The Moveable Feast blog
THE GREEN DINNER SET
This pale green set just cries out for seafood. I love the fact that it comes with a pitcher and tumblers, which of course suggests ice-cold lemonade, but I guess if you were to roam globally, a cucumber-infused green gazpacho wouldn't come amiss.
Prawns, scampi, avocado, or cucumber, would all would be very happy on these plates, with a bit of fresh dill to perk it up as a change from basil. In Britain, prawns seem forever joined-at-the-hip with Marie Rose sauce but life was not always like this. An American 'shrimp', or prawn, cocktail, usually is accompanied by the tangiest, most full-flavoured red salsa, with lots of lemon, and a blast of Tabasco, but absolutely no mayo to soften the blow. You'd find a slash of tomato red in your seafood cocktail glass,with a wedge of lemon or lime, not the softly coral-coloured seafood cocktail sauce you find over here.
Calorie-wise, cutting out the dairy is a good idea, considering the fact that shrimp are quite high in cholesterol (although low in fat); it really depends on whether or not you like your seafood sauce to put up a bit of a fight, demanding to be washed down with an ice cold drink, or whether you'd like your cocktail sauce to gently carry you into the evening on the coat-tails of something kinder like a white wine spritzer, or Prosecco.
I recently had a gorgeous moulded prawn and mozzarella starter from Palazzio Petrucci (www.palazzopetrucci.it ) by the coast in Naples, which I thought was going to be quite mild, but they paired it with a flavourful broccoli reduction which gave it punch, so I think if you were looking at prawn, avocado, dill, and burrata on this plate you'd be a happy bunny.
I have been thinking a lot about this dinner set. It is azure blue, incredibly blue, and it comes from Ireland, apparently. There are small bowls next to it which are white with tiny painted flowers of the same blue.
I think this set is for the heat of summer: the hottest, baking, most scorching Amalfi day you could imagine. A blue this strong would stand up to anything the Italian summer could dish out.
I think this dinner set hardly calls for a recipe to do it justice - it would be too hot to cook any sort of a recipe on a day this hot. You really could only manage to
assemble some beautiful items of food on a day this hot, present them in as refreshing a way as possible.
Were I to use this dinner set I would buy the freshest local mozzarella, from high up in the 'Mountains of Milk,' first thing in the morning, before the heat would set in. I would trawl through the vegetable stalls and find an exquisite, glossy, fulsome San Marzano tomato, ripe and ready to pop. I would slice it carefully and fan it out, slice by slice, slowly, onto the plates.
With a bunch of fresh basil in my hand, I would pick only the biggest, best, and unbruised leaves - no more than three or so - and tuck them artfully under the tomato. Two or three pungent black olives would accentuate the dish.
I would carefully drizzle some of the finest extra virgin olive oil across my salad, patiently, measured, with relish. Maybe, just maybe, there might be a final flourish of salt and pepper.
The result would be blue, and white, and red, and green, and black, and so cool, calm, and refreshing. The scents in the heat would be tantalizing. I am so greedy I probably would have this for breakfast, before anyone else was up.
Now, on an altogether different note, I might just prepare a fresh display of pungent Sicilian blood oranges across these plates. Just picture the deepest scented pink against this blue! Alternatively, using the enormous lemons from the garden, next to the pool, I might just make a fresh punchy lemon sorbet for the little floral bowls.
Whatever your plans for this dining set, make it fresh, scented, and full of flavour, to celebrate the height of summer!
THE PLATES OF LA MADONNINA
There are many dinner sets in Villa La Madonnina. I know nothing about their history but they are an important part of the life of the Villa. I have counted five separate compete dinner sets, and when I say complete, I mean not just dinner plates, and side plates, and salad bowls, but also chunky platters for big feasts, and large bowls for salad, and cruet sets, and cups and saucers.
The navy-blue-and-stone coloured set is by far the largest. Underneath, it says 'Casola,', Positano. I would use this set for winter, and for heavy cooking. A lasagne would display nicely on this set. It comes with a five large oval serving platters, a soup tureen, a coffee pot, and a set of coffee, as well as espresso, cups.
We cooked 'Bistecca alla Fiorentina' on these plates, and the huge grilled, t-bone steaks perfectly suited the solemn, stone background, and the confident, stalwart grape-and-vine decoration. Bistecca ala Fiorentino is not a dish of the region - Amalfi cuisine is seafood, mozzarella, and pasta at it's finest - but Luca managed to find us enormous red and shiny steaks, which the Americans would describe as 'Porterhouse'.
To prepare the steaks, I brought them to room temperature and seasoned them lightly with a cut garlic clove, and rosemary from the garden, rubbing the meat vigorously with both. I took some leftover stalks of rosemary, bruised them to release their oils, and let them sit in a bowl of extra virgin olive oil. I basted the steaks with the scented oil when they were turned.
The task of cooking steaks is for a patient person, and usually involves a glass of wine. My husband sat by the grill with a glass of Giardino di Klingsor, from Ravello, and monitored the progress of the steaks with interest. An announcement was made to the family: "The steaks are on", and everybody carried on with whatever they had been doing but fully aware that, soon, all activity would cease when the steaks were done, and we would all respectfully assemble at the table for the eating of the meal.
The side dishes were simple, and didn't dare compete. Sauteed potatoes were crispy in the local olive oil. Enormous sweet peppers, the size of my hand, were charred, steamed, peeled, and settled into a bath of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and seasoning. Charring the peppers is an efficient way to pre-heat your grill for the steaks, and also make your vegetable side dish at the same time. The broccoli here is amazing: small florets on tender stems that melt away when you eat them, nothing like the woody trees you find in Britain.
The steaks took time - always more than you'd expect - and after long, solemn, studious observation, they were tested, discussed, returned, and turned, and discussed again, and finally presented proudly on their navy-and-stone emblazoned platters, to the waiting family. There is no need for horseradish, or mustard, or ketchup, with a steak like this. The gentle scent of rosemary/garlic oil, grilled peppers,
and sea air, is the perfect accompaniment.
For pudding, a small cup of granita, made with fresh lemons, sugar, and rosemary tea, cuts through the richness of the meal and freshens the taste buds. Limoncello, the pungent and heady lemon liquor of the region, wraps you in a gentle, alcoholic haze, and is an important part of the ritual of watching the goats on the hillside, at nightfall.
Marcie Layton
8th April, 2019
from La Villa Madonnina, Praiano, Amalfi Coast, Italy
For more information contact amalfi-villa.com, or reserve@villa-la-madonnina.com.
