Let's Get Wild. A Mind Opening Q+A with Edoardo Coccia from his Family's Organic Farm in Sabina.
We’re talking about La Crisalide Essential Oils and their edible wild plant experiences with inspirational words and a vegan tart Tatin from his mother-in-law Patrizia Galloni.
Welcome to Green Italian Kitchen’s new series Coming to the Table where traditional food and craft artisans, producers and passionate individuals between Italy and Ireland’s rural (and sometimes not so rural) spaces are invited to share their inspirational stories and favourite recipes. People who work with love and passion every day to nourish and heal our world.
We live in a time where we are becoming more connected to and through digital communities, while simultaneously losing touch with the people who live around us in real time. Real life. Human. Connection. We used to work, live and love in community and it’s a major contributor to our longevity. We are interconnected and interdependent beings designed to co-exist this way.
Food and story are an intrinsic part of who we are and weave us together as one in the blanket of humanity. Story and its various mediums are tens of thousands of years old. First etched into elements of nature, they have evolved to be told around the fire, at the table, on a canvas and more recent times through the screen.
This series and so much of what I am passionate about are motivated by my love of people and their stories. I like telling them, sharing them, listening to them and connecting people through them. Story is how we understand and inspire. Those of us with Irish DNA are partial to it, but this desire for story is something that is encoded in us all.
While this series is experienced in its digital form, I hope it will inspire readers to go and explore the stories of the artisans, producers and everyday people who live within their communities and beyond. I long to know more about the stories that exist within these two spaces that I call home and I hope you will too.
I opened the cover of this story when I first visited Edoardo’s laboratory in August 2022. My neighbour, pal and fellow traditional food lover Alessandra insisted that I would be taken by this location and she was right. The mystical home of Crisalide ‘chrysalis’ Essential Oils, is a kind of botanical Narnia located in the hills surrounding Rieti’s unique agricultural plain known as the Holy Valley. With a clear view of Mount Terminillo and a pleasant floral aroma permeating the air this bohemian alchemist’s space is relaxed and inviting. It is hard not to be taken by the worn volumes of books, tools, and symbolic elements of nature which line the shelves. Not to mention the corners where Edoardo processes his pure essential oils which I have been using ever since.
I recently had the pleasure of joining one of Crisalide’s spontaneous herb courses led by Edoardo’s mother-in-law Patrizia Galloni which welcomes guests into her wild world of edible plants. It was an incredibly mind-opening experience attended by foragers of every level where we focused on identifying 6 herbs subclassed as Cichorioideae (familiar members of Cichorioideae include lettuce, dandelions, and chicory).
One can often spot local women in green fields bending over in their aprons with kitchen knives and plastic bags in hand to gather the ‘cicoria selvatica di campo’ or wild chicory which features heavily in the typical kitchen of Lazio. Patrizia’s lens, fount of knowledge and ‘way of seeing’ completely reframed this green space helping us understand the family members that grow around this wild chicory that is more commonly known. Her detailed guides provide a studied glance into what seems to be an infinite world, and it is mind-boggling to think about how our ancestors once had an innate understanding of the abundant edible landscape that surrounds us.
As part of the experience, we enjoyed a slow and very unique spontaneous herb-based ‘pranzo’ in the shade of an old oak tree. With 14 unique tastes across a typical Italian menu, Patrizia’s husband Pietro lovingly prepared what one might have dared to compare to a kind of wild edible wedding banquet. This vegan tarte Tatin which Patrizia demonstrated in her home later that afternoon was among those dishes and she has kindly shared the recipe with Green Italian’s Kitchen’s readers. I am thankful to have experienced Patrizia’s humble aura and generosity. She holds the keys to this magic world in her heart and I hope we can get to know her better in the future.
“We have chosen to cultivate, to dedicate ourselves to aromatic plants... and to enclose their secrets in a drop. We follow our plants at every stage of their development, reducing our intervention to a minimum. Processing and harvesting take place manually, and respecting natural cycles and times. The steam extractions are carried out with a system designed by us, designed to obtain a complete essential oil that is consistently free from adulteration or alterations.”
Green Italian Kitchen - Can you tell us a little about yourself and your family?
