Most meals I cook generally start with onion, garlic, carrot, celery and fresh parsley sautéed gently in some extra virgin olive oil. With a glass of wine in one hand (that's if it's after 5pm) and a silicon spatula in the other I gently stir, wait and hope for inspiration. With two ravenous children chomping at the bit hurling dinner requests at me faster than the speed of light, I fossick through the pantry and fridge to see what else I can add to this finely chopped aromatic blend. Like a resounding gong, Hoover and Fussy cry out every three minutes or so wanting to know - 'what's for dinner Mama' and 'is it ready yet?'

The end result is greatly determined by how successful my reconnaissance mission was. Hence, dinner could be - thick minestrone, Maltese minestra, chicken, fish or lentil soup. Or a rich bolognaise or Napoli sauce that I can then toss through some fresh pasta. Maybe even a rich, flavoursome slow braised beef ragout or cassoulet if the children can hold out that long.

There is a method to this seeming madness, which in turn serves as a flavour base and foundation to most meals eaten in this house. The foundation of course is 'gli odori' which is the fancy name for that earthy, heady mix of finely chopped onion, garlic, carrot, celery and parsley sautéed in good extra virgin olive oil. I often throw in fresh rosemary, bay and thyme as I find that this particular flavour base elevates the most humble of ingredients to surprising greatness.




I first stumbled upon this basic culinary practice in many of Lorenza de Medici's and Elizabeth David's recipes. I quickly learnt that if it was good enough for Lorenza and Elizabeth then it was good enough for me. So I too decided to add this trick to my gastronomic repertoire with great results to my soups, sauces, ragouts and slow cooked meat dishes.  Hence, the flavour base that is achieved through the odori gives a similar result to a 'bouquet garni', the point of difference being that the herbs and aromatics in a bouquet garni are often wrapped in muslin and are then removed after cooking.

It was not until I recently re-read Frances Mayes book In Tuscany that I was reminded of that charming story about 'Odori' and was considerably amused about how poetic (you can almost hear the theme to Under a Tuscan Sun as you read it) Frances made my mundane dinner madness sound. Frances states that 'basic to several recipes is odori, that gift at the frutta e verdura into your shopping bag as you leave. With the odori, you make a trito, a mince of the vegetables, which are then sautéed in olive oil until softened'.



In support of this, Carole Counihan states in her book Around the Tuscan Table that 'greengrocers gave Odori for free to long standing clients, but others gave only a small bunch of parsley or basil to clients'. Much to my surprise my local greengrocer is now in the habit of tucking a few little surprises into my shopping bag as a way of thanking me for my loyal patronage. So I guess the moral to this little story is that it pays to shop local whether you're in Italy, Spain, Malta or Melbourne.