This is a picture of Fico Dottato, a fig which grows in South of Italy. But if it grows in Cilento, it becomes a very special fig! So special that it is certified DOP!!! Cilento is an area in Campania, south of the Amalfi coast. The Dottato figs are also called White figs, because their skin is pale and delicate. They have very few seeds and a dense pulp.
Gustiamo's dry figs are the DOP Dottato Figs made by Santomiele Farm in Cilento. Stuffed with almonds, soaked in rum and fig mollasses with citrus peel and raisins. As all precious things they come very well wrapped. Wrapped three times - do not worry, it's a sustainable/no impact wrapping: paper/cellophane/dry fig leaves. It's called "fagottino", ie little envelope. Here is another How To creative video by Stefano. He tells you How To unwrap these treasures of sweetness. Watch the video below and click on the arrow. Ahhh, almost forgot! They are vey seasonal. It's either now, or next October 2011.
Here we are @ Il Cantuccio, the wonderful bakery in the Village, with the three bakers/partners on site and on the wall: Camilla, Lorenzo and Simone. Giovanni Stasi (left) of CHC PR is helping with the organization of Gustiamo's Tuesday Tastings, making sure everything is in order. Until the end of the year (2010), every Tuesday, we meet at Il Cantuccio from 5 to 7pm and we taste freshly baked focaccia with... every Tuesday a different product from Gustiamo. Last week it was Gianduja Spread by La Molina. (read about it, here.) Today we tasted friarielli and zucca sott'olio by Maida Farm in Cilento. It was so much fun to see all our "old" and new friends who wanted to taste and learn about Italy's Best Foods!
Lilly, below, tells you what Gustiamo is doing, there. She confessed she practised the whole week end to say properly all these difficult words: friarielli, focaccia, schiacciata, cantuccio!!! do not worry Lilly, even Italians have problems with these words. You did a great job!!! It was a wonderful presentation! Thank you! Everybody, pls, watch Lilly in the video below (click the arrow) and listen to her! Then, come and see us @ Il Cantuccio. Next, is Nov 30 when we will taste Honey by Licu Manias, the number one authority in the field, in the words of his peers. So much fun!!!
Balsamico! is a wonderful book by food author Pamela Sheldon Johns. A "must have", if you are into authentic italian ingredients. Nothing to do with the balsamico sold in supermarkets, which is a cheap colored dark brown liquid full of chemicals. It's a book about "aceto balsamico tradizionale", a revered treasure, so important to Italian tradition that it is regulated by a very complex law and can be made only in Modena or Reggio Emilia. In her book, Pamela chooses and features only a couple of BEST "aceto balsamico tradizionale" producers and Mariangela Montanari of Gustiamo's Ca dal Non is among them!
On the topic of Acetaia Ca Dal Non, a while ago I happened to notice this lovely and funny post (click here for the post): A young American kid goes all the way to Modena to visit the Acetaia Ca dal Non and buy his father a bottle of the precious liquid for his birthday. It's a beautiful place to visit, as Erik says and his pictures show. But, if you don't plan to go there soon, buy the "aceto balsamico tradizionale" made by Mariangela @ gustiamo.com and read everything about it on Pamela's book. What a perfect gift combination, this would be. Enjoy!!!
After months of planning, Gustiamo partnership with Slow Food and the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in the Bronx finally came to life. One has to worry a little when the group is made of teenagers… even We almost forgot how good food and communal cooking are immediate aggregators! Our first visit brought an end-of-the-school-day, chair-dwindling, group of teenagers enthusiastically together in the perfectly orchestrated execution of a classic gustiamo Farro Salad (all gustiamo ingredients - minus the fresh basil - grown in the classroom greenhouse). Farro salad – who would think this could be a teenager crowd pleaser?? Wrong. Skillful chopping, attending to the water, tasting farro for doneness, should I dare try the capers which I’ve never seen before?? When all was done, a curious student team only needed take a bite, to dig into the bowls of farro and make it disappear in seconds. (A map of Italy projected on the wall set up by Alex who is teaching the program helped with products origins). Teachers, the school principal and other students happily dropped by to taste the results of the joint effort and the atmosphere turned very festive and creative. Alex the teacher made sure dishes were washed and cleaned and put away before the Big Moment the class had been waiting for: the unwrapping of the Pandoro. White sugar trick, knife skills applied to make it look a tree, gone in seconds… no problem, it’s good for you. Inevitably they think working at Gustiamo is all about eating and socializing around the stove and want to work with us. Sorry to break it to you: a Gustiamo site visit will be next, get ready to pick and pack!
