Nuts, lentils, grapes, pomegranates and chili peppers are considered in Naples the five indispensable lucky charms to eat on New Year's Eve to propitiate the coming year. In France the number even multiplies to 13. But returning to the traditions of the Neapolitan tables at the end of the year, obviously of Bourbon derivation, it must be said that over the centuries dried fruit has always had a superstitious character. For the Romans it was a symbol auspicious to honor weddings. Always the Romans but before them also the Greeks attributed particular propitiatory power to lentils, which with their flattened shape ideally recalled coins and therefore foreshadowed, in a certain sense, future riches. A custom that lasted until medieval times and beyond was that of to give at the beginning of the new year, the purse, or a leather bag to be tied to the belt which contained, in fact, lentils that were supposed to be transformed into coins for the whole year. TOChili pepper also has a long history: since it was landed in Europe, from the Caravels of Christopher Columbus, it has been adopted in Southern Italy to defend against the evil eye (custom inherited from the South American people who made amulets and talismans with chili peppers capable of fighting negativity) but in the southern countryside they gave it another added value: that of prevent marital infidelity. Also the grape has great auspicious properties, as well as lentils, recalls the meaning of coins and gold, and for this reason it is an indispensable component of Christmas tables and New Year's dinners, and from Spain came the habit, for Italian lovers, to eat 12 berries, one for each month to come, promising each other eternal love.
He said it too Muhammad "Eat the pomegranate will keep you away from envy and hatred", but even before the Prophet, this fruit was appreciated by the Egyptians and considered by the Greeks a plant sacred to Juno and Venus. Roman brides also used to weave pomegranate branches in their hair, as a symbol of fertility and wealth.
Having said this premise, it is evident that it cannot be missing from the year-end tables the "Folloviello" Sorrentino. Because if there are five superstitious Neapolitan products, Folloviello or “Follarello” or “Fogliarello” is a great concentrate.
It looks like a vegetable bundle tied with raffia threads, a green casket which, like a pandora's box, contains everything that can be hoped for as beautiful and good for the new year. The wrapper is composed of tightly packed citrus leaves, the inside contains a filling of moscatella raisins, dried figs, candied orange peel, cut into cubes.
The preparation procedure calls for the grapes or figs to be boiled in white wine and subsequently mixed with candied orange and subsequently wrapped in lemon leaves, which are particularly large in the peninsula because the trees here are centuries old, using a thread made of vegetable fiber.
Probably the name of the follovielli comes from the Latin folium volvere (to wrap in leaves) or from "follare", that is to say "press", as the bundles of leaves are tied very tightly so as not to let out the perfumed liquid that is created with the drying and above all the aroma and the fantastic flavor that the leaves of heated lemons give the filling thanks to the oils that spread with the heat inside the package, making a mountain of flavors explode in the mouth. But there is also a third theory that would derive the name from "folliculus", a word that means bag, shell used to store the Fòllaro, which historically is the name of a bronze or copper coin, minted in Salerno under the reign Norman of Roberto il Guiscardo and beaten in Sorrento under the Duke Sergius II. The transformation of the name from Follaro to "Follariello" also expressed in the diminutive the meaning of the small tasty and fragrant bundle.
Anyway, the Follovielli, which date back to Roman times, but at the time, they were packaged with vine or plane tree leaves, they are still used today in the current use of the festivities of the Sorrento peninsula and are accompanied by walnuts, hazelnuts, dried figs, dried chestnuts and the like, defined in ancient times as a whole "sciòsciole", a slang that has been forgotten, which stands for things to munch on with relatives and friends.
To say Folloviello today is to say Deia, a small artisan company in Piano di Sorrento whose name runs jealously from gourmet to gourmet, and is passed on to friends as we pass information on something we have discovered and want to keep intact from any form of commercial contamination.
