Louisville Archives - attheitaliantable.com

June 12, 2017 by Gina Stipo 2 Comments

Frying sage leaves in the spring!

If you’re lucky enough to have a perennial sage plant in your garden, you know that in the spring when it starts growing again, the leaves it puts out are huge! Perfect for dipping in a light batter and frying!

Super simple, the batter is unmeasured and a quick and easy combo of flour, salt and either white wine or soda water. Heat peanut oil in a skillet and dip each leaf in the hot oil, turning as they get golden brown on one side. If you want to get fancy, you can spread a little anchovy paste (the tube you brought back from Italy last time. What? You didn’t?? Well come with us and we’ll show you where to pick one up!) and sandwich two sage leaves together with it, dipping and frying.

This is a perfect snack while you’re sipping your negroni or spritz, dreaming of Italy! Buon appetito!

May 27, 2017 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Summer grilling the Tuscan Way

Memorial Day means filling the pool, cleaning off lawn furniture for al fresco dining and getting the barbeque or grill ready for a season of cooking outdoors. Welcome summer!

Grilling outdoors is generally a warmer seasonal activity. But in Tuscany, we grill inside as well. Show a Tuscan a fire and he’s at the ready with some meat to throw on a grill over the live coals – inside or out!

There is no comparison to the flavor that a wood or charcoal fire gives to anything you put on it. The recent article by Sam Sifton in the food section of the NYTimes attests to that. Gas may be more convenient, but nothing matches the flavor of grilling over live coals. I’m of the opinion that the reason we feel the need to use so many rubs and marinades in our gas grilling is to either to add some flavor that gas doesn’t provide or to mask the bad flavor that gas so often imparts to food.

At my restaurant in Louisville, we only grill outdoors over live coals. Using a Weber grill, and a special grilling chimney to start the natural hardwood charcoal, I can have a fire ready in 20 minutes. Sea salt, meat and live coals is all you need. My guests frequently ask “What did you put on this meat? It’s so delicious!” Sea salt and a real fire. That’s it!

In Tuscany, any indoor fireplace means an opportunity to grill dinner. In the dead of winter, in the smallest fireplace with a fire started with a small amount of wood and allowed to burn down to a bed of coals, the portable grill with little legs come out and dinner is grilled right in the living room! Nothing is more surprising but nothing beats it!

Next up I’ll give you a few tips on grilling meat over live coals.

Buon Appetito and Happy Memorial Day!

November 8, 2015 by Gina Stipo 2 Comments

An Osteria is born

Osteria – Italian, from oste – innkeeper; from Latin hospit-, hospes- host, stranger, guest; a small establishment serving food and wine in a hospitable, communal environment.

Before I opened At the Italian Table in Louisville this past summer, I designed the open kitchen and dining area as a space where I could cook and serve food, hoping to serve dinners but unsure what the community would embrace. There was a local desire for cooking and pasta-making classes, and having owned a cooking school in Tuscany, I knew we could plan and execute that. Having shipped two containers of furniture, decor and tableware with me from my years in Italy, I wanted to recreate a warm, Italian environment. At the two long refectory tables, I dreamed of serving meals family-style in a communal setting, emulating dinners in Italy. I wondered if to interest the locals and get them in the door, I would have to offer some retail of table and kitchen items from Italy – sea salt, olive oil, kitchen towels – and so set aside a retail area. And I figured if I only ended up catering, at least I was cooking in a licensed kitchen.

Much to my delight and amazement, Louisville has decided that At the Italian Table is an osteria and has embraced it with open arms!

The idea of casually dining on several courses of simple yet delicious food, in a lovely warm setting, with a convivial, familial and communal atmosphere, has struck a chord with local diners. In Italy, an osteria was historically a small dining establishment, often in someone’s home, where wayfarers could get great local food and wine, reasonably priced and enjoyed in a communal setting with others. The fact that the Frankfort Avenue train often passes by only enhances the travelers setting!

People arrive as singles, in pairs or in groups and are all seated together. The synergy around the tables is amazing and we rejoice in our open kitchen to hear the chatter and laughter of people enjoying good food and wine in each others’ company!

With two large communal tables full four nights a week, we are serving up beautiful wooden boards of sliced Tuscan salumi, lovely fresh pastas, and grilled or roasted meats, to enthusiastic diners! The addition of Italian wines from a selective list of reasonably priced wines from all over Italy, along with after-dinner grappa and amaro, has completed the atmosphere of an osteria.

My hats off to Louisvillians for understanding and embracing this convivial way of dining! It is what I dreamed At the Italian Table could be and, along with my excellent and accomplished staff, Angelina and Don, we’re thrilled to be a part of a new way of dining in this great city!

Buon Appetito! See you at the Table soon (call for a reservation! 883-0211)

July 24, 2015 by Gina Stipo 6 Comments

Building an Italian dream in Kentucky

When I moved back to the US from Italy in 2013, I chose to live in a small city I’d grown very fond of over six years of making visits to conduct private cooking classes and dinners. The friendly people, the sense of community, the beautiful neighborhoods and the great restaurant scene all conspired to draw me to Louisville Kentucky. I have found a wonderful home in the Crescent Hill neighborhood and am now a business owner in my community as well!

This past spring, I found the perfect small building on Frankfort Avenue to create a foodie space that celebrates all things wonderful about the Italian table. The old house is on one of the most popular and important restaurant streets in town, with great neighbors and a train track running along side. Very auspicious, my feng shui friend tells me!

I found a great team of builders, electricians, plumbers and fire suppression folks, which in today’s nanny state is ever critical to getting permits to serve food. They did a great job and finished in record time. I am now putting the finishing touches on a beautiful Italian dining room with a 300 year old farm table, lovely antiques, and a view of the kitchen. The Carrara marble island in the kitchen is perfect for gathering to learn how to make Italian regional dishes and there is plenty of table space to learn the art of making fresh pasta.

We’ll be open for the July 31st Frankfort Ave Trolley Hop and will be selling porchetta sandwiches and fried zucchini blossoms under a tent in our parking lot. The roasted pork belly and shoulder will be from a local farm and seasoned the Tuscan way with rosemary and sage out of our herb garden. The zucchini blossoms will be picked that morning at a local farm and stuffed with mozzarella. Both are redolent of the Tuscany I left and will be enjoyed by my new neighbors and friends. Come party with us on the 31st!

To make a reservation for dinner or for a cooking class, call: 502-883-0211 or my cell 321-412-2011. Or send me an email, ginastipo@gmail.com.

Credit cards will be accepted and our liquor license should be effective by this fall.

I look forward to seeing you at the Italian table!