the neck called bargigli. Today Berardino raises approximately 200 pigs a year that live in semi-freedom, feasting on the chestnuts and acorns in the rich, dense woods of his estate. He makes fine cured meats, lardo secco (dry lard) and a product of his own invention, La Stringata, the result of tying together - thus the name ‘stringed’ - lard, bacon and loin of pork.

On arrival participants will meet the chef and watch as he prepares traditional, mouth-watering pork dishes around his huge stove (salvaged from an ancient convent and lovingly restored). Recipes are not available beforehand as they depend on the ripe fruits and vegetables that are hand-picked the day before. Most certainly, however, he will be using the famous annurca apples, another autochthonous variety of the region.

At lunch a huge meal will be served, accompanied by excellent wines. Guests are then welcome to spend the afternoon walking through the estate, viewing Antonietta’s priceless antique lace and embroidery collection and relaxing by Terre di Conca’s majestic fireplace. For those with enough energy, we can visit some of the nearby sites of interest.

Cost: Adults: €50,00. Children 5-12: €25,00. Toddlers up to 5: free.

To participate register here no later than January 20th. Minimum 15 people. Maximum 30.

Read the testimonials:

“We had a wonderful Saturday. Thank you for setting that up. It was like a mini holiday far from the business of Rome. The food was amazing, the setting spectacular and the company delightful. “

“We enjoyed the day so much ourselves. We were trying to decide on our way home what our favorite dish was and we all agreed, it was everything! For all of us it was a very memorable day.”

“We had a very nice time on Saturday. So thoughtful of you to order the lovely weather to go with the good food.”

Read what the food experts have to say about Berardino Lombardo:

Luciana Squadrilli (Gambero Rosso):
Berardino Lombardo has invented “La Stringata”, a monument to flavour and an extraordinary example of cured pork.”

Faith Willinger:
“Berardino’s organic farm supplies the restaurant with poultry, rabbits, pork, salumi and a garden of heirloom vegetables and fruits. The menu is pure tradition, with local just-made mozzarella, sheep’s milk ricotta, and polenta sauced with sausage, for starters”…”The bread is outstanding, baked in their wood-burning oven”…”There’s local pecorino aged in barrique casks, caciocavallo cheese aged six, twelve, or eighteen months, jam tarts (with homemade jam from organic heirloom fruit), conventuali butter cookies, spiraled with nuts and raisins, and scauratielli, or boiled cookies drenched with honey and orange zest. ”

Luciano Pignataro:
“This is one of those rare places that should be kept jealously secret and revealed sparingly only to those capable of appreciating the state of euphoria that comes when every pleasurable sense is fullfilled; like that offered by Berardino Lombardo, anthropological chef-turned-farmer-and-breeder who, with his wife Antonietta, have created a breath-taking restaurant, situated amidst ancient chestnut groves and the extinct volcano of Roccamonfina.”

Date: Saturday, February 23rd

Time: 10am - 5pm

Directions:

Take the A1 Highway south (towards Naples) and exit at San Vittore.

Follow the signs for Mignano Montelungo. After 2 km circa you will come to a large intersection with a stoplight. Turn right onto the Via Casilina and continue for 8.5 km. Turn right at signs for Mignano Montelungo.

Cross the railroad, go through Mignano and follow signs for Conca della Campania (or Conca), for another 8.5 kms. There are no signs for Terre di Conca which is on the left before reaching Frazione Piantoli.