Good Things I've Eaten: Campania Catch Up

I've eaten so many good things here in Campania, I'm having a hard time keeping up. Here's a quick look at some of the highlights:

Lemon Sorbet: Eaten from a street vendor who sets up shop just outside my host family's house. Sweet but not too street, smooth, tangy, perfect.

Whole Grain Pizza "Integrale" : Super rare, traditional recipe for a whole grain pizza. Only a few pizzaiolos still make it. The crust is slightly thicker (about 1.5 CM at the edges), and is crispy on the outside, and soft and moist on the inside. The pizza is baked in deep pans and takes 3-4 minutes in a hot wood burning oven.

The master prepares a "Marinara": tomato, olives, oregano, fresh garlic, and plenty of olive oil.

Biscotti del Pescatore: These “fisherman's biscuits” are day old bread, toasted in the oven, left to dry out, and then brought back to life by dunking in tepid water. After just a few seconds in the water, the bread gets soft enough to eat, but the crust stays crunchy. These are really good dipped in the broth of a soup or the juices that run off cooked, leafy vegetables or a grilled piece of meat.

Mozzarella (Fior di Latte): Warm, Straight from the Hands of the Cheesemaker: In this area they don't make mozzarella, which must come from Buffalo's milk. Here, they make Fior di Latte, the same thing as mozzarella, but from cow's milk. We visited a cheese-maker, and as he was pulling the cheeses into balls, he stopped and gave me a small one to try. Still warm and soft, the cheese set off an explosion of sweet, concentrated milk flavor balanced by a nice saltiness.

Panini with Broccolini and Pancetta: We made bread with leftover pizza dough, sliced the bread while it was still slightly warm, and then packed our panini with hot, sauteed broccolini, and thin slices of raw pancetta. Juicy, salty, slightly spicy, and with a perfect bread-to-filling ratio, this was a very, very good sandwich.

Raw Artichoke Salad: Here in Castellemmare, they grow special variety of violet artichoke that they cover with a terra cotta cap to keep the flowers tender enough to be eaten raw. After removing the outer leaves, one can slice these artichokes thinly, dress them with olive oil, lemon, and salt, and go to town. They have a delicate, nutty flavor, totally different from a cooked artichoke.