Posted in Italy, Main Dishes, Pasta, Producer Profile, Recipes, tagged egg pasta, food, Marco Giacosa, pasta, recipe, Tagliolini, Tajarin on January 12, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Tagliolini con Tartufo
Shortly before Christmas, a display went up in front of our wine section: stacks and stacks of beautiful boxes of egg pasta. Brand new to the shop, the pasta was made by a gentleman named Marco Giacosa in Alba, a town in the northwest of Italy. (more…)
Posted in Candy & Confections, Christmas, Hanukkah, Italy, Producer Profile, tagged candied fruit, Chocolate, confection, fondants, food, glacé, marrons glacés, Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano, Romanengo on December 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In the list of wonderful, accidental finds we have made for the shop, few rival the discovery of Italian confectioners, Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano. On a trip to northern Italy, Ihsan and Valerie were strolling the labyrinthine streets of old Genova when they stumbled across a fantastical, gem-like little shop.
Candied Tangerine
Since 1780, the Romanengo family has been dispensing handmade candies from this beautiful shop with its marble walls, glass shelves and rich wooden cases. Crystal receptacles are filled with confetti-colored candied fennel seeds, threads of sugar-coated cinnamon, sweet fruit fondants, chewy rosewater marshmallows and tiny pastiglie. On his first visit, Ihsan bought some treats to take home and each parcel was painstaking wrapped in dark blue tissue-like paper and tied with a Genovese sailors knot. Since that trip, we have been importing directly from Romanengo and several staff members have made the pilgrimage to Genova themselves! (more…)
Posted in Breads, Crackers & Snacks, Cakes & Cookies, Christmas, Italy, Producer Profile, tagged food, holiday bread, Milan, panettone, Pasticceria Perbellini on December 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Every year, we eagerly anticipate the arrival of panettone from Pasticceria Perbellini. And, every year, we order as much as we can, filling the shop to the brim! Piled high on our shelves, chock-a-block with torrone and candied fruits, staff members are thrilled to see these delicious Italian breads again. Panettone is fantastic with a steaming cup of hot coffee or a freshly pulled shot of espresso. Gemma, expert wine buyer in our Cambridge shop, recommends panettone with a glass of Vin Santo or the classic pairing of Moscato d’Asti.
Panettone is a traditional Milanese holiday bread. Traditional (and we think the best) panettone are yeasted breads that are allowed to ferment for a lengthy period of time. (more…)
Posted in Italy, Meats & Charcuterie, Producer Profile, Travelogues, tagged food, Giovanni Bianchi, Langhirano, Pio Tosini, prosciutto, Prosciutto di Parma on December 1, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Some months ago, Giovanni Bianchi of the prosciutto curing house, Pio Tosini, visited our shop in Cambridge for a staff tasting. Giovanni’s family has been curing prosciutto in the Parma region of Italy since 1905 and today, Giovanni, along with one of his cousins and an uncle, continue the family business.
Giovanni Leads a Pio Tosini Prosciutto Tasting with Staff
The tasting had one of the strongest turnouts ever from among staff members – it was the first time we had had someone from one of our prosciutto curing houses visit the shop and everyone was curious and excited. The evening was fascinating and involved some delicious prosciutto tasting, a good amount of talking and lots of questions! At the end of the evening, Giovanni was kind enough to encourage staff members who might be visiting Italy to get in touch and he would be happy to show us around the Pio Tosini facility. Recently, I was fortunate enough to be traveling in the area and took him up on his generous offer. (more…)
Posted in Cheese, Cheesemaking, Education, Italy, Travelogues, tagged casaro, Cheese, cheesemakers, cheesemaking, Cravero, curds, DOP, food, Italy, parm, Parmigiano Reggiano, ricotta, whey on November 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »
On a recent trip to Italy, I had the opportunity to visit a co-op that makes Parmigiano Reggiano. It was a first for me – I have witnessed the cheesemaking process before and have even tried my hand at making chèvre but I had never before observed the making of a hard, aged cheese like Parmigiano Reggiano. (more…)
Posted in Beverages, Italy, Wine, tagged Brazan, Galea, I Clivi, Mario Zanusso, Ribolla Gialla, Ribolla Spumante, spumante, Tocai Friulano, Wine on November 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The man behind the wine: Mario Zanusso
Just in time for Thanksgiving, we will have two I Clivi wines made from Friuli’s star varietal, Ribolla Gialla. One bottle is a still white wine and the other is a spumante sparkling wine – both zippy and refreshing. This is the first arrival of these wines in the Massachusetts market and both will be available exclusively at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge and Formaggio Kitchen South End.
