Season's eating

One of the best things about living above a market, besides being able to shop for great clothes while also shopping for food, and being able to run upstairs with a bag of fresh vegetables and fruit to make into a salad for lunch (which we have done pretty much every day so far), is that it is so fun to see how the produce changes every day. Since arriving two and a half weeks ago, there are already big differences in what is available--we no longer see cherries and strawberries, for example, and instead are finding lots of grapes, beans, zucchini (with their flowers still attached), exotic looking mushrooms, and the odd pumpkin/squash or two. We somehow totally missed broccoli (can only really find them frozen every now and then), but melons, figs, plums, and peaches, thank goodness, are still around for now! However, I do wonder what they will do when tomatoes are no longer in season, especially since they seem to be such staples...

It is nice to be able to make use of what is available instead of relying on tropical suppliers like Mexico and Hawaii to completely demolish all sense of what is grown where and during what season. This isn't to say that all this produce is local (I don't know where they would grow bananas in Italy), but it is miles better than the want-it-so-got-to-have-it-now attitude so common in the US.

Views from the market this past week. I think I will take a couple pictures of the stalls every few weeks to see how the availability of produce changes through the course of the year.

Those nifty wine grapes are right up front. You can also see yellow-green zucchini flowers (they are usually used for deep-frying) and the first batch of autumn mushrooms.

One great example of eating-with-the-seasons is this tiny, seedy, sweet, intense purple grape used for wine and commonly eaten at the table. It popped up in the markets about a week ago, and around that exact same time all the cafes and bakeries started advertising having fresh schiacciata con l'uva. This is a flat, layered grape cake that you can only get during this three or so week burst in which the grapes are in season. I bought a little piece from the grocery store bakery, then decided to try making my own. Seth bought 3 pounds of the grape this morning and for dessert I tried making the cake. It turned out pretty differently from what you see in the shops--ours is more like a grape-filled biscuit than a grape pie type thing, but it is still tasty!

Coop's schiacciata con l'uva

Our schiacciata con l'uva. Pretty different, will need to try it again before the grapes disappear. The crust was made using olive oil (didn't think it was supposed to be used for baking, but I think it is pretty common here) and white wine.