Herbs, flowers, sprouts & micro-vegetables (Stefano Masanti, Stefano Ciabarri)

Italian Import. In Italian.

The custom of gathering plants for nutrition united the primitive peoples of the most diverse latitudes. Today, eating the delicacies offered by the fields and woods has become a privilege with complex nuances. Safeguarding fragile ecosystems and outings with a basket in hand are not always compatible. Fortunately, there are enlightened botanists and farmers who have found ways to offer cultivated alternatives of many herbs and aromatic plants as well as sprouts and micro-vegetables with surprising characteristics. 

Spurred on by a range of new ingredients just a click away and a clientele ready to welcome more plant-focused dishes, chefs Stefano Masanti and Stefano Ciabarri welcomed the green wave with great enthusiasm. In these pages they offer dishes based on familiar and unfamiliar herbs and plants. They use herbs, flowers, sprouts and micro-vegetables for memorable finishes, but also to give the dishes particular organoleptic effects. Herbal guacamole, potato tacos and Cress® brocco, Violet risotto, Borage and courgette cream lasagnette, Verbena mackerel, Lemon rabbit, ginger and nasturtium, Peach blossom cheesecake, Lavender pear tart ... from appetizer to dessert it is a hymn to nature.