It took two months to get it, not counting the tries…..
But I did it: here is the Aglione Nero of the Val di Chiana.
The inspiration came from my Japanese friend Sumiyo Dan, a sixty-year-old looking twenty-year-old artist of great sensitivity.
Sumiyo, who is attentive to her diet, eats only nutritious and safe foods. When I write “nutritious” I mean rich in mineral salts, vitamins, antioxidants: all the micro-nutrients that have the power to improve our immune defenses. Black garlic is not lacking in her diet: a clove every morning. Don’t be alarmed, it doesn’t taste like garlic. Sumiyo says it’s like eating a plum. Sumiyo uses the one produced at home by her mother, a beautiful 82-year-old lady who sends it to her every month from Japan.
During the slow drying and maturation process, garlic retains its properties, including the antibiotic one, known since ancient times.
Alina – which gives the characteristic strong smell when garlic is fresh – is transformed into antioxidant substances – that is, capable of reducing the aging process.
No more the typical garlic flavor.
In the kitchen, black garlic can be reduced to a cream and added to mashed potatoes, sauces, roasts, risottos, spread on croutons: more or less the same use as fresh garlic but with different flavor results.
I wanted to “overdo it” (someone will say: as your usual …).
I was warned that aglione presents greater difficulties: first of all, longer times since the segments can reach a volume ten times that of a normal clove. The final consistency is softer: which I did not consider a defect, but rather a ease of use.
On the other hand, due to the higher quantity of water, there is a risk of molds so you have to be doubly careful during the very long process.
The Black Garlici is the result of the collaboration of three friends and soon L’Aglione Nero della Valdichiana will be marketed through our web channels.
Give us some time and the announcement will come.
I decided to do like Sumiyo: eat a small “plum” every morning. However, I will not fail to provide you with recipes. They will be published on the blog and will arrive in a small brochure to those who order our Aglione Nero.
In the meantime, how about a lesson at GiglioCooking to learn how to use it?
In January, Sunday 16.
An announcement will be published soon with more information and details.
I am waiting for you at school in Florence!
Marcella Ansaldo © 2021