Peppe Buffa Memories of a chef...scents and ancient Sicilian flavours

From the union of good food, blue sky and expert hands

I placed that old rake on the corner of the pergola , next to it there were two old hoes, a pickaxe, a mallet, some other country tools now in disuse, up high, tied on a beam a cartedda and two panara with inside a runca, scissors, curina and some forgotten seeds still soaked in sulfur and earth.

The old chair had been there since time immemorial , next to the peasant tools, I stopped to look at it and sat down, I thought of the olive tree from which it had been made, after so much time still sounding and intact, firm, majestic as it was before it passed through the axe.
The initials on the backrest AB were the same as my dad's, if you do the math he had lived for more than a hundred years in symbiosis with the dwarf palm braid with which the seat was basted, I approached and thought back to how many summers he had spent, how much earth and how much sweat he had welcomed.

The now hot season was wearing out my limbs, I decided to sit down and look at my little vegetable garden.
Scents of mint and basil, colors of tomatoes and peaches, flavors of strawberries and tenerumi. I gave in to the heat and began my journey.
My paths are those that lead to the vineyard, to the marigolds, to the thyme, my roads run along the edges of wheat and olive trees, my walks touch the blue water and the sea still full of fish, illuminated by intense and colorful sunsets.

In my dreams, eggplants and courgettes, anchovies and scorpion fish, yellow expansions of purceddu and tumminia melons often rush. Ricotta and cassated sweeten my nights.

Our food basket, especially in this season, is rich and varied enough to satisfy the needs and whims of even the most demanding. Rich in vitamins and proteins, our cereals and legumes are the basis of a sustainable, healthy and nutritious diet.
Extra virgin olive oil, the undisputed king of our table, not only seasonal salads, but is also a panacea for our lives.
In the fishermen's nets, fat sardines marry tender wild fennel, a tasty combination made even healthier by macaroni, fish and flours, for a correct diet.



Fruits and leafy vegetables bring well-being to our body and our senses. Beans and potatoes, in addition to being an excellent meal, provide the right balance of essential elements, sugars, vitamins, proteins, to face a torrid summer.
Blue fish rich in essential fatty acids inebriates the tables, spearfish, mackerel, and omega 3. The scent of carrots and mint and rocket is also a source of mineral salts, black mulberries rich in anthocyanins restore the warm evenings of June and strengthen the limbs.

The Mediterranean diet is a combination of good food, blue skies, and skilled hands that tame nature. Our Mangiarizzi are the joy of farmers who cultivate their curved fields.

Well-being is seeking out that garden without nitrates, that freshly picked orange is beautiful, it is beautiful to see an aubergine grow, it is beautiful when you know you are enjoying figs and early pecorino cheese completely free of glyphosates and insecticides.

This excerpt is our grandmothers, our memories . U pizzutello, the dried tomato par excellence of our lands, alas!! now almost in disuse supplanted by the more modern cherry tomato, survives on hot summer days thanks to the abundance of housewives intent on making buttigghiatu.

Cucuzzi longhi and ghiotta di babbaluci, aubergines n'muttunate, pasta with tenerumi, pasta with anchovies, agghia ogghiu and chili pepper, minnuli cu l'ova, delicacies that we should rediscover, preserve and pass on, because our history can be remembered even better through the scents and joys of the table, the good one, the one attentive to the supply chain, that table full of true stories and tales that have been handed down since the dawn of time .

Peppe Buffa Chef

Chosen for you