GUSTI Blog

Taganrog Is a Beautiful Wheat and Makes an Exceptional Pasta

   The Latinis have been making pasta with Taganrog durum wheat for many years. Taganrog wheat has a great story (read it here) and it is a beautiful plant. It has a golden color and stands nearly 170 centimeters tall with long blonde whiskers and large, glossy grains. It's a variety of wheat of excellent quality, robust with short ears that tend to tear away from the stalk rather than grow longer.

The pasta, in its dry state, can have a protein value of up to 18 percent from top harvests, which is a lot!

During cooking, it retains its golden color to emerge with mellow flavor and delicate fragrance reminiscent of freshly baked bread.We suggest that you first taste the cooked pasta alone, without a sauce. The pasta maintains a firm bite and a round, harmonious sensation on the palate. 

The Taganrog Line is well suited to light sauces based on seafood, including mollusks and crustaceans, as well as white meats such as chicken and rabbit. It makes an ideal match with all types of vegetables and legumes: zucchini, chard, spinach, potatoes, lentils, beans. It also makes an excellent base for cold pasta salads.

Pianogrillo and Vicopisano EV Olive Oils in the NYTimes!

Thanks to Julia Moskin for inviting Gustiamo to the NYTimes to talk about EV Olive Oils. Very exciting! And for calling us "The Experts". Priceless!

This is an excerpt of Julia's article:

"ALONG with laboratory analysis, testing olive oil still involves human taste. To learn how the experts do it, the Dining section asked Martina Rossi Kenworthy, an importer, and her colleague Stefano Noceti, a certified master taster in Italy, to guide a blind tasting of extra virgin oils, including some from their warehouse, supermarket brands and California products. Even blind, they were able to pick out the most expensive oils (Pianogrillo from Sicily, $34.75, and Vicopisano from Tuscany, $43; all prices are for half-liter bottles). Those had an undeniable "liveliness" - a tingly acidity, balancing out the richness of oil - that made them complex and delicious... All those oils had some of the throat-burning quality that reveals the presence of polyphenols, antioxidants that make olive oil healthful... Mr. Noceti said that some oils produced for the American market are purposefully made smooth: we are perceived as timid when it comes to olive oil..."

Do not worry, Gustiamo's producers are so small they wouldn't even dream of a different production for the "international and/or American" market. Their EV Olive Oil is always the same and the best anywhere in the world.

New Gustiamo.com - Behind the Scenes

These are our good friends of many many years! These are the people who keep telling us Gustiamo needs a new website. Fantastic photos of our fantastic products, more enjoyable experience from touch screen devices, integrated communication of Italian style and culture, easier shopping experience on gustiamo.com, better shopping cart.

What else? Any suggestions are welcome!

From left: Luca Pelini, expert in online marketing; Pippo Onorati, the graphic designer and project director; Adriano Cosi, the official photographer.

They, of course, know perfectly and love all our foods and the heros behind them, the artisans. Grazie a tutti!

Where You Learn About Italy's Best Foods

Gustiamo goes international!

These are the members of the Consular Women Club, wives of diplomats from all over the world, who came to the warehouse in the Bronx to learn about Italy's Best Foods. Their enthusiasm was catching. They all said it was like being in Italy. It was clear they were having a wonderful time. We did too!!!

Stefano (of NYTimes fame), led the olive oil tasting and it was very interesting to hear some of the comments. A lady who says she cooks Italian a lot and buys tons of olive oil, said that when she goes to the store she buys the olive oils that has the prettiest label. Everybody does it!!! Another said that she always asks for the greenest oil. Everybody does it! No more! After listening to Stefano they are now converted to the real thing!

We then had lunch. Nobody had pasta with bottarga before. They all loved it! Farro Salad was another big hit. Then Sant'Eustachio coffee.

The final WOW arrived when we tasted the first Pandoro of the season (just arrived in the warehouse). And the WOW was from our new friends and from all of us @ Gustiamo. Really spectacular. Dear CWC, great to share this with you! Come again!

Italian EV Olive Oils - The Best, Even Blind!

When we were invited by the NYTimes for a demonstration of how to taste an EV olive oil and for a blind tasting of oils, we were extremely proud and excited. Yes, we know a lot about EV Olive Oils; we can talk about olive oils forever! Our Stefano is a graduate of the University of Gastronomic Science, near Torino. He talks about olive oils and poliphenols and perossids to anybody who will listen.

As the excitement sank in, we started to panic! A blind tasting? A blind tasting is tricky!  We never did a blind tasting before, let alone in the office of the NYTimes, in front of such icons as Florence Fabricant and Julia Moskin!!! What if an industrial olive oil or a Californian olive oil tasted better (for whatever reason) than the artisanal Italian oils that Gustiamo so proudly represents in America?

NO FEAR! The best olive oils spoke loud and clear to "The Experts" palates (as the NYTimes now calls us - excuse me!!!) and those of  our friends at the NYTimes. Julia Moskin wrote: "Those (The Italian oils) had an undeniable "liveliness ... complex and delicious..."

There was no doubt. Two thousand plus years of olive oil production in Italy, the country's various microclimates and different soils, the passion of our farmers... make a huge difference. No fear of Italy being surpassed by any other country, in terms of the quality of its EV Olive Oil...at least for another couple thousand of years!

