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Home-grown taste of Italy

Susan Parsons

Sizzling: Vittorio Montebello cooking his pasta dish, penne alla campagnola, at his property near Bungendore.
Sizzling: Vittorio Montebello cooking his pasta dish, penne alla campagnola, at his property near Bungendore.Graham Tidy

Vittorio Montebello and I were introduced at the Dante Musica Viva concert at the High Court on March 16. A bass singer in the choir, he had just been banging the anvil in Verdi's Il Trovatore, but it was his vegetable garden that had us chatting.

Ten years ago, Montebello designed his home on a hectare of undulating countryside near Bungendore. A row of fruit trees curves round from the driveway including a nectarine, plum and apricot. A granny smith apple tree is laden with fruit and covered with netting to deter cockatoos and rosellas.

On a north-facing slope below the house, a large vegetable garden is filled with beans, white fennel grown for its bulb, lettuces and abundant capsicums. Rows of broad beans, peas and broccoli have been planted for springtime harvesting, and a low fence keeps out rabbits. Montebello has stored the largest home-harvested cache of vegetable seeds I've ever seen.

Vittorio Montebello, in his kitchen garden at his property near Bungendore, tending to his capsicum plot.
Vittorio Montebello, in his kitchen garden at his property near Bungendore, tending to his capsicum plot.Graham Tidy
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A separate berry patch is planted with gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries and grapes and it is covered to protect the fruit from wildlife.

Artichokes are growing on its perimeter. In a garden shed nearby, plaits of large red onions are being stored for winter and there are jars of dried cannellini beans and sun-dried basil and eight kilograms of fresh beans that are frozen for minestrone. Montebello is from Torino in Italy, and the 12 children in his family were raised in a farming community where vegetables were grown and cows, goats and chickens kept for survival. His father and sisters are good cooks and his brothers and sisters in Italy grow fruit and vegetables.

He trained in restaurants in Italy, where he ''started in the sink'' - and it was good experience because he could see people cooking and learn from them. In 1967, Montebello moved to Britain to work in Chatham, Kent. He moved to Broadstairs on the coast to work in an Italian restaurant for five years and then he came to Australia.

From 1983 to 2002 Montebello owned and cooked at La Roma restaurant in Queanbeyan. We were lucky, as guests at his home, to be offered lunch. The smells from the kitchen were mouthwatering.

Montebello cooked penne alla campagnola, a traditional Mediterranean dish in which all the autumnal vegetables except the mushrooms came from his own garden.

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Starting with Padthaway Estate extra virgin olive oil from South Australia, Montebello fried garlic, onions and diced bacon, to which he added diced zucchini and red capsicum, all cooked until ''coloured''. This was the base of the dish to which he added small pieces of broccoli and cauliflower and peas. The more vegetables you use, so the dish becomes richer. Add a touch of cream, 100 millilitres for 200 grams of pasta (the penne authentica was Casa Barelli from Aldi). Serve with parmesan (Auricchio's grana padano, which can be found in the Coles deli in Queanbeyan). A side salad of lettuce, tomato, home-pickled gherkins, sliced onion, Italian bread toasted with garlic butter, and a glass of merlot, accompanied the pasta. Drinking water, from a 100,000 litre tank, is filtered and boiled for the house.

Then there was dessert, the traditional arancia caramellata. Peel and remove pith from navel oranges, slice them and place in a bowl. Cut the rind into julienne strips, boil in a little water for three minutes, drain.

In a frying pan, cook white sugar to a caramel colour, add rind and cook until brownish.

Place the rind on the sliced oranges and let it sit for 24 hours so the caramel melts into the fruit. Serve with a splash of sambuca and coffee.

>> Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.

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