"Don Pancaldi's" Apples

With the growing of the global market we are used to having every kind of fruits and vegetables during the whole year: watermelons or strawberries in February, tomatoes in every season. Red and juicy apples are available from January to December. In the past it was all different… I remember the first holiday on my own, almost 50 years ago...It was July and I spent my holiday in a catholic “colonia” (something like a summer camp but not so comfortable as the ones our children are now used to!). It was a really cheap solution for my parents but the food was nevertheless very homely. Every day we received an apple at the end of the meal, and we used to call it “Don Pancaldi’s apple” . Don Pancaldi was a priest, the bursar of the campus who received as a donation a stock of apples he kept in a shady part of the garden. The apples weren’t so attractive: a bit withered with a brownie russet color. This was the reason why we used to be so ironic about those apples. I often think about that joyful period but I also remember those apples which would have nothing to envy to the  big, shiny, modern apples.

I believe today apples are reaped too early with respect to the right ripening time and too many preservatives are used to let them appear always attractive. Personally I try to use just fresh and in season ingredients and my recipes always follow the seasonality of fruit and vegetables.