QUALITALY_129

June/July 202 2 XIV MAGAZINE 2009, is grown exclusively on the volcanic slopes of Vesuvius. Traditionally, Piennolo cherry tomatoes are harvested in bunches and hung on balconies, leaving them hanging, hence the name piénnolo (pendulum) or spongillo (for the lace they have at their end). Excellent for garnishing pizzas. The San Marzano tomato from the Sarnese-Nocerino area, where it originated, also a PDO, is a recognised Italian fruit and vegetable product. It has an elongated shape and is suitable for use in the food processing industry and is used to prepare peeled and canned food. THE CHEESE-MAKING TRADITION From the sea, moving a few kilometres inland from Salerno, we come across a highly original environment, a real spa for animals. More specifically, buffaloes. Six hundred dairy buffaloes stay at the Vannulo estate, a district of Capaccio Paestum a few kilometres from Battipaglia. It is a super-technological farm that produces an excellent buffalo mozzarella, where the cattle go about their daily lives among showers, brushes, rubber mats and rest, perhaps listening to classical music or jazz. A robot allows the animals, when they feel like it, to milk themselves. THE QUEEN OF NAPLES (AND BEYOND): PIZZA The whole world knows that Naples is the absolute home of pizza, but Tramonti, a small coastal municipality, also has its own pizza, also with ancient origins. Its dough is a mixture of rye, germanella wheat, millet and barley - cereals once considered waste - with which bakers made (to feed themselves) a kind of flat bread to be eaten hot with garden herbs and a few slices of lard. Today, the pizza of Tramonti is considered a true variety and can be found all over the Coast, topped with tomato, oregano and anchovies. JUST A LITTLE SUGAR... The sweets in the province of Salerno are many, but the dolcini of Maiori, also called Nuns’ Sighs, are so characteristic and good that it is worth giving some information about them. They are part of all that confectionery tradition in Campania that can be traced back to the work of monasteries. They are made of almond paste filled with lemon cream. A very ancient delicacy. The first evidence dates back to the 16th century, thanks to the notes of a traveller, Aleandro Baldi. Forgotten for some time, in the 1960s a pastry shop in Maiori reintroduced them to tourists. Still here on the coast, another dessert cannot go unnoticed: a kind of sweet parmigiana, ‘a mulignana c’a’ ciucculata’. It is not exactly beautiful to look at and it is not necessarily to everyone’s liking. The aubergine is fried twice and arranged in layers; dark chocolate, milk, almonds and amaretti biscuits are spread on each layer; it should be served cold after letting it stand for a few hours. Tradition has it that this cake is made and served on Ferragosto, the feast day of Our Lady of the Assumption into Heaven. The story of Maiori’s aubergines with