QUALITALY_133

March/April 2023 IX MAGAZINE LUCANIAN WOMEN HAVE HAD THE COURAGE TO FOLLOW THEIR HUSBANDS OUTSIDE THE REGION, ACHIEVING FREEDOMS AND RIGHTS UNIMAGINABLE IN THEIR HOMELAND. So why not put fava beans and chicory with an oyster; crapiata with a foie gras; peperone crusco with a prawn without taking anything away from either the pepper or the prawn? My cooking gives local ingredients freedom and rights unimaginable in traditional recipes. It opens me up to the world. HEART, HEAD, STOMACH: IN WHAT ORDER AND TO WHAT EXTENT DO THEY ENTER YOUR KITCHEN? Instinctively, I always hoped that I could divide my dishes into heart, head and stomach by indulging their souls. Then I realised that this was an illusion. Even a heart dish like Gli zitoni con la braciola needs a head and a belly. A head dessert like Monte crusko needs heart and the history of the Senise pepper. Head, heart and stomach go into the perfect dish in the right dose. AS IN LOVE: YOU GO ON INSTINCT, YOU THROW YOUR HEART INTO IT, BUT YOUR HEAD IS NEEDED TO AVOID GETTING HURT. Bravo! Only in this way do you create the dish that when you get up from the table you say “Fuck, how good was that?”. You remember it the next day and a year later you would eat it again. HOW MUCH IDENTITY IS LOST BY REMOVING MEMORABLE HISTORICAL DISHES FROM A MENU? If I go to Scabin’s and there is no Cyber egg , if I go to Marchesi’s and there is no Risotto oro e zafferano it is like going to the Louvre and not finding the Mona Lisa. Then it’s true that there’s the Nike of Samothrace but that’s something else. For me it’s like not going to the Louvre. MATERA REMAINS A DIFFICULT CITY TO REACH. HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR STOREROOM? Matera remains a town of peasants and shepherds. The train stops in Ferrandina The restaurant is in the Sassi. We do not have large spaces and the shopping is done daily. Our trusted farmers bring fruit and vegetables every day. The meat is Lucanian from Tricarico. The fish is from De.Ra.Do and a local fishmonger’s that sells fish from Puglia. The flours are from Mulino Dell’Acqua. The chocolate is French. AND FOR THE CELLAR? DONATO, YOUR MAÎTRE, WAS AWARDED THE 2022 COOK AWARD FOR THE BEST WINE LIST. The cellar is influenced by the region. We are in Basilicata and Puglia is close by. So we have Aglianico, Negramaro, Primitivo, which are regional excellences. There is no shortage of Campania labels given our past in Caggiano. We have enriched ourselves with Italian rproducts and then moved on to French ones. French wines have their importance. WHAT IS THE SECRET OF YOUR WINE CELLAR? That it goes hand in hand with the cuisine. We do not have many labels: about five thousand bottles divided into five hundred wines. The cellar is open. Space is limited. Thousands of labels... numbers that are too big are not for us. WOULD A RICHER WINE CELLAR BE NEEDED? No. Would you ever read five hundred labels before choosing a wine? But I want a cellar that keeps up with the times, and thanks to Donato it does, but one that is also capable of moving. It cannot and must not be just an investment. __________________________________ RECIPE Vitantonio’s cuisine is much more than a Matera stroll that opens the evening with rice, bean and cocoa chips, ricotta pralines, pork jelly, turnip greens sponge and the mock focaccia of dehydrated yeast and cacioricotta cheese arranged among the Matera stones reproduced on the table. If an egg falls in the vegetable garden, in its dusty soil made of cocoa breadcrumbs, vegetables sprout in clean colours, consistent because of the cooking, as fine as a lush crop. The black and shades of grey of the fried charcoal pizza, ricotta and grana padano mousse, and truffle caviar are Davide Scabin’s homage to Black is black. Cappuccino from Matera does not end the meal but transfigures the crapiata, a typical Matera legume soup, into a mousse of savoury sweetness gripped in the tenacity of a