Cibo in Season, When the Summer is Simmerin’!
Palazzi Intern Simone Bodmer-Turner chats with Ganzo Chef Paul Salmeri about Florence’s markets for fresh, seasonal produce that is delicious and easy on the budget. See what products are on the market table right now, as spring slides away and summer shifts into gear.
With Florence’s ever shifty climate the way one knows when the warm weather has come to stay is when the markets fill themselves with the freshest fruit and vegetables of summertime. Italian cuisine is known for its simple preparation and quality of flavor. This balance is achieved by letting the produce used in each dish speak for itself without masking the natural flavor of the ingredients with unnecessary amounts of butter, cream, and salt. The key to having the natural flavor of the dish be more than enough to satisfy a pallet is to cook with produce that is in season, and therefore at its most succulent, flavorful, and thankfully inexpensive state. In a quest to satisfy my palate and my wallet I talked to Ganzo chef, Paul Salmeri, about what produce was best to buy in the summer. Taking me around the Sant’Ambrogio market, Paul pointed out the best fruits and vegetables to buy. Dark red cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums (anything with a pit!), watermelons, cantaloupe, white melon, lemons, oranges, tomatoes in all shapes and sizes, eggplant, and zucchini. In these early summer months, the market also had produce that was in its prime in the springtime but is still available in the markets like all sorts of beans, asparagus, leeks, artichokes, and strawberries. He also told me to took at the signs around the produce that say where everything is from: the produce grown in or close to Florence would be the most flavorful because it ripened on the vine or tree it grew from rather than in transit to the market. Italian Chefs, like Salmeri , swear by only using the ingredients that are in season to achieve the finest quality dishes. The grocery stores may have more variety of choices but the fresh air markets, like Sant’Ambrogio and Mercato Centrale, have the highest quality of produce.