 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Foodies have long savored the cheeses of the Italian Alps. Dairy farmers still make it by hand, but unless you live in the region or can travel there, you'll have a hard time getting your hands on it. Much of this precious cheese isn't exported.
As you might imagine, this has not been good for business and the Alpine cheese makers have been slowly disappearing. That is until some farmers banded together — with the help of the Internet — and came up with an unusual adoption program called Adopt A Cow. It's kind of like Internet dating. [...]
Via Mariano Pallottini
Acqualagna’s is the second largest truffle fair in Italy. We are talking above 15,000 people over two weeks.
This appears to be a very generous year, and prices reflect the abundant finds by being exceptionally low. The quote last sunday was around €1,500/kilo for large ones and as low as 1,000 for tiny ones (for a comparison, it was about four times as much five years ago, a very scarce year). [...]
Via Mariano Pallottini
Some argue that the Enlightenment took place in eighteenth-century Europe because, simply, that's when coffee houses first opened. What does that make the Enlightenment? Just one major caffeine buzz. It's true, Italians love their coffee and have so ever since the coffee bean first arrived at the ports in Venezia, brought from the Islamic world in the sixteenth century. They have it first thing in the morning, typically espresso or cappuccino; have it after lunch; perhaps a quick shot during the work day; then one after dinner before taking the ritual "passeggiata," or stroll, through the city center. Every household has the famous "macchinetta," seen below, an easy-to-use stove-top percolator made of aluminum and first built in 1933 by Bialetti that, when properly used, produces a delicious espresso at any time. No matter the occasion, coffee must be done right in Italy. It's an art, and there's no kidding around about the perfect espresso: rich, creamy, perfectly balanced from start to finish, not one coffee ground burned by the scorching hot, high-pressure water that passed over it.
Via Cecilia Negri
Torrone Bedetti in a tempting confectionery, offers unforgettable tastes and fragrances of past times. A tradition handed down from father to son for three generations. Genuine and carefully chosen ingredients, handmade production, an untiring search for quality as well as a sheer taste for things that are simple but delicious. Bedetti produces attractive products, thanks to the greatest care for elegant and handmade wrappings, and to the search for original and refined gift ideas.
Via Mariano Pallottini
Prometeo is an Italian factory that since 1991 has processed cereals and legumes produced by the organic farmers of central Italy. The production of hulled wheats is particularly focused on emmer, Triticum dicoccum, which is the predominant species throughout Italy
Prometeo is placed in Urbino, in the North of the Marche Region, central-eastern Italy, in an environment deeply linked to the traditions of central Italy. The factory provides its suppliers the seeds for landraces, checks fields and assists the farmers during growing, and organizes the storage and dispatch of the product. Prometeo selects its suppliers according to the production area, giving priority to high hill and mountain farms, whose yield is limited for quantity, but of superior quality.
The organic products are controlled and certified along the chain production steps (from producer to consumer), by the IMC (the Mediterranean Certification Institute). First, the raw material (hulled grains) is carefully cleaned and de-hulled using appropriate equipment to obtain whole (integral) kernels (farro intero). Then, a pearling process applied to produce semi-pearl and pearl grains (farrisum). The breaking of kernels is another process to obtain "tritello" (spezzato) which is the oldest use of emmer. The semi-processed products are sold to the wholesalers or submitted to further processing (milling, pasta making, blowing) carried out by Prometeo on behalf of external partner companies, carefully chosen and subject to the IMC controls relating to organic products.
Via Mariano Pallottini
Ingredients: 2,2 lbs (1 Kg) of soft tender olives from Ascoli
1 oz (30 g) of the soft inner part of bread
¾ cup (80 g) of greated Parmesan cheese
3 egg
½ lemon
a pinch of nutmeg
a picng clove powder
a cup of white wine
salt
a small stalk of celery
a small carrot
½ onion
3,5 oz (100 g) of chicken breast
3,5 oz (100 g) of beef meat
3,5 oz (100 g) of pork meat
breadcrumbs
some flour
2 cup (½ l) of extra virgin oil Preparation: First of all put 4 spoons of extra virgin olive oil in a stewspan and cooking brown, with chopped carrot, celery and onion; then add chicken, beef and pork meat.