A few square meters for the confectionery and ice cream parlor (take-away only, they don't serve ice cream cones and this says a lot about their cultural background) the family-run company is located in a small alley, Via Cavoniello 10, which is difficult to locate and which comes out on Corso d'Italia in Piano di Sorrento. Today the company is led by the Iaccarino brothers, Giovanni and Aldo, who inherited from their father, a former wholesaler of fruit and vegetables, fruit and vegetables, a business selling dried figs and other Christmas items such as nuts and dates. The company was founded in 1984 but Giovanni Iaccarino, the eldest son, who took over in 1996 gave it a strong acceleration towards quality confectionery. He travels, informs himself, gains rapid knowledge, rather than the products and raw materials with which he grew up, of the artisan manufacturing processes. Dried figs, once sold without distinction in bulk, by weight, now become small masterpieces of flavours, are combined with various ingredients and spices and subjected to refined processes, all strictly manual, with or without chocolate. He also studies elegant forms of packaging that embellish the contents. At the same time he concentrates on ice cream making, his old passion, "a much more complex thing, he says, in which one never stops perfecting himself" he attends specialization courses at Carpigiani Gelato University, the most important ice cream school in Italy, a point of reference for ice cream makers, entrepreneurs, chefs and pastry chefs, attended by more than 2000 people from all over the world who attend lessons in Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese and Russian, held by the great masters of Italian ice cream.
As far as raw materials are concerned, Giovanni declares without hesitation that the 0 Km is a very perceived option in his company, but absolute quality is instead the imperative. “The raw materials we use are researched on the basis of their goodness for their use, without running after big names or principals, or if a product is valid for our realization and the result is optimal, we take that one”. And so, in his constant search for products in Italy and abroad, he discovered a quality of figs in Turkey which for him - who knows about it - are the "world number one", and for Almonds he found in the Malaga area, in Spain, an extraordinary producer.
Obviously citrus fruits, walnuts, Sorrento black cherries, are not questioned in the least, the intensity of flavor they take on the coast is unique and unbeatable and it is what gives added value to their processing.
Her Follovielli are a registered trademark covered by copyright. To crown the "folloviello», Sorrento, among the greedy deposits of «midday eating», and thus consecrate it in the heritage of flavors of Southern Italy, there is also a publication edited by Davide Paolini.
«For our products we use Pantelleria grapes - Giovanni explains - which, thanks to their properties, allows us to obtain a high quality product. It is also possible to use grapes from Argentina, but with less pleasing results for the most demanding palates. The grapes arrive in our laboratory already dried. Then it is cooked for a few minutes in containers with white wine brought to the boil». The procedure continues, again, with the cooling of the grapes and mixing with very fine pieces of candied orange. The grape and orange paste thus obtained is then wrapped in lemon leaves intertwined in a herringbone pattern and finally wrapped in raffia ribbons. The grape roll is now ready for one last step in the oven. What is certain is that the Folloviello, like the Treccia di Sorrento, the Provolone del Monaco from the Lattari mountains, the Femminiello lemon, the blonde oranges, the walnuts and oil, the Crapolla shrimps represents a gastronomic identity and a unique heritage of flavors of its kind and not imitable.
In addition to the Folloviellis, the small laboratory in Via Cavoniello in Piano di Sorrento also produces an infinite quantity of Dried figs – are their roots – in the most diverse combinations. THU Giovanni's imagination knows no bounds. And we can find natural dried figs, natural stuffed with walnut or almond, floured dried figs, flavored cooked dried figs, almond-flavored cooked dried figs, flavored and stuffed cooked figs in pairs with toasted almonds, or with walnut kernels, or with toasted hazelnut, almond cooked figs covered in dark or white chocolate, natural figs covered in dark chocolate garnished with pearled almonds, or covered in white chocolate garnished with toasted almonds, natural figs covered in white chocolate and garnished with candied cherry, or still fig pie covered in dark chocolate garnished with a candid orange stick. And you can go on for a long time with all the dehydrated local and international fruit. Giovanni's professionalism is also found in both simple and luxury packaging, which always shows the start and end date of production as well as the expiration date to be sure of being able to enjoy all their concentrated aromas. And of course they are in production all the sweets of the Neapolitan Christmas tradition, the pinch of almonds, the sapienze, the Lentens, the roccocò and the walnut biscuits In short, if you want to celebrate the New Year by combining taste and good luck at Giovanni's, you'll be spoiled for choice.
Deia Snc
Sorrento Artisan Sweets
Via Cavoniello, 10,
80063 Piano di Sorrento NA
Phone: 081 532 1577