If you’re looking for a dry, refreshing, organic and affordable white to drink every day, pick up a couple of bottles of the 2010 Ribolla Gialla! The still Ribolla has a fresh, citrusy mouth feel with plenty of minerality and is low in alcohol, which is important in order to highlight the fine aromas that shine in this wine. (more…)
Posted in Cheese, Italy, Travelogues, tagged Bra, Caggiano, Cantine Ascheri, Caseficio Caggiano, Cheese, Comté, enkir, food, Giorgio Cravero, Italy, Jason Hinds, Marcel Petite, Maria Caggiano, Matteo Ascheri, Mulino Marino, Neal's Yard Dairy, Parmigiano Reggiano, Philippe Goux, Randolph Hodgson, Romano Levi on October 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Every two years, the biggest festival in the cheese world happens in Bra, Italy. The event is known simply as “Cheese.” Cheesemakers, cheesemongers, journalists, food lovers and folks lucky enough to live close by, descend on the small town of Bra to sample, sell and eat literally tons of cheese. This year at the biennial festival it was no different. With one exception. The thermometer hit a whopping 90°F. (more…)
Posted in Cheese, Education, Food History, Italy, tagged blue cheese, Cheese, food, Gorgonzola, Gorgonzola a due paste, Gorgonzola antico, Gorgonzola del nonno, Gorgonzola Dolce, Gorgonzola Piccante, PDO, Penicillium gorgonzola, Protected Designation of Origin, Roquefort, Stracchino, transhumance on September 28, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Gorgonzola Dolce (front) and Gorgonzola Piccante (rear)
Lombardy is a region in the northernmost part of Italy, sitting on the country’s Alpine border with Switzerland. The terrain is varied, ranging from plains in the southern part, to the Alpine heights of the Valtellina in the north. Lakes stretch out along the countryside and rivers criss-cross the verdant landscape. Lombardy is a part of Italy that is home to many well-known cheeses: Taleggio, Mascarpone, Provolone, Grana Padano and Gorgonzola. If you were to follow the Po River, heading west out of Lombardy, you would arrive in the Piedmont, another rich cheese-making region. The town of Bra, home to possibly the most widely respected cheese festival in the world, is situated in this part of Italy. Like their neighbors in Lombardy, cheesemakers of the Piedmont make Taleggio and Gorgonzola. Among the many cheeses in their canon, are other familiar names like Raschera, Robiola di Roccaverano and Castelmagno. (more…)
Posted in Beverages, Italy, Producer Profile, Wine, tagged Chianti, Chianti Colli Senesi, food, Giovanna Tiezzi, Italy, organic, Pacina, Sangiovese, Stefano Borsa, terroir, Wine, winemakers, yeasts on July 26, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Recently, we were thrilled to welcome Giovanna Tiezzi and Stefano Borsa to our shop. Giovanna and Stefano are the dedicated growers behind Pacina wine and they stopped by our Cambridge shop on a rare visit to the United States to taste out their ’07 Chianti Colli Senesi and speak to folks about what distinguishes them from other viticoltori in their region.
Where is Pacina?
Located about twenty-five minutes east of Siena in the Chianti district of Colli Senesi, Pacina is an old convent, dating to circa 900AD. The land where the convent is located is rich in wine history insofar as Pāca was the Etruscan god of the grape harvest, the equivalent of the Roman god, Bacchus, or the Greek god, Dionysius. For centuries, wine has been made in this region.
Flash forward to 2011: Pacina serves as a home to Giovanna Tiezzi and Stefano Borsa, along with their children, Maria and Carlo. Giovanna took over the estate that was bought by her great-grandparents. Today, she and Stefano cultivate a wide range of produce – from cereals, to fruit, to vegetables, to extra virgin olive oil. Giovanna and Stefano are, however, probably best known for their wine. As with everything they produce, it is organic. (more…)
Posted in Beverages, Italy, Producer Profile, Travelogues, Wine, tagged Filippo Filippi, VinItaly, Wine on May 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
VinItaly 2011
After an exhilarating five days of intensive tasting in and just outside of Verona at VinItaly, VinNatur, and Vino Vino Vino, my palate has been reinvigorated and my “wine speak” in Italian has once again been thoroughly challenged and expanded.
VinItaly is Verona’s infamous wine expo that brings together over 4,000 producers in a cluster of twelve bustling, cavernous convention halls. Conversely, VinNatur and Vino Vino Vino are smaller, organic tastings that are held in historic sites outside of the city and exhibit less than 150 producers. I tasted recent vintages of some of my already established favorites and made some new discoveries along the way. (more…)
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