For Riccardo d'Ambra, the act of sitting down to enjoy a goodmeal is ideally the last in a long string of events. He believes that for this experience to be enjoyed to the full, the diner should take the trouble to become acquainted with the dishes that await him, discover the traditions that make a dish typical of its area, and come to the table with a mixture of curiosity and anticipation.
It is, he says, a similar process to wooing a beautiful woman; first the attention, the curiosity, the expectation, then, if all goes well, the moment of consumption!
Convivium leader of the Slow Food movement for Ischia and Procida and outspoken authority on the history and culture of Ischian culinary traditions, Riccardo explains that Ischia’s gastronomic history, despite being that of an island, owes more to the land than it does to the sea.
When, in 1991, Riccardo (grandson of the eminent Don Ciccio d’Ambra of the eponymous winemaking dynasty), opened his own trattoria to provide an alternative to the easy tourist eateries springing up all over the island, by offering the true flavours of Ischia, he found to his dismay that many of the authentic local ingredients he needed had all but disappeared. Thus began Riccardo’s mission to defend la vera cucina Ischitana.
This is a dish as old as the hills of Ischia, and to do it justice, Riccardo d'Ambra is now trying to breed his own snails in specially made enclosures.
Ingredients
(serves four people)
48 snails; 1 carrot
3 cloves garlic; 1/ 2 onion
1 rib celery; 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil;
1/2 glass dry white wine; 2 bay leaves;
handful parsley, chopped; few leaves fresh sage;
1 chilli pepper; roughly chopped peel of a lemon and an orange;
200 ml tomato passata; salt.
Preparation
Finely chop carrot, garlic, onion, and celery and lightly fry in the olive oil until vegetables begin to colour.
Add the snails and toss together for a few minutes.
Pour in the white wine and add the bay leaves, parsley, sage, chilli pepper and orange and lemon peel. After another couple of minutes add the tomato passata and a pinch of salt and leave to simmer for half an hour.
If the snails dry out too much as they cook add a ladleful of hot vegetable stock or water.
Divide snails between four small bowls and serve with freselle (twice baked bread) or some bruschette to soak up the sauce.