Roberto, the King of Pesto, Comes to America!

Roberto Panizza, AKA The King of pesto, organizer of the World Pesto Championsip and our producer of pesto genovese landed in New York armed with pestle and mortars and we have been following him around town to find out where the secret for this extraordinary pesto lies.

At the Italian Culinary Academy, Roberto explained and demonstrated his art to the young chefs of the future. A competition followed and in 20 minutes students had to prepare their own pesto, under the vigilant eye of chef instructor Jessica Botta. Congratulations Lorena! Come and redeem your gustiamo gift certificate soon! To close down the event, trofie al pesto per tutti!

Later, competition got even fiercer at Eataly where Roberto led the semifinal of the World Championship.

The competitors were no grandma in the kitchen, but firemen from both side of the Sea. You need courage to compete, especially if you are doing that while Roberto and Lidia Bastianich, who presided the event, are watching you closely. Not a fireman, nor a grandma, but a native Genovese, Gustiamo’s very own Stefano Noceti got dragged into the competition. You can see him pounding away in the video, below. Stefano put too much salt, troppo sale! troppo sale!  but the color of his pesto was the best, and add a little more oil, and a little more pine nuts Stefano somehow managed to get second place!!  

So what did we learn?

You can learn pesto making skills and all the tricks from Roberto (watch Stefano in action), but, if you want the real thing, Roberto’s utterly perfect pesto, you only have two options: go to Liguria and get some DOP basil or get some from Roberto’s at Gustiamo. A new batch has just arrived and we can smell the aroma from here…

 

Il Tratturello, Mission Impossible - Accomplished!!!

When you have good friends, everything is possible!

Left, Governor Andrew Cuomo smiling because he received the best gift: a bottle of Il Tratturello EV Olive Oil from Molise made by Francesco Travaglini. It is a long and beautiful story (read it here) with an even better ending! Gov. Cuomo, we hope you love this olive oil as we do! Grazie.

PS Francesco, after Pres. Obama and Gov. Cuomo, who is the next victim of Bottle #1 new harvest? Can't we find somebody a little easier to reach?

 

Spaghetti with Bottarga, OUR Favorite Dish! Easier to Find in America!

Pasta with Bottarga is one of my favorite dishes. I prepare it all the time, especially when we have guests.

In fact, it is very easy to make (if you do it the night before, it's even better!), it is very good for you (you only use raw ingredients), it has a wonderful story and it is DELICIOUS.

This passion is spreading. I served Pasta with Bottarga in NY to my good Roman friend Annamaria when she visited, in January. 

The other day, I was invited to a dinner party at her home in Rome. She prepared OUR Pasta with Bottarga.

We dined on her splendid terrace overlooking the Ara Pacis (BTW, the Romans LOVED bottarga. How perfect a location was it???). Now, all her friends know the story and the recipe... It's spreading fast!

Annamaria very proudly said that she was able to find Gustiamo's mullet bottarga, Oro di Cabras made by Fratelli Manca, in the best specialty shop in Roma.

Out of her way, she said, but really the best and worth the schlepp!

If you are in America, you are lucky, because you can buy Bottarga di Cabras from the comfort of your home, with a click of the mouse, here!

Oro di Cabras, the Mullet Bottarga the Romans Would Choose!

The name Bottarga comes from the Arabic "Bottarikh" which means salted fish eggs. In fact, it is a product of ancient origins. The Mullet bottarga fished in the ponds of Cabras, in Sardegna, was loved by the Phoenicians and particularly the Romans, who used it in large quantities.

Gustiamo's Mullet Bottarga comes from the same place in Sardegna, Cabras (left); it is made with the same methods: the egg roe of the mullet is cleaned, salted, pressed, dried naturally on wood planks from 15 to 30 days, depending on the weather (during the drying process, the pieces of bottarga are turned every 4-5 hours).

The whole process is done by hand and with the passion of a tradition that has been passed down for generations. Gustiamo's Mullet Bottarga is made by a Cooperative of Fishermen, the Manca Brothers, 6 brothers lead by Mario Manca, the eldest. Manca's Bottarga arrives vacuum packed and it is called "Oro di Cabras", Gold of Cabras.

I asked Mario what is the difference with the bottarga you see in the stores, the one that is covered with a thick layer of wax. Mario told me that it is a bottarga of inferior quality, it is covered with wax because it is fresh and not dried (when dried, bottarga loses at least 45% of its weight), it tastes like raw paste...

If the Romans came back, they would certainly choose the "Oro di Cabras" bottarga by Fratelli Manca, the real thing! In America, you can find Bottarga di Cabras only @ Gustiamo, Italy's Best Foods!

Sant'Eustachio Directly to your Home - In America.

Ah, how beautiful to live in America and order Sant'Eustachio coffee from the comfort of your chair. It is sold nowhere in Italy, only at the little legendary coffee bar in Piazza Sant'Eustachio. In Roma, I was out of coffee and had to schlep to the center to get a tin of my beloved drink. Lucky me, they were just toasting the coffee in the rear of the place. Left, Raimondo Ricci who owns Sant'Eustachio overseeing the delicate toasting operation (Giuseppe, choosing the perfect beans, on his knees) in the "secret room". Very interesting experience, but I prefer the comfort of my chair!