GUSTI Blog

From the Olive Oil Police. Cheap and Rancid.

Here is the truth: Not all expensive Extra Virgin Olive oils are good. But ALL inexpensive Extra Virgin Olive oils are bad.

A friend of ours commented that an olive oil he received from us was very good (terrific, he says), but the price value of the XYZ brand was much better. We bought a bottle of XYZ in a VERY (perhaps the most) reputable retail store. We paid $12 for a half a liter bottle of XYZ, but if you go online you can buy a case of 12 for $9 per bottle. On ZYX's website, one can read wonderful comments from customers and great (really great) chefs, who endorse the product. The bottle had the proper label of EV Olive Oil and best before date of March 2011. $9 or $12$ is hard to believe! How can they do it?

I took the bottle with me to Italy (this meant i had to check my bag - we do this and more for the higher cause)  and asked a professional olive oil tasting panel to taste it in a blind professional session. Their response, word by word: l’olio da noi assaggiato è difettato (riscaldo e rancido) e pertanto non ha più le caratteristiche per essere commercializzato come Extra Vergine. It means: "the oil is defective (rancid and riscaldato/heated) and no longer has the characteristics of and cannot be sold as Extra Virgin". The "experts" tell me that "best before date" only means that the liquid was bottled 18 months prior, however, the oils they bottle might not be from the newest harvest, but perhaps one, two, or even three... years before. there is no law and practically speaking, producers can clean out any old inventory.

Why did I go to this trouble? Because I am tired, no, Very Tired, of hearing that our EVM (M stands for Magnificent) olive oils are too expensive. If you want cheap, you can have plenty of rancid choices, even at high end stores.

Two Great Seafood Restaurants in Roma

If you go to Roma and you like seafood, you should go to Da Enzo and Ripa 12. Authentic Italian, with the whole families working on the premises, great food, fresh fish, fairly priced. Not only I strongly recommend them,  you can tell them you were sent by....

Da Enzo is located in the Piazza Cavour area, across the bridge from Via Condotti. Nice walk. This is Luciano Lamberti, chef and owner. Genny, Luciano's wife works the dining room and son Mario is in charge of the wine list. Originally from costiera amalfitana, Luciano took over this restaurant in 2003, after many years in Germany. They clearly prefer Roma and this neighborhood of elegant residences, banks and law offices (tribunale nearby). Only locals eat here. In fact, I discovered this restaurant through my friend, Mietta Capasso, who is greeted as one of the family because she used to work here in her father's public notary office. Tell Luciano yoy were sent by Capasso...

The other recommendation is Ripa 12, located in Trastevere, where most restaurants are tourist traps. I have been going to Ripa 12 for at least 10 years. Always good. Luigi, the owner/chef and his family have been working there for some 20 years. Caterina, Giuseppe's wife is in the kitchen, son Vincenzo takes care of the wine list and daughters Emma and Manuela serve at the tables delicious food. Tell Emma you are a friend of Gustiamo's!

Pasta Faella. It's Time to Celebrate!!!

Udite Udite! You can't miss David Rosengarten's article on Pasta Faella! It's in his newest newsletter, here. The article is below - word by word. We don't want you to miss anything!

