The secret ingredient of marmellata: silence

Legally, “marmalade” is made with just citrus fruit, but the Italian equivalent, marmellata, has always been used to cover all manner of jams. Whether homemade or not, jam is a companion of sweet adventures for everyone; it is the very symbol of breakfast, comprising a good slice of toast, a little butter, preferably from a high Alpine meadow, and a spoonful of this shiny mixture with pieces of fruit!

Better if handmade, made with orchard and wild fruits, or by adding herbs or spices in salty versions to eat with cheeses. In any case, a jam is the result of patient work and tradition. I produce it, but I never disdain new recipes and traditions, so I shall now take you to the Benedictine Sisters of the Convent of Santa Maria Annunciata in the small village of Poffabro, one of the most beautiful of Italy, in Val Colvera, a few kilometres from my home.

First, I take a stroll through the lanes and amid the stone houses, with their galleries and geraniums on the balconies, some old polenta pans hanging on the walls as ornament and, at Christmas, when every house and courtyard hosts one of the famous cribs made with all sorts of materials, including recycled ones, Poffabro becomes an open-air exhibition. So much so that if you are fortunate enough to come when it snows, it becomes the perfect postcard! Some time ago, I had also visited the exhibition of traditional craftsmanship here, which is well worth a visit.

I cannot help but look out from the balcony in the circular piazza over the valley: woods everywhere and in the distance also Navarons, a small neighbouring village.

After leaving the delightful village, you enter a world of nature and silence, with smells of wood, mushrooms and chestnuts, imagined noises of the little beasts that inhabit it and watch you, begging you not to make a noise but to immerse yourself in silence with them. It is there in the middle, in a hamlet called Taviela, amid trees and marble statues depicting sacred images that stands the convent opened on 11 July 2002. There, a few nuns dedicate themselves to prayer and listening, conforming to the Benedictine rule of work, and drawing from this natural setting all the fruits and flowers needed to make jams, ointments and herbal teas for their sustenance.

I am met by Sister Daniela, serene and smiling, who tells me a bit about the recipes of the convent, with the combinations of different spices (I bought apple and coffee, suitable for cheeses). The fruit in part from the surrounding woods, from the convent’s trees or from other convents of Italy, depending on the seasons and availability. Therefore, the raw material is strictly organic and the same applies to the herbal teas and liqueurs that they produce.

With me there are other guests who come here to buy the products, or just for a word of comfort and to immerse themselves in silence. The secret ingredient of these delicacies is, in fact, the silence.

“Silence is a universal gift that few know how to appreciate perhaps because it cannot be bought. Rich people buy noise. The human soul delights in the silence of nature that only reveals itself to those who seek it”

C. Chaplin