Here, Andrea Fratepietro of Fratepietro farm and Beatrice proudly holding jars of green real DOP Bella di Cerignola olives. Don't think we are in the Caribbean islands: This is Puglia, with palm and olive trees. Do you want to go? Andrea would love to see you, too. Back to the olives. Because they are so delicate, they are picked by experienced and local workers, including Mimi' and Cosimino, who have been working at the farm 50 years. They are washed and put in big bins with water and salt for three months. The salt they use is the expensive sea salt from Marherita di Savoia salt flats, a natural reserve and a heaven for tropical birds, located thirteen kilometers from the farm. Now, you tell me! How local is this?
Watch the video below, click on arrow. Andrea started to like being interviewed (se part 1 of the video here) and wanted to add something to his previous one. Bravissimo, Andrea!!!
Good way to end a day in New York on an chilly Fall evening: Il Cantuccio NYC bakery doors were open, welcoming friends and walk-ins for the first of a series of tasting with Gustiamo. Last night it was schiacciata+Gianduja Spread by La Molina. You didn’t need to know the address, follow your nose to the place on Christopher Street. Good olive oil smell of just-baked schiacciata and good chocolate aroma oozing from the open gianduja jars. Inside: it was a party! And yes, it’s an Italian art to make any occasion a festa, but it takes New Yorkers’ adventurous taste buds to appreciate with no prejudice the unusual sweet and savory match. Every one dropped their bags to linger in the warm space. We, at Gustiamo, live mostly behind computers screens; can’t pass up any chance to meet with customers and friends (now names have faces…) and we didn’t know so many live in the West Village. Rita Lintz, a New York artist who adds her creative touch to La Molina chocolates design, just had to turn the corner to join us and travelers from Rome who just happened to have heard and dropped by. Put it in your agenda for next week and the next. Every Tuesday, until the end of 2010. Every Tuesday, from 5 to 7pm, a tasting of a new product from Gustiamo paired with Lorenzo's wonderful schiacciata @ Il Cantuccio NYC. Stay tuned... mark your calendar and tell us if you are stopping by!
The perfect gift Panettone and Pandoro (left) just arrived!!! They are freshly baked by Luigi Biasetto, master baker/pastry chef and award winner, in Padova. Luigi uses only the freshest and best ingredients, of course. But his secret is the flour: it's Petra stone milled flour made by Molino Quaglia, a couple of kilometers from the bakery. How local is this???
As soon as the cakes arrived in the warehouse, we opened and tasted them (it's called quality control - what a job!). Our Stefano started to do something - his special thing - to the Pandoro I had never seen before! This is a "How To" video. How to finish and how to present the Pandoro. Brilliant! Martha Stewart watch out! Watch the video and click on the arrow below and learn how Italians do it. Enjoy Italy's Best Panettone and Pandoro!
Tratturello EV Olive Oil is made in Molise by Francesco Travaglini, an honest, knowledgeable and passionate farmer with his Gentile di Larino olive trees in Molise. This is the label of Tratturello ev olive oil. Can you see it? Can you see the elegant red wax seal and the exclusive hand written number? Every single bottle of this wonderful olive oil is numbered. Therefore, there is always a number ONE for each harvest. It's the same oil than in any other bottle, but the number ONE has a different weight. Somehow, it is more important than all the others. Two years ago, bottle nuber ONE went to our newly appointed president Obama via our and his (Mr. Obama's) good friend Tony Mantuano.
Thinking and thinking... we voted several Tratturello worth candidates, we took polls and... Andrew Cuomo won! He won the elections as the next Governor of New York State, on Tuesday Nov 2, 2010 and to be the lucky recipient of Bottle Number One. With all our wishes of a peaceful, successful mandate.
Give thanks to your host, friends and family with a Gustiamo Gift. Call Nicolette at 718 860 2949 or email her and tell her what you would like to give. You can choose to have it packaged in our standard box or in our exclusive outer borough chic crate (see left). If you don't want to think, Martina just selected two gifts for you:
Enzo Gucciardo, Gustiamo's salinaro (salt maker), could not attend the Salone del Gusto, but the Slow Food Presidium "artisanal sea salt from Trapani" was well represented by his collegues: Rosario Genovese, Vito Genovese and Anna Culcasi. Look at their wonderful faces which tell all their life of passionate but hard work. What a hard work that is! They literally pick the salt by hand, with a shovel, under the scorching sicilian sun of July and August. Their salt is full of natural minerals and it (naturally) salts more than industrial salt. Why? The salt of the big companies is harvested with mechanical machines which makes the salt dirty; brown polluted salt can't be sold; the salt is then washed and stripped of the natural minerals which are put back with chemicals. How about that??? Listen to Rosario, Vito and Anna... buy sea salt only from small salinari like Enzo Gucciardo!!!
