As a young girl, Antonella Ricci spent hours watching her mother and grandmother do the cooking in the Al Fornello da Ricci's kitchen, back when the restaurant was a simpler affair, still based on the traditional fornello her family opened more than forty years ago.
Over the years, thanks to her parents’ hard work and, particularly, to her father’s overriding passion for his profession, the menu grew, the guidebooks took notice and the first Michelin star arrived.
Antonella describes the restaurant’s cuisine as being modernamente tipica, reflecting Puglia’s culinary traditions and showcasing the area’s excellent produce while communicating something of the creativity of its two main young chefs.
The day I’m there is the type of gorgeous, late spring day where the sudden heat renders you languid and lazy. I choose a table outside in the flowered courtyard next to a trullo and taste one of the apulian delicacies.
Nothing could be easier than this pretty antipasto. Naturally, you can substitute the wild asparagus with whatever type you can find.
Ingredients
(serves four people)
100 g wild asparagus; few leaves rocket;
2 slices of capocollo, thinly sliced; 2 slices of salami, thinly sliced;
1 tomato, sliced; 100 g fennel, very thinly sliced;
30 g soft salted ricotta; extra virgin olive oil; salt and pepper.
Preparation
Cook the asparagus in boiling salted water for about five minutes then immediately refresh in a bowl of ice. This blocks the cooking process but also helps preserve their lovely colour.
Arrange the rocket, the drained and dried asparagus, capocollo, salami, tomato and fennel in a pretty, transparent serving dish and add shavings of salted ricotta over the top. Season lightly with salt and pepper and finish off with a drizzling of extra virgin olive oil.
