[Sca-cooks] U salatura

[Christiane]

Quite a awhile ago, I had described a dish my aunt made for our Christmas Eve dinners; "salatura," composed of green tomatoes, capers, celery, olives, and little green round hot peppers, and preserved in salt and olive oil. She had told me that my Sicilian great-grandmother had made it.

Well, after hunting around after awhile, I found out that it's actually Calabrian, not Sicilian:

http://aore12.blogspot.com/2009/10/provviste-calabresi-u-salatura.html

I am wondering if she was referring to my grandfather's mother (he was Calabrian, from the province of Cantanzaro), because her salatura is almost exactly like the one here in composition. My aunt leaves out the eggplant, though. 

I'm assuming the stone at the top of the container is to keep the lid from blowing off, as the stuff does ferment a bit.

Because of the ingredients, the earliest this recipe could possibly date to is the very late 17th century or early 18th century; but the preservation method was probably the same or very similar in period. Also note that some regions of Calabria use salt and vinegar for their salatura (this blogger notes a recipe from Squillace, a region near Naples).

YIS,

Adelisa de Salernum