Matt’s notes from Soriano: Neighbors and food

We sometimes think that we won some sort of lottery to find a place with vicini (neighbors) as wonderful as ours in our little town of Soriano nel Cimino. They have made us feel so welcome and cared for since the moment we moved into our tiny place in 2019.

Two of our neighbors are farmers: Pietro lives next door, and is a fourth-generation contadino; Sante lives up the street, but the orchards and gardens and livestock pens and pastures directly below our terrace are his family’s land (and his animals) that he tends to religiously. Both of these neighbors regularly bestow us with gifts, in the form of fruit and vegetables and eggs and nuts, depending on the season and the daily harvest.

Sante in his olive grove

Sharing a beer with Pietro

A bottle of Pietro’s wine - obviously making me happy!

We do our best to reciprocate their generosity, and sometimes we turn their produce into a cooked or baked plate. Other times we simply exchange goodies, like trading (and sharing) a few craft beers for a bottle of Pietro’s homemade wine (which he makes in the basement and bottles in old 1.5-liter water bottles!).

Tomatoes and zucchini (including the flowers) become a frittata. Cherries become a pie of course. Got an extra surprise pumpkin? Soup or bread are the obvious solutions. Once we received a bowl of very ripe figs – that was a tough one, since there were so many that needed to be eaten subito – but a quick, sort of fake jam mixed into some other ingredients became a tasty (and less perishable) granola snack. A particular treat was datterini – a seasonal mini-tomato that made a fantastic pasta sauce.

And when life (in the form of our neighbor Sante) gives you lemons? Of course, make lemon cake.

One really challenging item came when our neighbor Sante invited me to come down to his olive grove to pick a bunch of black olives. I picked a kilo or so (a little over 2 pounds) and then wondered what to do with them. We pitted and diced them, and cooked them into a pork stew. When it was ready, we texted Sante and told him to stop by sometime in the next day or so to get a portion of this stew that we made. Two minutes later our doorbell rang – he didn’t want to wait!  

We always bring our neighbors a sample of whatever we’ve made with their gifts – well, assuming we didn’t screw it up that is – and they always receive it graciously. Often we feel pretty confident that it’s good, but we don’t always know if what we like will be palatable to Italian palates. Still, when our neighbor’s husband does the “yummy” gesture in response, we know it was a hit. (And once they even called one of Zen’s cakes “squisito” – exquisite!)

Zen's chocolate ricotta cake

We love our home, this town full of so many friendly and generous people. We feel really fortunate to be here.

On a side note: I feel like I won another lottery - getting to spend my life with Zeneba, who is so adept at (among other things) creating these goodies out of the raw bounty we are lucky to receive!

Livestock land and orchards below our balcony, overlooking the Tiber Valley