Il Rusticone
Appreciate serendipity? Walk down the street with me in the scenic city of Matera, Italy. Let’s pop into a sidewalk café and find joyous folks who love what they do and do it well and …and turn your afternoon into a pleasure.
Think it can’t happen. Read on…
Found one! Il Rusticone, near the old part of Matera. We got off the train, knowing little about Matera except it’s a national treasure of a town (Sassi di Matera), with a Troglodyte (cave dwellers) heritage that goes back possibly 6000 years. Plenty of time to write about that later.
Right now let’s stick to eating and drinking and counting ourselves lucky to have found some fabulous street food at Il Rusticone. Step through the door and Veronica greets you with a smile as bright as the Italian sun, even with a drenching rain making the old stone pedestrian street shine like glass.
You don’t have to speak a word of Italian to know you’ve come to the right place. It’s almost as if Veronica were welcoming guests to her home.
Although Il Ructicone offers a variety of selections, the four of us opt for sandwiches, with puccia, the local flat bread, toasted to a wonderful crustiness and filled with locally produced, naturally cured ham and bacon, cheeses and vegetables. Huge portions, which alone is not important, but when the bread and fillings grab your taste buds, they don’t let go. Conversation comes to a halt.
By the way, puccia is sandwich bread made from pizza dough.
But in Italy, lunch, even a street food lunch, is simply not eaten without wine. Of course we picked a local vintage. Veronica offered others, but her face lit up when we went local.
Super choice! The wine was rich and dark, with a fruity nose and such a round, romantic finish! So you may well ask, what the hell is a romantic finish?
Well, you see, counting Veronica, I was surrounded by four beautiful women, all of us drinking this nectar from the vineyard. We laughed, we joked. I asked if they wanted more wine. They all said, “Hell, yes!” See these four were not only beautiful, but also earthy. Only Veronica didn’t drink, but she had to do the pouring, which she did with such a wonderful flourish, I just couldn’t take my eyes off the round, fully formed goblets. Ah, wine goblets!
She couldn’t stop speaking with us and although I could barely understand, her smiles and laughter were the real things. Fortunately, two of my companions, the English mother and daughter I wrote of earlier, speak Italian, the mother fluently.
When it was time to visit the Troglodyte (and younger) parts of the city, we had to talk each other out of staying right were we were. After all, it was drizzling outside and Veronica clearly had more wine….
Should you ever get to Matera, whether it’s raining or not, drop in on Veronica at Il Rusticone to treat your inner Italian to the puccia and the luscious local wine!
What’s that? You can’t make it? Well, as an alternative, hop on the web site and eat your heart out!
A quick note on the wine: Made from Aglianico grapes grown on the eastern slope at the foot of the extinct volcano, Monte Vulture. The Tenute D'Auria vineyard is only about 25 acres, 10 hectares. Not sure if it's available in the U.S. Such a small vineyard!
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