Only some 100 establishments in NYC are Snail of Approval worthy, and of course, Gustiamo, is one of them.
If you open this link, you'll see us sandwidched between the Greenmarkets (53 in the five boroughs) and Hearth, Marco Canora's restaurant in the East Village. Good company, eh?
What is the Snail of Approval? It is a reward that Slow Food gives to food establishments "because of their contributions to the quality, authenticity and sustainability of the food supply of the City of New York".
I am a great fan of Taste, the trade food show that is held in Firenze, every year in March.
Where else could I meet such a large concentration of Gustiamo's producers? In one spot, for three days, we talk about future plans, prices, new products and orders... we have fun, we talk about family things and we share the most delicious gossip, too.
Our producers are our friends, we talk on the phone constantly and we love to see them in action at their places, but also at Taste, at least once a year!
The big scoop, this year, was that the Martelli family (left), announced they have chosen Gustiamo, Inc. as their only importer, in America! Wow, and thank you!!!
In the video below, the Fratepietro family proudly presented the olives from the new harvest, directly from their trees, as Andrea says.
Dario Meo, of Casa Barone farm, says: You should taste the Piennolo tomatoes and will not regret it! Try the Piennolo tomatoes on pasta, pizza or, naked, on a piece of bread.
Roberto Panizza, aka, the king of pesto, says Ciao America, try my pesto!
Nicola Bovoli of Vicopisano EV Olive Oil says the oil from the new harvest is wonderful but there is very little of it. Hurry up and place your order, now!
Gabriele Lasagni of La Nicchia Caperssays: Hi America! happy to be here with Gustiamo!
And other than all these wonderful, hard working producers, the Taste show is on a manageable scale in a beautiful spot.
This is how the place looked a month ago, when we went to visit Justin Bazdarich and Todd Feldman in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. A great location, a place with lots of potential, but other than a wonderful oven (from Italy, assembled in California), there was not much to see!
A month later, Speedy Romeo is ready to open tomorrow! Incredible!!!
Justin and Todd not only have a ton of energy and move fast, they also want to do the real thing! They carefully and respectfully did their homework: they cruised Italy with Judy Witts Francini (ciao Judy!) in search of real recipes and inspiration from legendary pizzaioli in Roma and Napoli; they tasted all the products very carefully; they toured the purveyors of best foods and learned all about the products (click the arrow below to see the video of their visit to Gustiamo. Watch, they are also making a film of the whole opening process - how cool is that?).
You MUST go to Speedy Romeo! I can't wait! I'm sure the pizza is fabulous! Why? Because they have everything it takes: passion, technique and Italy's best ingredients! Order Pizza with San Marzano Tomatoes; it might be a little more expensive, but trust us, it's going to be worth it! Justin and Todd use the real San Marzano tomatoes. We can attest to that! Good luck to Justin and Todd and long life to Speedy Romeo!!!
The town of Gragnano is universally known as the "Citta' della Pasta". The brand has become so important that it looks like everybody is making pasta in Gragnano. (Like everybody in the world is growing San Marzano Tomatoes!) This is going to stop, and soon. The Town of Gragnano just received IGP status from the Italian Government. With all that the new Italian political ministers have to do these days, that they are working on IGP status for Gragnano pasta shows you how important this acknowledgement is. From now on, all the impostors using "Gragnano Pasta" in their labeling may be prosecuted by law.
It's a great honor for me to share with our American cousins a product made with Europe's highest quality raw materials, more than 25 years of experience, the passion which characterizes us, but also a little Love! We wish all who won't have the opportunity to taste our Panettone and Pandoro a Happy Holidays. For the lucky others who will taste our Panettone and Pandoro, we are sure they will have Very Happy Holidays!
In "Cucina Povera", she teaches you how to cook simply with few but healthy ingredients and how to use all your food leftovers.
There are many Tuscan recipes in the book (farro and beans and olive oil, of course), but also lovely stories of villages and people.
I loved the story of Pitigliano, in the South of Tuscany, a hill town where religious tolerance allowed a Jewish Community to grow and prosper. Not any more, unfortunately, but Pamela's story prompted me to put Pitigliano on my agenda for when I am next in Italy.
The book has nice, vintage (looking?) photographs.
Pamela is in America, these days, to present her new book. We met her in Sara Jenkins' restaurant, Porsena. We learned how to make pici and asked her about the book, in which Gustiamo is mentioned as a source of artisanal Italian food in America. (Click on arrow below to watch the interview.) Good luck, Pamela.
Yesterday in the warehouse, unveiling the FIRST Panettone of the season. Special guest, Jeremy McMillan, a very talented chef at Bedford Post Inn, who stopped by for his weekly shopping for the restaurant. Good timing! Quotes: Jeremy - "This Panettone is superior". Anthony - " This cake is wonderful." Nicolette - " I realize I never had a good Panettone before." Stefano - Well... he knows how wonderful the Panettone is because the other day, he tried the Pandoro. Also, OTW (out of this world). These cakes are a spiritual experience. We had to call Luigi Biasetto (left), the master pastry chef who bakes them, and congratulate him personally. Also, we immediately placed a new order. He is baking like crazy, now for us! Expensive, no doubt, but ethereal and worth every cent!
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.
"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.
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!
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!
