Agriturismo Casa del Sole (Demo)
News & events
Closed for winter, reopening in March
The last service is Sunday 2 November, at lunch. After that the rooms and the whole house are closed until 15 March. It is not a break: it is when we do the things there is never time for in summer. This year we are redoing the barn roof and the bathrooms of the two first-floor rooms, and replanting the part of the grove left bare after January's wind. Spring can be booked from now, and it is worth doing: March and April fill early, especially around the public holidays. We answer messages during the closure too, usually the same day. If you have a date in mind, do write.
Autumn menu: truffle and mushrooms
The fileja changes with the season, and from mid-October come mushrooms from the Poro and black truffle from Pizzo — the real thing, foraged just above us, not the kind that arrives pre-sliced. The dish itself does not change: pasta rolled by hand on the ferretto, the way my grandmother made it, half an hour to fill a single tray. What changes is what goes on top. In summer it is ’nduja and tomato; now it is a mushroom sauce with a little butter and the truffle grated at the very last moment, at the table, because too much heat takes the aroma away. It stays on the menu until early November, as long as the mushrooms last. Do book for the weekend: we have twelve tables and at this time of year they fill.
The olive harvest has started
From late September we pick by hand, tree by tree, and press the same day: never more than six hours between the grove and the mill, which is what keeps the acidity low and the aroma intact. This year the oldest trees, the ones behind the house, have carried well. They are Ottobratica and Carolea, the two cultivars of the Vibo area: the first gives a sweet oil with a note of almond, the second is firmer, almost peppery at the back of the throat. Anyone joining a tasting in these weeks tastes the new oil, still cloudy, the way we eat it ourselves: on warm bread with a pinch of salt. From November it will be filtered and clearer, but it will not be the same thing.