Edoardo Coccia - Certainly, the nucleus of our family is made up of 4 people, Emily and Elettra, Sara and I. Our two girls are 9 and 13 years old respectively, as often happens two extremely different personalities, the older one very heady, while the smaller one is more physical. Both are often playing among the lavender and help me especially in the harvesting and in the markets that we occasionally have.
Sara, my wife and life partner, comes from an artistic background and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in painting. She has a sensitivity and a ‘hand’ that brings beauty. We created ‘La Crisalide Oli Essenziale’ together, although, in addition to our activity, she continues to express her art through tattoos, you can find her on Instagram as sara_pinnalata, it is obvious that plants are one of her favourite subjects.
I, on the other hand, have had a rather varied life. I have ventured into associations for years, working both in the social and artistic fields. In 2004 I created a liquor factory with a friend, ‘Mucilla 2004’, where starting from the cultivation of plants we made, and still make them.
GIT: Why the name Crisalide?
EC: The chrysalis is where the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly occurs, and the transformation from plant to essential oil occurs at the chrysalis.
GIT: Can you tell us about your business and how it developed?
EC: In the liquor factory I had the opportunity to understand the beneficial value of plants, and in that period, Sara and I began to create a new small agricultural company, where the cultivation of aromatic and medicinal plants would be accompanied by a laboratory in which to extract essential oils.
In 2009 we began our new adventure by planting and restoring a small house to create a small laboratory. The first ten years were a process of taking measures, and we moved to Cerveteri near Rome where I worked on a farm and we continued to follow our dream from a distance.
In 2019 ‘La Crisalide Oli Essenziale’ became our main activity.
In recent years, we have planted over 6 hectares of aromatic and medicinal plants, creating around ten essential oils. We also felt the need to share our knowledge by organizing courses.
GIT: What was your inspiration?
EC: My inspiration certainly comes from my family of origin. I have two parents who are eclectic and curious agricultural experts. My well-being involves a profound relationship with nature and doing, and the fascination I have always had for the alchemical world and ethno-anthropological traditions did the rest.
GIT: What are your primary business activities?
EC: There are many activities. On the purely agricultural side, we follow our crops from seed and self-produced cuttings. We then move on to planting, maintenance, and pruning up to harvest time.
Once the part of the plant that interests us has been harvested, there is the extraction, in a steam current, of the essential oils followed by bottling, promotion and sale.
The need to share our acquired knowledge leads us to organize courses aimed mainly at essential oils.
I met Antonietta Spata in my training path related to essential oils and their use. We now collaborate on courses inspired by basic notions, emotional work, and the use of essential oils linked to Chinese medicine.
Another course we organise is linked to alimurgy and is led by Patrizia Galloni, Sara's mother.
The term alimurgy was first used in 1763 by Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, former director of the Botanical Garden of Florence, to refer to wild, edible plant species.
Wild plants enrich the diet with tastes and flavours, stimulate the secretion of gastric juices, and provide vitamins, mineral salts and fibre. They also lend themselves to numerous uses, since they can be eaten raw in salads, cooked in soups or as vegetables, while others serve as spices and some use their flowers to garnish dishes. - University Museum System of the collections of the University of Florence
GIT: What will the year be like for you?
EC: This will be a year of discoveries and bets.
Like every year we will start with the rosemary harvest and a basic course on essential oils and one on spontaneous plants, but we are trying to create a new structure to redefine the laboratory with a dryer. It will be a great new project.
We are also carrying out activities with young people and children in schools and developing projects with visually impaired children.
GIT: What motivates you and what are your personal and professional goals?
EC: My daily motivation is certainly my passion for plants and nature in general as well as the knowledge and synergistic living between man and nature. On a personal level, there is a desire and need linked to the transmission of conscious values to be passed on to our daughters and to the generations to come, through example.
GIT: Why should people know about your business and how does it benefit individuals and the community?
EC: In terms of wild foods and essential oils, the rediscovery of ancient practices allows us to experience modernity with a different awareness. The attention that the use of essential oils develops around the sense of smell increases self-perception, and this facilitates inner listening. By looking inward we can develop new ways of being, more suited to what does us good. Furthermore, essential oils help to respond to all the small problems that affect our daily living, from small pains to aesthetic well-being everything can be supported with essential oils and hydrolates.