When the meat will be well browned ... as usual click on the photo for more
Via Mariano Pallottini
|
The traces of an important pastoral civilization, which practiced transhumance, the seasonal migration of livestock, can still be found in the Sibillini Mountains. In recent years, however, the presence of shepherds in these mountain areas has significantly diminished. Guardians of techniques and knowledge, they were the ones who began making a local sheep’s cheese (pecorino) from raw milk. According to tradition, the curd was semi-cooked and the cheeses were aged naturally, turned every two or three days to encourage the formation of the rind. They can be eaten after just a couple of months, though they are best when aged at least 100 days.
Seasonality - Cheesemaking from spring, after the weaning of lambs, until October
The Presidium unites small-scale producers with cheesemaking facilities and is working to set up an association that can differentiate and identify the Sibillini Mountains pecorino, which is produced according to a strict production protocol. The milk must be produced by the cheesemakers and processed raw and artisanally and the cheese must age in a natural environment.
Production area - Sibillini Mountains, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata and Perugia Provinces
Via Mariano Pallottini
Abruzzi is located in the mountains along the Adriatic region of Italy and the cuisine is known for simple but hearty meals. A typical meal prepared in Abruzzi will feature diavolicchio, a combination of olive oil, tomatoes and chili peppers. Chili peppers are used often to spice up recipes, typical for much of Southern Italy. Rosemary, garlic and wine are also used extensively in Abruzzi cooking. Despite being more expensive per gram than truffles or caviar, saffron is used in many recipes and most of Italy’s saffron is produced in Abruzzi. [...] Read more, much more clicking on the photo
Via Mariano Pallottini
In the mountains of northern Italy, the tiny Colline di Canossa creamery still follows a centuries-old tradition to turn milk from local herds into the finest Parmesan.
Via Mariano Pallottini
URBINO, Italy – An elderly yet energetic woman backs through the curtain of wooden beads separating Machelleria Ubaldi, a butcher shop, from the sunny afternoon bustle of Via Rafaello near the center of town, still immersed in a loud and lively conversation with someone outside. Ending that exchange with a sharp laugh, she issues a quick buona sera while moving into an equally dynamic conversation with the young man behind the counter.
Buying meat in Italy is not a pre-packaged affair. Picking up steak, salami or prosciutto isn’t a case of reaching into refrigerated case and grabbing an anonymously shrink-wrapped package. It’s a trip to visit an old friend – the person who selects and cuts your dinner – as well as the line of local farmers he represents. For nearly a decade the Ubaldi family – Davide, with his parents and younger sister – has operated the only family-owned butcher shop inside Urbino’s city walls, the Machelleria Ubaldi. Standing behind the counter, Davide slices meats and making sausages to order with customers who are considered part of the family.
Via Mariano Pallottini
In Acqualagna, the saying goes that “it’s truffles year round”. The prized black winter truffle and the black summer truffle, the ‘little white’ spring truffle and especially, the white fall truffle, give this little inland Marche town its unique distinguishing feature: it is THE place for truffles. Food is at once history, tradition and art. Each territory expresses these in its products, each having unique characteristics and high quality. Acqualagna lies on favored land where for centuries it has been known for its prized tuber production that leaves here to grace the tables in homes and restaurants, to regale the senses of epicures everywhere. The landscape is pure enchantment: the Apennines on one side and the rock of the Furlo on the other, cut by the Metauro River, a rocky embrace softened by lush green oak, hornbeam and maple woods. This is the land that works its magic to make that most splendid product, the white truffle, sent all over the world just in the last few weeks. Expert trufflers jealously guard their treasure as they search for all the different delectable varieties from one month to the next. The beginning of the prized white truffle season... Click the photo to read the full article
Via Mariano Pallottini
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Wine, Pasta, Vino cotto (cooked wine), Christmas Baskets
Via Mariano Pallottini
|
