The architect-chef who creates masterpieces of fresh pasta in Irpinia

by Luca Matarazzo 

In the soul of each of us lies a dream, that unconfessable lightness of being which is fulfilled only when work is comparable to the joy of a daily holiday. Franca De Filippis, skilled cook of the restaurant La Pergola in Gesualdo, in high Irpinia, had followed since she was a girl a completely different inclination. First, studies in architecture in Florence, far from the small medieval village enclosed by the castle walls, then the long journey across Italy wherever restoration work was needed for historic buildings and period monuments.

And it was right there, during the post-earthquake reconstruction in Umbria, after nature’s fury had revealed man’s fragility and compromised the static parts of the Basilica of Saint Francis and that of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi, which contains the celebrated Porziuncola.
But then came the call of family, of origins, and of the new activity first started by her brother and her mother Concetta: running the restaurant inside the village’s Arci club. At the beginning, thirty years ago, customers came only for the use of the swimming pool which the De Filippis left intact, except for the adjacent five-a-side football pitch, transformed into a small square for outdoor tables and events.

How La Pergola was born in Irpinia

Then came the complete renovation of the premises, the loving support of her husband Antonio Ferrante and the rapid change of pace in services and in the very identity of the restaurant, which freed itself from the simple idea of a quick break for guests by the pool. Thus Franca, from brilliant architect, replaced pens and compasses with ladles and pans, finding in home cooking a space of freedom. La Pergola has always focused, since its beginnings, on respect for tradition and for the vegetable garden, rich in delicacies such as tomatoes and aubergines, with chickens, geese and rabbits lovingly raised and used in much-loved recipes.

Dishes from the garden

A solid menu, which varies according to the seasons. From soup of courgette shoots and potatoes, to fried courgette flowers filled with stuffing; from beans with Ufita garlic, to celery root velouté or the mini bruschetta with anchovies, accompanied by oven-baked pepper with stale bread – one of the celebrated dishes of the Campania hinterland.
After these starters, unmissable is the marinated veal topside with spices, salt and sugar, and the many offerings of homemade pasta, perhaps choosing among the tasty and light spaghettoni alla chitarra with fresh cherry tomatoes, the classic maccaronara al ragù, or the flavoursome cecatielli with broccoli and salt cod.

Franca rolls out the dough to perfection, with those little secrets of housewives, making it glossy and ready for the sauce. Authentic flavours like those of the past, when cooking with skill and few ingredients was a sort of challenge shared with relatives during festive moments.

Antonio and their young son Pietro welcome guests either in the recently renovated summer veranda, or by the warmth of the fireplace in winter, in the large hall furnished with taste and family spirit. The right atmosphere to best enjoy the typical meat dishes of the land, such as mugnatielli – called torcinelli in other southern Italian regions – here made of grilled lamb sweetbreads, or breaded cutlets served with river chillies.

Memories travel fast in this place where masterpieces of art are admired in the architecture of the historic dishes of Franca De Filippis and Antonio Ferrante.