Statistical data tell us that the past holidays were above all a … feast for the table. After two years of covid locked up at home, people have regained the taste for going out for lunch or dinner in the name of good food. But they have also been feasts of gastronomic excesses and in view of the approaching carnival tables full of fried foods, elaborate dishes and desserts, it is good - as the doctors suggest - get a little 'regime and lighten the body. But it is not necessary to resort to drastic treatments. Enough eliminate excess animal fats, and devote oneself to a natural diet based on vegetables that are able to provide our body with all the nutritional properties fundamental to our health, which are rich in fiber, mineral salts and vitamins.
It comes to the way these days the publication of "my vegetable world, 60 recipes from the garden to the table" by starred chef Peppe Guida, published by Red shrimp. Guide, one of the best known and most appreciated faces on TV, chef and patron of theAntica Osteria Nonna Rosa in Vico Equense, on which the has been shining for years Michelin star, fierally self-taught, he manages to sublimely combine the highest cuisine with the simplicity of recipes inspired by tradition, that of the women in his family, starting from Nonna Rosa, mother and inspiring muse who gave the name to his two establishments: the starred one, down in Vico Equense, where you experience a muffled atmosphere from a large national and international public and the more genuinely popular-territorial, up in Montechiaro, Villa Rosa, from which you can enjoy an exciting view of a corner of the Sorrento coast. Here the chef has realized a long-held dream: a restaurant that thrives on seasonality of his garden, where you eat – as they once said – what the convent passes, or rather a cuisine strongly linked to the products of the coast that Guida personally takes care of, a place where silence and breathtaking nature meet which over time has transformed into a small and comfortable B&B, with great attention to detail, and in a restaurant serving traditional Campania cuisine, elegant in its simplicity.
This book is therefore for lovers of the vegetable world a book in which the chef has condensed gods advice on how to compose a cuisine that values vegetables and fruit their goodness their peculiarity linked above all to the here and now to the moment to the place and the world of cultivation. Because – explains Peppe Guida – the first secret to making a great vegetable dish is to have a great vegetable, there is no escaping it.
“Those who are accustomed to consuming fruit and vegetables that pass through the huge distribution chains of large-scale distribution, which arrive from the other side of the world, which spend weeks in storage refrigerators, do not know or have forgotten what the true flavor of vegetables is: I am well aware that not everyone can have the good fortune I have, that is, to have a vegetable garden and live in a land blessed by climate and characteristics, but we can all buy locally from producers what the season offers in the areas where we live". The invitation is therefore a choose local varieties that may be disappearing, in doing so you help biodiversity and you can discover flavors. The secret is to reorganize your desires by not necessarily looking for zucchini when it's 5 degrees outside but you also need to avoid flattening on what we know best for fear of taking risks: every season has a story to tell it's up to us to seize the opportunity fishing in the great poor popular gastronomic heritage present in every Italian region.
“Green beans and tomatoes, figs and onions, cauliflower and pepper: often – observes the chef – at the base of a successful dish there isdeep alchemy between vegetables fruit herbs. Some pairings such as tomato and basil or tomato and oregano are now essential, they are so deeply rooted in our memory of flavors but if we think carefully about There are many surprises that the plant world can reserve in a sort of pairing guide, for example, I tell you that the delicious pumpkin alone goes perfectly with bean and chickpea soups but also sautéed with black cabbage for a tasty side dish or combined with fresh and dried peppers it takes on all new nuances . As some traditional recipes tell us, chestnuts enter perfectly in legume soups for their sweetness and consistency. "Prince in flavoring dishes is garlic, I love it very much - says Guida - in combination with raw basil, Genoese pesto docet, it is being cooked for a fresh tomato sauce in marriage with parsley immediately recalls seafood cuisine - this is why the Neapolitans created pasta with fujute clams – but it also makes the perfect base for browning mushrooms. The apple – the chef still suggests – can be used to enrich a salad, perhaps the classic one with spinach and walnuts, but also in more creative compositions, when cooked, try placing it in a garden in a jardiniere and the day will end there”. The possible and unusual combinations seem limitless in the cuisine proposed by the chef. And so it turns out that melon goes perfectly with mint in a fruit salad but can also be used for the base of a scapece just as watermelon can easily be a savory side dish seasoned with oil, salt and basil and a little onion red. And if it is true that the classic tomato salad is very good in itself with oil and aromatic herbs, it is also true that it can be enriched with cucumber or onion. But it is also possible to marry it with the scents of a fruit such as strawberry or peach. And then unexpected frontiers open up.
From Peppe Guida's book we have chosen two recipes that are easy to make but of great taste and effect.

The recipe of the coppery tomato as a caprese ravioli
ingredients for four people
12 copper tomatoes
300 grams of fresh caciotta
a clove of garlic
stale bread crumbs
Grated Parmesan cheese
marjoram
extra virgin olive oil
pepper
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Method
Chop the caciotta and marjoram and mix them with grated Parmesan and a pinch of pepper. Empty the tomatoes from the lower part by removing a piece of the cap at the base and using a corer and a teaspoon. Sprinkle the inside with salt and bread crumbs and fill them with the prepared filling. Create a cap with a piece of bread crust, then place them upside down on a baking tray covered with parchment paper, sprinkling them with garlic flakes, mixed aromatic herbs, a pinch of salt and oil, cook in the oven at 200° for 10, 15 minutes.
The recipe of zucchini in purgatory

Eggs in purgatory are an ancient Neapolitan recipe, so called because they recall the colors of the white souls of the "priatorio" who escaped the infernal flames. In the world there are other similar dishes that combine egg and tomato such as the Maghreb Shakshuka or the Mexican Huevos rancheros
Ingredients for four people
Four courgettes
700 grams of tomato sauce
Four eggs
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
a clove of garlic
pepper
extra virgin olive oil
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Seed oil for frying
Method
cut the courgettes into large pieces and fry them in deep, boiling oil for two minutes, drain them on absorbent paper, then brown them in a pan with oil and a cut clove. Add the tomato purée, seasoning with salt. When everything is blended open a new intimate for each diner. Cook for a few minutes and serve with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan.