Eco-gastronomy at Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio

After reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” (that I have already discussed here and promoted repeatedly to all my friends), the idea of eating locally really struck me. In Boston, this was a more challenging thing to do in the early spring but in Italy it doesn’t really cause any extra caution especially during summer. Local food production is generous and diverse and if you extend the concept of local to the whole of Italy, there’s not much you can’t find. Connected to the idea of Slow Food movement, local food traditions are very important in Italy; it is not just a hippie thing but rather an extremely conservative way of thinking (for once, I adhere to a slight conservatism here). However, the main philosophy of the movement is to counteract fast food and preserve biodiversity by sustainable local production with good quality. “Eco-gastronomy” is the main mission of Slow Food. The 0 km project (I’m not sure if it’s even a semi-official project or just restaurants’ own initiative) is also very popular in Italy; some restaurants mark their food with “0 km” sign, meaning that the ingredients come, for example, from producers in a range of 50 km. This means that food hasn’t been travelling for days in trucks but comes often from a small local farmer strengthening the life of the local community and focusing on seasonal local products (expect to eat some zucchini at the moment).

Image from Slow Food web page.

Planning my own menus, I don’t need to live with potatoes and root vegetables only (that could very likely be the case in Finland), but I can usually get pretty much everything that I want from the mercato di Sant’ Ambrogio. The market is one of my favourite things in Florence and just a few blocs away from where I live. Each time I return home with my shopping bags, I feel like updating my Facebook status to “loves Sant’Amborgio”. Most cities have their own markets but somehow they haven’t made me happy the way Sant’Ambrogio does. In Tampere, I love buying strawberries or ice cream in Tammelan tori where a live band is every now and then playing Finnish tango evergreens and people are dancing in their tracking suits or hideous flower dresses (yes, it’s pretty much like in Kaurismäki films). However, only in Florence I have got the habit of doing my grocery shopping at the market.

Not only can I practise my Italian but the sellers are so friendly that they make me want to speak it better (some might be inspired by Mastroianni or Sophia Loren, I am by the friendly farmers). The veggies, cheese and pasta are not only cheap but they are of extremely good quality (oh, the pomodori di pachino from Sicily must be the best tomatoes I’ve ever tasted), and apart from some exotic fruits (and out-of-season porcini from Romania) it’s all Italian.

A few days ago I needed to buy sage, salvia, for a pasta sauce. After a little stroll, I finally found it on a old woman’s stall. She was selling mostly herbs and some beans and she was wearing a white apron and looked like she had just come out of her kitchen. I was embarrassed to buy only two brunches of sage. “Solo questi, é niente…” She needed to add some more items into my basket so that she could ask any money from me. I was looking at the red and white fagolini, some kind of beans that look tasty but that I have never tried. I asked the old lady how they should be cooked. She explained and added a few handfuls in the paper bag with one tomato (I refused to take any garlic but I had to accept the other produces – well, she didn't really ask me). Finally she had a price for the bag of veggies: one euro. She was very happy of my (or her, actually) shopping even though I got so much and paid so little. Another day, planning to do a soup, we got our vegetables from a nice man. We told we are doing a fish soup and without much indication he knew what we should get. Still at home, we discovered parsley that we had actually forgotten, luckily our market man was a step ahead of us, selling us ingredients we didn’t even ask for but urgently needed.

I haven’t created any loyalties in the market (expect now for this nice man who has also the excellent tomatoes), I go to the stall with nicest vegetables and the things I need. However, there is one shop, Bottega dell’Augusto, inside the market hall selling pasta, cheese and prosciutto, that is an obligatory stop in my market itinerary. The people working at the shop are the friendliest Italians I have met, they greet me with “ciao cara” and I have already forgotten the earthly worries. I usually plan the next days’ meals around the pasta I buy. They sell fresh handmade tortellini filled with ricotta, porcini mushrooms, pumpkin, lemon or other seasonal products. What ever I choose is good, but the best product is probably gnocchi, the potato flour balls that you cook only for one minute. I always feel like buying more than I need and normally end up leaving with a bag full of food. Oh, I miss the market already!