Posted by Loulou on Jul 25, 2013 | 1 comment

Mama says that when she goes to the open market, she is in a cook’s heaven. Here in Rome the open market is in the Campo de’ Fiori, which sometimes I hear her call “my Gelson’s”, a very snazzy supermarket in Los Angeles where mama and papa used to sell their bread. The “field of flowers” is now a field of vegetables, fruits and flower stalls, not to mention the myriad (I love that word as in “thank heaven in this world there are myriad kitties) stalls selling Italian products for tourists—spices, pasta, olive oil and cheese.

(I love this guy–and his garter belt! Mama buys those aprons for all her friends.)

But mama says that behind the scenes are the real sous chefs of the market—the people who clean an cut the fagiolini, little green beans; the artichoke sculptors; the creators of fresh fruit cocktails for a cool respite from Rome’s hot summer; the puntarelle punchers (the puntarelle are the stalks of cicory iced in water and then pushed through a mesh to form little branches of crisp, celery-like salad to be tossed with an anchovy dressing.

And mama is used to doing everything herself in the kitchen (that is, along with her magical food processor—more on that story later), but  when she sees the lovely, cleaned, cut packages of little green beans, she says that’s her luxury every now and then and she pays the extra euro to have a little treat and not have to snap beans for lunch. Mama says these workers should get prizes every year for their wonderful work to supply the cooks of Rome.

At Gigetto, a place in the ghetto (where I have seen lots of kitties roaming around in the ruins of the Teatro di Marcello next door—lucky devils), two men clean and pare artichokes so fast you cannot see their hands.

Papa says to them, “I think you have done a couple of these before, no?” And they laugh, knowing they can go through a crate of artichokes quicker than a gnat can swim a dipper, as mama says.

What’s a gnat?

What’s a dipper?

Well, those guys are fast.

I’m hoping I’ll get to go help the fish market workers who clean the squid…oh, boy…the things they throw away!

But right now, I’m going in the kitchen to help mama make that anchovy sauce. I open the cans for her and then…well, whatever happens, happens.

I’m a sort of behind-the-scenes helper, too.

(Puntarelle cutter–Thank you, Flavorofitalyblog)

Maybe I’ll help after my nap….