Vegetables and fruit

When shopping for vegetables and fruit, it is always a good idea to scout around first in order to see which is the best produce and to see what is newly in season. One of the pleasantest fruit and vegetable markets that I know takes place at Porta Palazzo in Turin. Here you can find an astounding variety of northern specialities as well as other wonderful vegetables introduced by southerners, especially those from Puglia, Sicily and Calabria. Owing to the influx of immigrants bringing with them from the south the basic ingredients of their home cooking, the people of northern Italy have become accustomed to using vegetables that did not appear in traditional Piedmontese gastronomy. The same adaptability is, of course, being displayed by the immigrants, in their use of local northern ingredients. A similar development has become increasingly noticeable in other large cosmopolitan communities, especially London, New York and Paris. In my view, the greater the choice of ingredients available the more exciting and interesting the preparation of any meal becomes.