On the terraces, scattered in the sun in July, which does not know the truce and constantly nourishes thirst, they are all together in a single red spot: tomatoes, hundreds of tomatoes. Split into two, placed in order on the cannizzi and then sprinkle with salt before being donated to the sun. On the terrace between sheets and dried tomatoes we often played hide and seek.

My favorite place for me was the space between the cannizzo and the floor. It was always warm, but I loved to look at the blue sky through the irregular reed of the cannizzo and to be in touch with the warm floor of the terrace on my back. And that was where I hoped I was not found. And it was there that sometimes for a few minutes I fell asleep in the sun, just like a tomato. It always took a few days before the tomato was dry. At the end the sun was always the winner and the tomato just got to trap the summer on its skin.

In Masseria Potenti we start drying tomatoes from mid-July. We put them on the cannizzi splitted in two and sprinkled with salt. Then we wait three or four days, taking them indoors in the evening due to the humidity. They can be preserved in oil with oregan, garlic and some capper or stuffed, just like chilli peppers in beautiful garlands, to be undone if necessary.

And so opening a jar in the winter, we will taste again the season in a moment, finding ourselves on the cannizzi under the sun.