Antipasti Campani: To Start the Meal

When she gets to antipasti in La Cucina Napoletana, Caròla Francesconi says that they weren't yet fashionable when she was a girl -- at the most, restaurants that served them would bring a platter with finely sliced salami, canned anchovies, butter, and olives. In other words, not much, and if diners wanted something else as well, the restaurant would bring dishes that can double as sides or entrees, with each diner taking a couple of spoonfuls. Moreover, antipasti were only served at midday, never in the evening.

She also says that the situation has changed since she was a girl, with antipasti appearing on restaurant menus. However, if you go someplace traditional you are still likely to be served a platter with a few cold cuts, and several plates or bowls with other things for people to partake from as they see fit.

I took these shots at Da Pino, a Ristorante Pizzeria in Taurasi (Irpinia, the mountains inland of Naples) that Luciano Pignataro, a friend and colleague whose site is a reference for Campanian food & wine, took us to during the presentation of the 2008 Taurasi. Pino's card says "Cucina Tipica Tradizionale," Classic Traditional Food, and it certainly was.

Here we have the antipasto platter, with black olives in the middle on a lettuce leaf, capocollo in the foreground, a salamino to the right (and behind the capocollo to the left), and caciocavallo cheese, a firm fairly sharp gourd-shaped pulled-curd cheese that has nothing to do with horses despite the sandwiching together of cacio (cheese) and cavallo (horse) in its name. Rather, caciocavallo refers to the aging technique: the cheesmaker takes two freshly made forms, ties them together with a length of string, and then sets them astride, or a cavallo, a pole. So the name means cheese astride a pole.

Pino's address:
Da Pino
Via G. Matteotti
Taurasi (AV)
Tel 328 599 69 69
Pinocamarro (at) alice (dot) it