Fratelli Ferrante

“Fratelli Ferrante”: good vibes – and good flavors in a glass jar!

There’s a sunny, beautiful island in Italy which contains a crossroads between culture and tasty recipes that need to be discovered. It is called Sicily. Ferrante brothers is a good way to experience the exploration of Sicilian taste and flavor.

When you walk along a path into the forest, or across the middle of a wild field, or along a beautiful, sunny and natural beach beside the sea, you can let yourself be enveloped by the flavors and scents of the aromatic plants and vegetables around you. And when your nose goes crazy for the wonderful aromas your brain begins to create recipes, it wants to cook. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have pans, oil, salt or a knife; sometimes the environment gives you the best raw ingredient when you understand that nature is a “en plein air” kitchen!

Perhaps moments like these inspired Tommaso and Stefano, the Ferrantes brothers, the owners of the “Fratelli Ferrante” company.

They come from Sicily, and in this land the enchanting Mediterranean winds meet the magic flavors of the mountains creating beautiful raw materials; when you eat Sicilian products, you want to preserve their original tastes, their natural shapes and flavors. That’s why this company is focused on the preparation and production of oils, vegetables, marmalade, conserves, preserves, pickles, and preserve seasonings. But, let’s let the main actors introduce themselves.

“Hello everybody, we are the Ferrantes brothers. Stefano is a gastronomist who got his degree at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, while Tommaso is an agronomist, graduated from the University of Tropical and Subtropical Sciences in Catania,” and they continue, ”We are from Sicily, land of sun, sea, strong traditions and hard roots, and of course a deep culture around food! Our parents always infused in us a love of nature and her best products. That’s why we decided to combine our knowledge and passion for good, authentic food, creating our laboratory where we reinvent tradition with our recipes. Here at Kaataa, we aim to show you Sicily through the use of native ingredients, processing them with a new touch to introduce you to old recipes in new clothes.

One of their best products is the “Caponata,” a marriage of vegetables like eggplants, bell peppers, onions, celery, and olives with lovely, gentle sweet and sour raisins to give complexity, and a handful of Mandorle di Noto–real Noto almonds–to add crunchiness and delight. The final, nice touch is a drop of Tonda Iblea cultivar extra virgin olive oil; it’s better if you try it!

Many secrets are hidden in the jars of these two brothers. First, the raw materials. For the acidity of their products they only use local vinegar or lemon juice from the area. The second secret, that now we share it with you is not a secret anymore, is the seasonality of the vegetable. There are specific periods, specific days in the year to get the vegetables, to work them and create the product. “If you pick ingredients during their right season,” Stefan says, “you’ll be sure about the tasty and intense flavor of the recipe. Once you pick them (all the picking, washing, and cutting of ingredients are done by hand) and process them, immediately the result is tasty and full of flavor, which only the right season of a vegetable or fruit can give you”