GUSTI Blog

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 Maida

  Maida's 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.

How Much Salt in your Salted Capers???

The other day, Patrick, a customer/friend of ours for a long time, asked me how much salt there was in our salted capers. Patrick is always very thorough and asks lots of questions. In this case, I thought he was joking. I replied that I had no idea, the label on the jar doesn't say anything, it only mentions the ingredients: capers and salt (I would have added, sunshine). I replied there must be as much salt as Gianni, the producer, thinks is best to conserve the capers. I didn't have much time, I needed to go, but he was relentless and became unfriendly. He said consumers need to know what is the salt content of every product. (But why, don't you rinse the capers, before you use them? And how many capers could you eat, that their salt could cause a heart attack?). All the other merchants had replied to him (shame on me, who didn't know!), saying the salt content in their capers was between 10 and 20%. I was so impressed by how much people know... Still, I had to go. Then, Patrick threatens me and says that if I didn't give him the information, he would report us to the FDA. I was not worried about the FDA (in fact, we had been importing these same capers for ten years without any problems), I was worried he was really getting upset. So I emailed Gianni Busetta, the man in Pantelleria who grows, picks and salts the capers. He replied immediately and didn't think it was stupid question. He said his capers are IGP (Indicazione di Origine Protetta) and that, by law, the salt content has to be 25%.

Moral of the story: I apologize to Patrick for not knowing the answer but I am also very happy to find out that only Gustiamo carries the authentic IGP Pantelleria capers. Thank you Patrick!

I Made It! Edible Bread, Finally. Thank You Mark Bittman.

  In 2006, Mark Bittman of the New York Times wrote the ground breaking article "No-Knead Bread" in collaboration with Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery. Since then, I and a few thousand other people became obsessed. While all the other thousand people were very happy as they expressed their ecstasy in the blogoshere, I was miserable. Over the last three years, I must have tried this recipe 30 times. When the recipe says "at this point, your dough should become double", it never happened to me. Most of the time, it shrank. I tried everything. Bought special instruments to measure the 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, changed yeast, used cold water, hot water, different kinds of flour. The bread I made over the past three years always looked good, but it was inedible. There were no teeth strong enough to attack the stone hard bread. When I served it to my friends, they thought I wanted to terminate the relationship or send them away to the dentist.

But then, the light! The other day, I found another and more recent (2008) article by the same Mark Bittman. It is "Faster No-Knead Bread": it only requires 4 hours' rising (instead of the 14-20 hours of the original recipe) and it uses olive oil. I tried and it WORKED! As you can see from the picture, it looks magnificent and it is very good, too. I am so proud! If I could do this, believe me, you can do it, too.

Pasta con la Colatura

The first day Stefano came to dinner at home, we made pasta with pesto. Stefano is Genovese and we wanted to make him feel less homesick. He said it was almost as good as the pesto his mother makes;in other words, it was sensational.

The second time he came to dinner, we made pasta with colatura. Like the pasta with pesto, this is a dish that takes no time and no skills. We arrived home very late after a long day of work, with little time to cook. At left is a [bad and dark] picture of a very brilliant dish. This is the recipe: cook the pasta, sautee some garlic in EV Olive Oil (4 spoonfuls), remove the garlic. Drain the pasta, pour in half a cup of colatura, the oil, some chopped parsley and some lemon juice. The only challenge is that you have to remember to put less salt than usual in the pasta, since the colatura is salty.

The next time Stefano comes home for dinner, we'll cook something more elaborate, we promise, but I can't promise a more delicious dish.

Piennolo Tomatoes at BKLYN LARDER

  Tomorrow, Saturday Oct 17, from 2 and 5pm at Brooklyn Larder, the new but already legendary food shop in Brooklyn, we'll do a presentation of our fantastic Piennolo Vine Tomatoes. You will be able to ask the question you never dared to ask: why are these tomatoes so damn expensive and are they worth it?
Sergio (Bklyn Larder) will cook for you a special pasta dish with Piennolo tomatoes, tubetti pasta and lentils.
Stefano (Gustiamo) will prepare bruschetta with Piennolo tomatoes. 

Try these and you'll understand what we are talking about. So stop by, say hello, grab a recipe, hear everything about it and taste the sun of Mount Vesuvio National Park.

Stefano in America

 This is a story of honesty, passion and persistence: all winning ingredients for a long succesful relationship.

Stefano emailed Gustiamo last March, out of the blue. Just graduated from the Slow Food University of Gastronomic Sciences, it was difficult for Stefano to find a job in Italy. He wanted to come to work in America. Yes, and I want to become a rock star ... I thought, at first! Do you know how many similar emails we receive? A lot! What made me think this was not such a crazy idea was the fact that Stefano seemed honest, had a real passion for food and he was persistent without driving me nuts. After many emails, skype calls, a meeting in Roma, visa application, Stefano's dream came through and he is now in our office.

Stefano knows (or would study) everything there is to know about Italian real food products and how to use them. He will tell you to break a bay leaf in the stew to release its fragrance (I did it, last night, when I made my beef stew: what a difference!); what is the difference between basil from Pra and your ordinary basil; what is the proper name of the little barrels where the traditional balsamic vinegar ages for decades (vasselli). Wait until his English becomes perfect (a couple of weeks?) and watch out! Stefano, welcome to Gustiamo and good luck to you!

Columbus Day and Stefano

Tomorrow is Columbus Day and most of America will celebrate the anniversary of the discovery of the new world in 1492 by the Genovese explorer, Cristoforo Colombo. Several people, in particular the native Americans, do not think that this discovery was a good thing and want to change the name of the festivity into "Italian Heritage Day". In fact, Columbus Day particularly celebrates the friendship between Italy and the USA, as well as the mutual respect and cooperation between the two countries.

We can't go to the Columbus Day Parade, on Fifth Avenue, tomorrow. We'll be in the office and celebrate the arrival of Stefano, the new addition to the Gustiamo team. What a great concidence. Stefano also wants to discover and conquer America, and tell America what Italy's Best Foods is all about. He is from Genova, too. All the odds are with him. More about Stefano, later. In the meantime, Happy Columbus Day!