I think one of the best thing that you can do in Italy is going to the local market and just get something fresh, the quality is insane compared to the supermarket (even supermarket in Italy) and it's usually cheaper too.
Best thing is most of the products in the photo are things you can eat right away without even cooking.
From bottom left:
Ricotta (fresh, it was still a little bit warm when I got it), mortadella with pistacchio, prosciutto cotto (really high quality ham).
Top left what's left of prosciutto crudo di Parma (in Italy they sell fondini of any salume really cheap).
Under prosciutto crudo topinambur (jarusalem artichoke) the only thing that need cooking.
on the right of prosciutto crudo a Fennel, that's so good fresh that you don't even need salt.
Under it a tangerine clementina type (no seeds) and an orange vanilla quality (a sicilian orange that has a sweet and not at all acidic taste, my favorite).
On the top right the real star, Toma di malga (basically it is an artisan product made only in some season in the mountains that's rare even in Italy at the local market) a local product from Piemonte (my region) that got an amazing and unique taste. Delicate and strong at the same time, it reminds of a fontina since it's not a very mature cheese, but it also got a really fresh taste.
I only got one of each item in the photo but of course I got more of fruits and vegetables.
I got all this in a regular (not fancy at all) local market. You can find dozens of local market in Torino (and all of Italy of course) with good fresh products like these.
for me this is Italian culture even more than pasta al pomodoro. It all start from here, local seasonal products. In the summer vanilla oranges, tangerine and fennel would not be there and I would not buy cheese like toma that would go bad from the heat. But you would find tomatoes for example.
Today I didn't cook, I just nibbled everything because tomorrow nothing will be as good as today. Fresh product got an amazing taste on the first day, even if it stay good for days it's not the same tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will be different too.
That's the secret of Italian food, good fresh quality products, that's all.
by LiefLayer
1 Comment
Out of curiosity, how much such prosciutto costs in Italy? Here in Poland good quality prosciutto cotto straight from Italy is pretty easy to find and costs only 2,5 euro in a big chain (for 100 g), which is really cheap, but my favourite mortadella is five times that if I want proper quality, way too expensive to buy too often 🙁