Furthermore, the attention to cultivation "beyond" organic and the recognition of crops within a complex and integrated ecosystem projects a different agricultural attitude. Recognizing and collecting spontaneous plants allows our diet to vary and take on different substances or those offered in different ways by nature. Rediscovering ancient recipes and reworking them with current sensitivity is an action that is both creative and healthy. Ultimately, if the individual is well, the entire society benefits.
GIT: What would you like to see for the future of our area?
EC: Our territory which is rich in history, traditions and fortunately not too anthropomorphised, is a resource for those who live it. It would be nice to share our riches with people from different places because it is always through encounters that we compare and evolve.
I would very much like conscious tourism to become the means through which this territory can be valorised.
GIT: What will you eat this spring? What herbs are you using and why?
EC: I am fortunate to have a mother-in-law like Patrizia and an eclectic chef like Pietro, as her husband. It allows me to enjoy a varied and imaginative diet from a nutritional point of view. At this point, I would have Patrizia speak directly.
Patrizia: In this period I am using and collecting various edible wild herbs such as Nettle (Urtica dioica), Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), the common chicory (Cichorium intibus), the rush chicory (Hypochaeris rootsata), the smooth chicory (Hypochaeris glabra), the silene (Silene vulgaris), the white silene (Silene alba), the lightning thistle (Carduus hydrocephalus), the garlic triquestrum (Allium triquetrum), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), common aspragine (Picris hieracioides S. lattaiola), burdock (Arctium lappa), sour rennet (Galium aparine), chickweed (Stellaria media), the cockscomb or field chrysanthemum (Glebionis segetum), the spotted and purple false nettle (Lamium maculatum and Lamium purpureum), the poppy (Papaver rhoeas), the lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis), the purple rocket (Diplotaxis erucoides) and still others.
I use these wild herbs because in this way I feel in tune with nature, while I collect them I think of my ancestors (dearly deceased) who collected them before me (even if they are not the ones that I know today) furthermore it is a way for me to meditate. All these plants then offer many useful properties, they are rich in vitamins, antioxidants, omega 3, mucilage etc.
GIT: How can people learn more about integrating wild foods into their eating routine? What are the advantages and in your opinion is it accessible to everyone? If so, how?
Patrizia: People can learn by attending courses on wild edible herbs, trees and fruits. Following the courses allows you to collect this spontaneous food in its natural environment safely for use in modern human nutrition (it is a fascinating and useful practice also called foraging).
The practice of foraging brings benefits both for the action of harvesting (immersing yourself in nature) and for the nutrients contained in the leaves and flowers of edible wild plants which are often rich in antioxidants which have an anti-inflammatory action, protecting the cardiovascular system, reducing oxidative stress, lowering cholesterol, reducing tension and stress, furthermore, the wild herbs collected often have a detoxifying, purifying and diuretic function.
This practice is accessible to everyone as it is possible to attend a course that gives the fundamental information and then harvest from our large ‘natural garden’.
GIT: What role do they play in traditional local cuisine?
Patrizia: In the countryside of Contigliano and Lazio, hundreds of edible herbs grow spontaneously and are often considered weeds. They have beneficial properties for health being rich in substances important for our body.
In the past, they were widely used in traditional local home cooking. I still use them as a filling for ravioli, cassoni (filling for traditional flatbread), omelettes, rustic savoury pies, focaccia and pizza or as an accompaniment to fish, meat or cheese-based dishes. Furthermore, chicory, nettle and mallow have been reevaluated and are now used in local restaurants.
GIT: What makes Sabina and Rieti special compared to other regions of Italy. Why should people visit us and what is your vision of our ideal future?
EC: Every Italian region, if not every province, has peculiar characteristics that make it a microcosm. From the cuisine with specific culinary traditions to the landscape, every reality in Italy is extremely fascinating, a discovery at every turn.
Rieti and Sabina are no exception. Starting from the hills that become increasingly steeper away from Rome up to the Terminillo massif and then beyond the Laga mountains, to the pristine lakes and rivers that descend from them. There is a charm steeped in villages from the Roman or Medieval and Renaissance times, scented by traditional cuisine enhanced by the excellent extra virgin olive oil that seasons them.
Everywhere the original richness of the province of Rieti is expressed in a clear and sincere way, penetrated into every fibre by the vibrant mystical atmosphere that induced Saint Francis to stay for a long time in the Rieti valley.
