To Market

Grazia is in the kitchen again.  Today it’s hot and muggy and the flame on the stove is gone.  Today dinner will be cold.

 

She and I go to the morning market before the heat begins to rise.  Campo di Fiori is crowded with tourists and Romans, alike.  The vegetable stands overflow with summer produce.

 

Verdant basil, tiny ruby tomatoes, sweet onions, baby green beans: the meal will be simple and sumptuous, the aim of most Italian cuisine. A loaf of fine country bread and a large jar of olive oil soaked Mediterranean tuna.

 

Did I mention I love tomatoes?  I pull the sweet cherry variety off the bushy plants that sit in clay pots around our terrazzo…just the low fruit.  I’m allowed that without being chided.  But the tomatoes on the terrazzo are still green so, today, we buy Campo di Fiori fare. 

 

Here is what Grazia does with her market bounty:

 

Toss together the tomatoes, a handful of torn basil, thinly sliced onions and blanched, chilled green beans.  Add the drained tuna.  Toss again. 

 

While Grazia brushes slices of fresh bread with olive oil, grills them on one side, then rubs them with a clove of garlic, I search the floor below the tossing for bits of anything that might have escaped the bowl….

 

The salad is chilled until dinner time.  The toasts are put to one side in each bowl.

 

Balsamic vinegar and freshly grated parmesan is added over each serving at the last minute.  And the empty bowls are mine….

 

Chow.