To start the year in the best way

Just a few word to thanks who in Christmas gave me a little amazing book that I of course suggest to anyone who have not read it yet: "The Small Pleasures Of Life' by Philippe Delerm.

This treasure is a real small pleasure by itself: it describes the most common and simple happy moments in life but with certain details and realism that you can  almost live again the sensations in your memory.

It's just a compilation of quick pictures of moments of everyone's daily life, but so well described that you finally have the chance to stop and appreciate them even more: the first sip of beer, the dark red of a glass of Porto, the smell of the apple in the cellar etc.

I don't think i can find anything more adequate than this book of precious sensations to wish you a fantastic 2012, full of memories like these.

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A new kind of Deli  in Rome

For Christmas I came back to Italy as usual and I went to discover the latest places opened in the city. One of this is the “Libreria Settembrini”, a tiny special place in Rome, born to answer to different needs.

Settembrini is already a famous café and restaurant in Rome and this year they opened this new space, absolutely innovative in its genre, but cosy and really beautiful. A place to put together the love for books and good food.

At first look is a simple bookshop, little but really nice and with a peculiar selection of book. In the middle it hosts a big wooden table and on a side a mini kitchen that creates simple salads and dishes, ready to hot up and serve in the room. All the ingredients are top quality, like in the same restaurant on the other side of the street, but the meals are quicker and perfect for a brunch or a glass of wine with friends.

We loved the place, the menu, the books and the hampers they were preparing for Christmas…and with my big surprises I even discovered they were selling Pastificio dei Campi pasta, with the tiny duetto box, 250gr of pasta, created for the couples. In the hamper with the pasta there is wine, biscuits, other gourmet ingredients and a nice Christmas book for children.

If you pass by Rome, have a stop in this nice place. I’m sure you will like it!

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A new recipes book by Manuela Darling- Gansser

Today is Thanksgiving and being mainly an American celebration, every year I find myself a bit puzzled : I never know what to bring to parties and worst, what to cook in case they ask me to bring some food …exactly like this year.

On Monday I received an invitation for tonight. The email was saying that everyone was requested to bring something, but I can’t cook anything else than Italian food !!!

Luckily I have just received a new Stunning Recipe Book, that of course is about Italian food, but that gave me also a very nice idea for tonight.

The book is called Four Season and has been written by Manuela Darling – Gansser,  a traveler and a linguist who, born in Lugano, has always been passionate about cooking and Italian food.

She put together this book after passing some times in different parts of Italy. Each season is described trough a region:  spring is Sicily with its amazing seafood, fruits, sweets and amazing smells and gastronomic tradition. Her childhood spent in Sardinia represents the summer with its cheeses, vegetables and great dishes from her memory.  In autumn Manuela reaches Piemonte in the north of Italy where there are very reach recipes,  a strong peasant food tradition and some unique ingredients like chestnuts and truffles. Finally in the Alps  in winter she passes to the reach and hot north Italian recipes, from stews to polenta, from Lamb pie and roast venison to some amazing chocolate cake.

So yesterday I started browsing through the beautiful recipes (the pictures are amazing and the book in itself it’s a beauty) with the sensation that the majority of them could be quite easy to follow. And there I found one thing that I never had the chance to try before: Bagna Cauda.

This is a very famous dish in the North of Italy and it’s a classic in autumn after the harvest, because the peasants used to eat it all together to remove the sweet smell of the grapes.

Considering that tonight the main dish will be the  turkey with all the trimmings, I wasn’t really keen to bring any other big main  but I thought this could be a really nice dish to have on the table and to eat all together. If you want to follow my idea, here is the recipe from the book in Manuela’s mum version:

BAGNA CAUDA DELLA MAMMA
(Mamma’s Raw Vegetables with Anchovy Cream)

This is the way my mother used to make Bagna Caoda. Boil the 500ml cream with the peeled garlic cloves (4-6) for 15 - 20 minutes so that the cream reduces and thickens. In a fondue dish, melt the butter. Cut the anchovies (8-10) very finely and add them to the 50 gr butter.

Cook them on very gentle heat, until they have melted. Now add the reduced cream. Crush the softened garlic cloves with a fork and stir well, taste and add a little ground pepper. Prepare the vegetables (cucumber, carrots, celery, peppers). Wash them well, slice, dry them, then put them on a large plate.

Put the sauce in a fondue dish over a flame in the centre of the table. Each person puts some vegetables on their plate, and then dips the vegetable sticks into the sauce. It’s also delicious to serve some grissini on the side, to dip in the sauce.

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We are in Foodies 2012 & Sua Eccellenza Italia

While in London we were busy organizing our presence at Masterchef live, in Italy Pastificio dei Campi was achieving a space in some great publications: Foodies 2012 and Sua Eccellenza Italia.

Foodies 2012 is a guide created by the Gambero Rosso, one of the most famous Italian food and wine magazine, designed for connoisseurs of the 3rd millennium, for an audience of fans who not only look for great restaurants, but also street food of high quality, specialty food producers, and so on.

We are happy to announce that this year Pastificio dei Campi has been added to the guide as one of the artisanal producer selected by the editors.

