Kitchen interior with turkey, goat, quails, mushrooms, turnip cabbage and white grapes

The painting, signed by Giacomo Nani, was exhibited together with the still life depicting a plate of macaroni. It shows a turkey, a goat, quails, mushrooms, turnip cabbage, and a basket full of white grapes.

In 1947, the work was sent to the San Martino Museum in Naples. Today, although owned by the Reggia di Caserta, the painting is in the Duca di Martina Museum: restored in 2010, it is now on display on the ground floor of the Neapolitan museum.

Among the vegetables featured in the painting is turnip cabbage, very widespread in the Catania area, and mainly used as fodder for animals. In the kitchen, they are still eaten raw in salads, boiled, steamed, or stewed in a pan with oil, butter, garlic, or other spices.

Mushrooms, on the other hand, were more common and easier to find in 18th-century parks and gardens, both in autumn and spring; chosen by expert hands, they were eaten fresh, dried, or in brine. Cook Vincenzo Corrado suggested cooking them in oil and seasoning them with a mixture of garlic, chopped parsley, anchovies, pepper, and lemon juice: a recipe worth trying!