GUSTI Blog

La Molina Chocolate - Tradition Meets Modernism - Just Arrived in the Warehouse!

La Molina has arrived in our warehouse. All of it, several different SKUs, various bars of chocolate and the gianduja spread. It means we are getting ready for the Holiday Season.

Riccardo and Massimiliano Lunardi are brothers who grew up around their father's bakery, "Al Dolce Forno" in Quarrata, near Pistoia. Ten years ago, they created La Molina Chocolate and they represent a new wave of Italian chocolatiers, a blend of Italian tradition and modernism. The Lunardi brothers' have taken their love of chocolate to new heights.

The prices of cocoa has also reached new heights. It is now $3,390 per ton; it doubled over the last two years and it is more than 5 times more than in 2000. I guess it is now even more appropriate to call it "brown gold". Do not panic. At Gustiamo, only the quality keeps increasing. The prices of La Molina chocolate have not changed!

Piennolo is the Tomato of the Month. It Will Receive DOP Status in November.

Piennolo tomatoes made by Casa Barone grow in the Mount Vesuvius National Park. They are the only organic Piennolo Tomatoes which are certified organic. You can't enter the park gate with anything which is not organic!

What do you do with Piennolo Tomatoes?

- you make pizza vera napoletana. According to the Associazione Pizza Verace Napoletana, you can make pizza using only San Marzano or Piennolo Tomatoes. If you use anything else, you are wasting your time.

- you use Piennolo tomatoes anywhere you would use other ordinary tomatoes. Whatever you are cooking will taste better.

Piennolo Tomatoes will receive DOP status in November by the Italian Food Authority. To celebrate the event, Gustiamo translated the recipe which appears on the very jar of Piennolo Tomatoes, a recipe prepared directly by Giovanni Marino, the man behind the Casa Barone Farm.

This is the translation of the recipe on the jar:

500 gr /1 box spaghetti

500g / 1 jar  pomodorini piennolo

Extra Vergin Oliv Oil, garlic, Sea Salt

Heat 1 or more cloves of garlic in oil until garlic is blond.

Add the Piennolo tomatoes, put on lid on the saucepan for a few minutes and mix with a wood spoon.

Taste the “sugo”, add salt and keep  cooking for a few minutes .

Add in the al dente spaghetti, mix well and enjoy!

Sant'Eustachio Coffee - Breaking News - a tin at only $14.50

If you thought you never could afford a cup of this exceptional coffee because it was too expensive, think again! Sant'Eustachio price descends from the mountain top. A tin of 250 gr or 8.8 oz of Sant'Eustachio coffee is now $14.50. It has become as affordable as the other coffees you find in your local supermarket. You have no excuses, now!

Like the price, the tin is more slender than the chubby one you were used to, before. New tin on the left.

What happened? Raimondo and Roberto Ricci, the brothers who own the legendary Sant'Eustachio, decided to move the roasting process and packaging from the tiny space behind the famous bar in Roma to a real plant in Trieste, Italy's coffee capital. As before, the coffee is roasted using wood fed machines which make the coffee perfectly balanced in taste, body and fragrance. With the move comes bigger production, economy of scale, lower prices and a desire to grow. Gustiamo took the discount and added some more. We want to grow with Sant'Eustachio coffee, too.

Frank Bruni's Last Tips: Say No to Truffle Oil

  As everybody in the know knows, Frank Bruni is no longer the food critic at the NY Times.

Having spent two years in Roma for the NYTimes, before moving to NY to write about food and restaurants, Frank Bruni was/is very familiar with real Italian food. One more reason to read Bruni's articles in the NYTimes with much attention. In particular, I loved "Good Tips at the End of His Meals". It was his last article, much more important than his weekly writings. Don't you agree? In his last tips to navigate a menu, he wrote: "then, scratch off anything that mentions truffle oil". I.e., do not order anything with truffle oil.

GRAZIE, Frank Bruni! It's a battle we at Gustiamo have been fighting for 10 years, since we started. We always refused  to carry truffle olive oils [We clearly say why on our website, here]. We always refused to mix our selection of Italy's Best Foods with a mediocre product made with chemicals. Yes, it is a popular product and it gives high profit margins. No big margin could pay Gustiamo's loss of reputation and conscience. Frank Bruni, thank you for your support and good luck! 

Food Inc. Where Is It? Why Is It Not Showing Anymore Anywhere?

Somewhere, I heard Alice Waters saying she learned a lot from this documentary and she certainly knows a great deal about food. I went to see it a couple of months ago. Recently, I wanted to take my husband to make sure he doesn't miss anything. But where is this important movie? It was so very well done, he/you MUST see it. After that, YOU'LL NEVER LOOK AT DINNER THE SAME WAY AGAIN, as they say on the film poster, on the left.

You will be more careful with your food shopping; you will want to know where your food comes from; and you'll want to know what's in it.

The movie explains how it all started: from the subsidies for corn given by the government to the farms which have become factories of mass-produced, corn-fed cattle. This is then slaughtered and ground into ''hamburger meat filler,'' which is cleansed with ammonia, all so that we can buy a double cheeseburger for 99 cents.

It was mind boggling to see how the food industry is using corn. It has become so cheap that not only is it used to unnaturally feed animals, including fish, but also as a conservant and additive in a myriad of foods (many of those strange sounding ingredients in the labels of packaged foods contain corn in some way) and non foods (batteries, for example) too.

Where is this movie?  Bring it back!

Bon Appetit Magazine Likes Carciofini Piccoli (small small small artichokes) by Masseria Maida

  Masseria Maida carciofini (small artichokes) were featured in Bon Appetit magazine, November issue now on the stands. At left the magazine and the actual jar, in an artistic setting outside the warehouse. It's always a good thing when an editor likes your product. Our luck that she writes for a magazine that is still alive. The article mentions the Small Artichokes as perfect nibbles/instant appetizers that can save your day on Thanksgiving. OMG, we are already at Thanksgiving!

Francesco Vastola, the maker, calls them "carciofini piccoli". The word "carciofino" already translates into "small artichoke". So how should we translate "carciofini piccoli"? Small small artichoke? Double small artichoke?

Whole Fish in Crosta di Sale - A Recipe Anybody Can Do.

This is another recipes for dummies. You can't fail and it is incredibly good and good for you.

It is whole fish baked under a crust of sea salt. Click here for the recipe. You only need a trusted fish monger and a good sea salt. I went to Capt. Rick at my local green market and bought 2 medium size striped bass. This is why the crust in the picture seems so big: it is 2 fish inside.

What I love about this recipe is that when you break the crust in front of your guests it makes quite a theatrical scene. The crust allows the fish to retain its moisture and the fragrance of the herbs and garlic inside it. I'd like to think that somehow the good minerals from the sea salt get transferred to the fish, too. But I'm not sure.