Then, Sua Eccellenza Italia, is instead a gold book released by Gambero Rosso for its celebration of his 25 years anniversary and dedicated to all the most famous symbols of the Food & Wine in Italy: there are small producers, artisans and shopkeepers; the great chefs and the brands that in the world are synonymous of Italian flair. The great chefs and innkeepers of tradition. These and those in a book of 800 pages that tells the good and beautiful in Italy. We are glad to be part of this amazing publications too.

All this just awards are the fruits of our commitment in making a product truly special and unique, following the old italian traditions and only the best ingredients available in the country.

This is to cheers with you all for our success and we hope you will enjoy our products too.

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It's out now with lots of tips.

 
Written by Rose Prince columnist for the Telegraph and expert of food, markets and gastronomy, the Good Produce Guide 2012 it's really a little treasure... especially for someone like me, coming from abroad and with almost no knowledge about english traditional producers. I can tell you one or two things about italian food and typical regional products but it's not the same for the english ones.
 
So I really enjoyed reading through the various categories of this book from markets to deli, from butcher(always hard to find here) and bakery or artisanal producers.

I mean I have already my faithful italian delis ( Melograno and Foodinthecity ), but is always good to know where else you can buy good food if you are in the other side of the city!  And I have particularly appreciated for this reason the map that comes at the end of the book ( that I would just divide in color to make it easier to read) and that can guide you in the different areas of London and UK.
 
And what to say about the list of seasonal english products and the festival calendar? Great! And if in the future i will visit some other english place I'll easily bring this with me or i will check before to go to discover all the best food from the nation.

So yesterday i put the guide under test and I had a look at all the places around Covent Garden, where I was and I found not 1 but 3 great places for a really good cup in the afternoon: these were Drury coffee near Leicester square, the Tea palace in Covent Garden Market and finally Monmouth Caffe that I listened lots of time but that I actually never tried yet! So I went there and it was great: fresh coffe beans and great pastries… irresistible!

Do you want to pick the best of what UK can offer, or you just want to have good food that you can trust in... Let this guide inspire you! And if you are looking for a 100% italian and artisanal PGI pasta, don't forget us ;)

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Because Locatelli is always Locatelli!

Last week I told you about the London Restaurants Festival. This time I will tell you where I decided to have dinner, taking advantage of the promotional menus offered by some of the most famous restaurants in town during that week.

Between all of them I choose Refettorio, the second Locatelli’s  Restaurant after Locanda Locatelli! I discover it after my first “Taste of London” Festival where I had the chance to try an amazing piadina prepared for me by the same Giorgio Locatelli and where he was speaking about the place.

So I decided last week that was time to go and check their menu. I didn't know it was in an hotel so of course I have to admit the ambient is not too cozy as I could have expected, but the dinner was stunning and absolutely worth the deal.

After a Campari and some canapé, made with simple pasta brise, cherry tomatoes and oregano, I ordered for starter a pasta dish: Conchiglie (seashell shaped pasta) with asparagus tips, Burrata cheese and chives! It was delicious, the fresh ingredients, the combination between them and  the pasta cooked al dente and a quite good portion too.

To drink I had a fantastic Tormaresca Rosso 2008 (Negroamaro Cabernet Sauvignon) from Puglia and as a main course we ordered Stuffed aubergines with parmesan crust, roasted cherry tomatoes, thyme and rocket pesto. Really tasty! But the big main was a pan fried pork medallions, grilled courgettes, Girolles mushrooms and pork sauce. That was just so tender … it was stunning.

Finally I couldn't resist to try the ic ecream: three scoops of ice cream, vanilla, cocoa and Stracciatella, topped with morello cherries and served in a tuile basket. Really good!

Finally for who loves the Sicilian cuisine, be aware that Locatelli has just publish a new recipe book about it “Made In Italy: Food & Stories” and he paired it with a new set menu dedicated to the South of Italy and that you will find in Refettorio.

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Which book will you choose to swap o donate?

A great initiative is starting today thanks to The Guardian: a six week book swapping experience taking place in all England and organized until the last detail.

The Guardian in fact will leave 15,000 book around the english cities but it also expects everyone else to do the same. To join the swapping , you will find this weekend in the newspaper a sticker to place in the inside of the book you are willing to donate, to write a message to who will find it.

But this year on the website you will find even a Flickr map to show where all the books have been left and have been found. On the stickers in fact is specified to take and upload a picture of the place where you have found the book.  It's also possible to send it through Twitter with the hastag #guardianbookswap.

Which book i will swap? of course a book about food, but not just because i'm passionate about it, but because I think it's nice to discover recipes and different culinary traditions through a story or some clever reflections.

I have 2 great example for this:

The first one  is The Gourmet by Muriel Barbery. I spoke about this book in march because i really loved it. The great think about the book and the reason why i want to swap it, it's that the story is all about the love for the food and the real sensations and powerful memories it can bring back to your mind. From french to maroccan food, from high cuisine to the most basic ingredients on a table.

The other book instead is The perfect egg by Aldo Buzzi. "A book of genial and highly refined chat, enriched with personal anecdotes, recipes and quotations from literature and history, it is a tribute to the profound pleasures of food" Lots of the dishes are italian but not only, and I think is a very nice way to know new dishes without just looking for recipes. It's all different when this are accompanies with little introduction about their origin or their connections with family histories and curiosity.

I hope someone will like my choice, also if  maybe this person was expecting a classic romance or a book of adventures , thriller or even a sci -fi. No! It will be a a book about food.

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