What I hope for this territory is a destiny linked to healthy tourism that enhances the peculiarities of the territory without distorting its beauty.
GIT: What are the top 5 locations people should visit when they come to Rieti?
EC: Ours is a territory to which I am strongly attached and I believe that there are many attractions for those who wish to travel its streets. If I have to reduce the places to 5, there are (1) The Franciscan Sanctuaries where mystical natural beauty and history are stubbornly intertwined. (2) The Rascino plateau, which hidden among the mountains shows a wild nature, where you can also meet eagles and griffins. (3) The Natural Reserve of the Lungo and Ripasottile Lakes where agricultural life is combined with a reserve rich in fauna and flora, and where some observation points allow customers to see and enjoy the sight of lake birds.
Among the villages the choice is complicated, there are many, all seductive and fascinating, (4) I cannot help but suggest the village where I live, Contigliano, with its wavy streets that follow the natural profile of the hill on which it stands, among palaces and rich houses of history marked by the architectural styles that have alternated over the years.
Another village worth seeing is (5) Collalto Sabino, where from a castle worthy of a fairytale, cobbled streets unravel between balconies full of flowers.
How can people get involved with your business and buy your products?
The best way to get involved is certainly to come and visit us, to share the harvesting days with us, to do extractions together or to take part in one of our courses. But for those who are far away, it is possible to meet us by ordering our essential oils online to discover our essence. We have a website www.lacrisalideoliessenziale.com. It is also possible to follow our social networks, you can find us both on Facebook and Instagram.
What recipe can you recommend for this time of year?
I am particularly excited about the vegan béchamel or ‘velvety sauce’ and vegan olive oil based shortcut pastry used here - both of which can be applied to a world of regional Italian recipes. Spelt is not a gluten-free flour, but Patrizia has assured me that we can easily use gluten-free whole-grain flour such as buckwheat or brown rice as a substitute in both preparations for a good result.
Tarte Tatin with Wild Herbs + Potatoes
Tarte tatin alle erbe di campo e patate di Pietro and Patrizia
V/DF/GF
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
Olive Oil Shortcrust Brisée
200g spelt flour or brown rice/buckwheat flour as GF subs
40g extra virgin olive oil
80g water
Sea or lemon-flavored salt
Filling
700g wild herbs
350g steamed potatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea or nettle-flavored salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Velvety Sauce
50g of spelt flour or brown rice/buckwheat flour as GF subs, lightly toasted
50g of extra virgin olive oil
500g of vegetable broth simmered with wild herbs
Sea or mixed flavoured salt; nettle (Urtica dioica), spotted lame (Laminum maculatum) and/or triquetrum garlic (Allium triquetrum)
Nutmeg
Grated Parmigiano or vegetable alternative
To Serve
Chopped pistachios, hazelnuts or walnuts
Method:
Add the olive oil and water to a large bowl. Mix the salt into the flour and slowly add them to the bowl gently working the ingredients together with your hands. Bring the mixture together into a ball of dough without overworking it and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Prepare the velvety sauce by gently warming the oil in a saucepan then add the flour constantly stirring with a whisk or wooden spoon. Continue stirring over low heat until the mixture lightly browns then slowly add the vegetable broth. Season with grated nutmeg, flavoured salt and grated Parmigiano. Keep warm.
Brown the already steamed potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges, in a pan with extra virgin olive oil and season them with salt.
Boil the cleaned and washed wild herbs for 5 minutes. Then sauté them in a pan with extra virgin olive oil and garlic. Season them with a pinch of sea or nettle-flavoured salt.
Turn the oven to 180°C. Then roll out the shortcrust pastry to 1⁄2 cm thick. Line a round cake pan of 30/32 cm in diameter with oiled baking paper. Arrange the potatoes and wild herbs in a circular pattern and drizzle with olive oil. Place the thinly rolled-out disc of shortcrust pastry on top. Place in the oven and cook for 30 minutes, then place under the grill for 3 minutes.
Flip onto a serving plate and dress the tart with the velvety sauce and chopped nuts.
Notes:
Patrizia and Pietro used a combination of 12 wild herbs in the recipe. Ideally, it would be wonderful for you to use as many as you can, but vegetables such as spinach and chard will work here as well. Mixed greens are always a winner.
