The herbs of Pitiana
Yarrow - (Achillea)
A common plant on grassy slopes, in fields and on verges.
Uses: This herb has tonic and stomatic properties, and is useful for stomach ache; the fresh juice is used on haemorrhoids. It was thought that chewing the leaves would firm the gums. The sharp-tasting leaves can add flavour to blander salads like garden lettuce or can be used in vegetable soups.
Sorrel - (Acetosella)
This little herb with clover-like leaves and white flowers blooming in May-June grows in woods and cool shady clearings.
Uses: The acidulous pungent-tasting leaves are used in mixed salads making them tastier.
Wild Asparagus - (Asparagina)
This grows in stony south-facing woods, and the tender turions which grow in spring are collected in bunched to be cooked like the cultivated variety, though their flavour is stronger.
Uses: This refined vegetable is served in season by some restaurants from April to May. It is also highly diuretic and should not be over-boiled, rather the tips should be steamed then served with lemon and oil, in omelettes, risottos and with cream on taglierini pasta.
Camomile - (Camomilla)
If you have never seen a wheatfield with poppies and camomile you have missed a sight which of all others under the sun sums up the beauty and healthiness of the countryside.
Uses: We all know the flavour of camomile tea, to be drunk when sleep evades us, but the flowers of this plant have tonic and antispasmodic properties. As well as a menstrual painkiller, women use it as a hair-lightening shampoo.
Sow - thistle - (Cicerbita)
A relative of our own lettuces, this is a necessary ingredient for a wild leaf salad. The tenderest plants must be selected otherwise the mouth may be pricked. Common to uncultivated fields and fields, the plant is gathered in spring before it goes to seed.
Uses: It was believed that eating this plant would increase maternal milk and favour a cheerful nature.
Dandelion - (Dente di Leone)
This very common field plant flowers in spring with bright yellow flowers which then become a ball of seeds to be scattered by the wind.
Uses: This is a medicinal plant whose roots have tonic and diuretic properties, as does the whole plant to a lesser degree. The plant is excellent in salads and is locally known as button radicchio; it can be used cooked, with a pleasant bitter flavour. The buds, or "buttons", can be preserved in vinegar. The roots were once toasted and used instead of coffee.
Juniper - (Ginepro)
This very common field plant flowers in spring with bright yellow flowers which then become a ball of seeds to be scattered by the wind.
Uses: This is a medicinal plant whose roots have tonic and diuretic properties, as does the whole plant to a lesser degree. The plant is excellent in salads and is locally known as button radicchio; it can be used cooked, with a pleasant bitter flavour. The buds, or "buttons", can be preserved in vinegar. The roots were once toasted and used instead of coffee.
Calamint - (Nepitella)
This aromatic herb is famously combined with porcini mushrooms joining two gifts of nature, one making the other digestible and providing its sole dressing.
Uses: Like mint, calamint aids digestion.
Salad burnet - (Salvastrella)
As well as being an excellent salad vegetable, this herb also has antihaemorrhage properties, its Latin name meaning absorber of blood. This little perennial plant is commonly found in fields and along country roads, preferring dry areas.
Uses: The plant is diuretic and refreshing, and should always be included in a spring mixed leaf salad. It was thought to have magic powers: if the root was brought into contact with the skin it would protect from the plague.
Mint - (Menta)
Mint bings to mind cool green summer drinks, the taste of toothpaste and the flow of a stream along which this aromatic plant grows.
Uses: Mint has expectorant and sedative qualities and is a good digestive infused in white wine or hot water. It can also be used to enrich salads or in the preparation of sauces, and all these will have stimulant and eupeptic properties.