This story starts with the meeting of my grandparents in what is my birthplace, Rocca Priora in Lazio.

Here the parents of my mother and father met, one coming from the north and the other from the south, thus linking my family, through an imaginary thread, to the stories and traditions of all of Italy.
Today we start from Calabria, which combines my life with that of a small medieval village in Locride, Grotteria, a village nestled on a hill overlooking the wonderful Ionian sea that breaks with its crystalline waters on its unique pebble beaches .
My connection with this land is strongly recalled by the sound of its unique and complicated dialect, which as a child I assimilated to a foreign language, and by the smells and flavours that I still have the opportunity to hear and savour.
The taste from the cooking hand of a Calabrian in the kitchen stands out in all the dishes she prepares: flavour, strong, decisive and spicy flavours are the perfect description of each dish prepared.

But I believe that the typical dishes of Calabria, even in their simplicity, seasoned with heart and passion are always transformed into a culinary masterpiece.
In my family and in the circle of our closest friends there is a recipe from my grandmother that  has become famous and, as much as we try to reproduce it following her advice, we remain of the opinion that, nobody prepares them like she prepares them!!

Calabrese stuffed aubergines, a recipe from the heart that talks about my story!

First we take the main protagonist of our recipe, the aubergines, cut them in half and boil them in water and salt.
While the pot is on the fire, in a bowl we put stale bread soaked in water, fresh basil cut with a knife, a generous handful of Parmesan and garlic cut into small pieces.
To our filling we must then add the eggs and continue to mix everything. At this point we take our shell of  peel from the aubergine and proceed with filling it.
Now we are ready to dip it in hot oil and fry our little masterpiece, which, once cooked, will be sprinkled with a veil of Parmesan and decorated with basil leaves ready to be tasted both hot and cold.

The variant of my Grandmother

The recipe can be modified as my grandmother does by adding minced meat to the filling ... and if we don't feel like frying we can bake our aubergines in the oven.
A dish to be tasted on any occasion that recalls the flavours of a magical land and makes us relive the memory of our origins!
See you next time we’ve cooked it!