"Perhaps you know about Gustiamo, the insanely tasteful Italian import company based in Queens, New York? Whatever Beatrice and Martina bring in from Italy is bound to be excellent....and when they bring in something new, I will stop everything to taste it.
I stopped everything recently for pasta (isn't that the way life's supposed to be?). Beatrice and Martina tell me that Faella Pasta -made at Pastificio Faella in Gragnano, a town just south of Naples that has a huge reputation for dried, boxed pasta- "may" have had its product in the U.S. a "long time ago," but is most certainly back now. And I tell you it is time to celebrate.
Do you know how most dried pasta kinda covers the subject, but fails to reach an intrinsic excitement? Do you know how some inferior dried pasta can even seem like it's being held together, like papier maché? Gustiamo already brings in two great pastas that avoid those syndromes: the terrific Latini from Marche, and the similarly terrific Martelli from Tuscany. Now comes Faella, Gustiamo's first pasta from Gragnano, in Campania - and, happily, it zooms to the head of the class with its staple-mates.
I tasted three Faella shapes, though there are a few more: the spaghetti, the calamari (it's not squid!), and the caserecci corti. I love this spaghetti. It is a little fatter than most, and slithers through your teeth like the whole strand was grown on a tree, cemented together by nature. But it gets even better.
I first saw the calamari idea a few years back at Scott Conant's NY restaurant Scarpetta, where I was served a pasta called "calamaretti" that looked like thick-cut squid rings. Faella's "calamari" doesn't seem any larger than Conant's "calamaretti"-rings about 3/4" wide, with hollows that are also about 3/4"-but, whatever the proper name, are similarly wonderful. Especially if you take al dente very seriously. Wow! My just-cooked calamari had the texture, not of hard pasta-but of chewy squid! An extraordinary bounce.
I saved the best for last. The Casarecci Corti are strands about 1 1/2 inches long; they look a bit like gemelli, but they're not twisted around, more like paper scrolls with two sides rolled up. This is exactly what you want in an irregular pasta shape: a complexity of impressions, depending on how you bite. Firm and sin-gle here, firm and doubled there, softer there. Endlessly fascinating resilient chew.....and holds sauce beautifully!
Don Mario Faella, 95 years old, is the son of Gaetano Faella, who founded the company in 1907. Don Mario still oversees the production, and controls the quality of the pasta, with his nephews and a few other family members. Pastificio Faella is the only pastificio left in Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, the main square of Gragnano.
We may assume they are doing something right."

by David Rosengarten, in THE ROSENGARTEN REPORT (info available at www.rosengartenreport.com)

If You Are Anywhere in Italy, Le Calandre Is Worth a Detour!!!

Le Calandre is the best restaurant I have ever eaten in. No question about it. It was a few days ago, and I still can't get it off my mind. SPECTACULAR. And I am not exaggerating. I was literally moved, in particular, by the clarity of the ingredients and the purity of the tastes in each individual dish. Massimiliano Alajmo is the chef and Raffaele is the manager, and they are the ultra famous brothers who established their home and restaurant near Padova, in a place called Sarmeola di Rubano. Despite the charming sound of its name, the area is a strip mall with supermarkets and car dealers. Do not worry! Go ahead! Enter the cathedral of Italian cuisine. Forget about the bill too. It's all worth it. The staff is kind, patient and knowledgeable; the room very hospitable and elegant; the food, let me say it again, the FOOD is INCREDIBLE. Starting from the bread (only one kind of beautiful big country bread, no distractions - perfectly leavened and baked), all and each dish we had was memorable.

To name a couple, the cappuccino di seppie nero is served in a cappuccino clear cup, the bottom of squid and the top of  white potato foam You mix it and it turns brown as in a cappuccino. In the risotto allo zafferano con polvere di liquirizia, the licorice opens the taste buds in your mouth, enhancing the taste of the saffron. WONDERFUL!

I was in Padova to visit the Molino Quaglia (see bread above - more on its flour later) and  I can't thank my new friend, Chiara Quaglia, enough for pulling strings to get us in. As a normal mortal, I would not have been able to have a table with such short notice. It's good to have friends in the right places. Thank you all.

Acquerello - Not Just Rice - Wine Spectator

In the April issue of Wine Spectator, Owen Dugan writes about Acquerello Rice and starts his article with: REPEAT AFTER ME: RISOTTO IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK. REALLY.
Really!!!  I am the proof of it. Last night, I didn't know what to cook and had very little in the house. There were some chopped onions and carrots in the refrigerator and Acquerello and porcini mushrooms in the pantry. I made a REALLY great risotto, even using water instead of broth. This is how you do it: You make soffritto, add the rice, a glass of cognac, then the boiling water...half cooked, you add the porcini (previously soaked) to the rice. No need to stir, either, just add water. It was my improvisation and everybody loved it, at home and in the office at lunch, today.

Until recently, we only carried the 1 kilo and 1/2 kilo tin of Acquerello. Too big for you? Perhaps too expensive and you don't want to make the investment? If you are cooking for 4 or less people, the newborn 1/4  kilo tin is perfect for you! At $5 per tin, you must try it and let your creativity run free. What do you have to lose? If you need tips/suggestions on how to cook vero italian risotto, give us a call at 718 860 2949.