Tuscany Archives - Page 4 of 11 - attheitaliantable.com

November 7, 2016 by Gina Stipo 2 Comments

The noblest of wines: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano

In our newsletter we usually talk about food, what we’re making and what’s in season, but this issue I’d like to talk about our favorite Tuscan wine, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG. We just returned from touring two culinary groups through the area and had some wonderful cantina tours and tasted excellent wines when we were in the beautiful town of Montepulciano.

An old walled city high on a hill just to the west of the A1 to Rome, Montepulciano was an important Etruscan town in the times before the Roman Empire. The city sits on a hill of tufo, a yellowish sandstone that is easy to burrow yet strong enough to support large structures and palaces. From ancient times, the people who inhabited the city dug caverns and tunnels under the buildings to use for storage and to make wine, and most of these tunnels are still in use today. The city’s close proximity to a main artery going into Rome meant that it was a stopping place for travelers and pilgrims. The city’s reputation for making excellent wine was reknowned and the wine was served on tables of nobility, aristocrats, cardinals and popes from medieval times. Most of the elegant palaces built by nobility still stand today and date from the 1500’s.

A noble wine with a long history, Vino Nobile is made with a 70% minimum of the prugnolo gentile clone of the sangiovese grape (there are many clones, including sangiovese grosso used for Brunello di Montalcino), as well as a blend of other grapes indigenous to the area around Montepulciano and Tuscany. These can be a combination of malvasia nera, ciliegiolo, colorino, canoiolo nero or mammolo.

Don’t confuse Vino Nobile di Montepulciano with a wine of lesser heritage, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC, which is from Abruzzo, not Tuscany. The grape in that wine of simpler breeding is montepulciano. The story goes that they chose that name for the grape because the word ‘montepulciano’ was already associated with excellent wine and they thought it might help this wine from Abruzzo sell. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened and on wine lists and in wine shops all over the US you find many options of the lesser wine from Abruzzo, and very few examples from producers of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.

According to the laws governing the making of Vino Nobile, it must spend 18 months in wood barrels, large or small, which helps it improve with age. It drinks best when it has at least 5 years on it, so hang onto it if you do find it!

The wine is worth seeking out so be sure to ask about it at your local shop or restaurant. If you have a great wine shop, like Wine Rack in Louisville or Total Wines, they may even be able to order something in for you!

And if you get a chance to go to Tuscany, be sure to spend a day combing the ancient cantinas and cellars of the town, tasting the excellent wines of the area!

May 16, 2016 by Gina Stipo 2 Comments

Mary and Gina are Ecco la Cucina, offering culinary adventure tours in Italy!

Our spring trip to Tuscany is just a few weeks away and we are both excited to get back to Italy! Our June culinary week is based in our favorite villa on an historic estate south of Siena and we have an exciting week of food and wine events planned for our group! June in Italy means cherries and apricots, new onions and garlic, and an explosion of roses and poppies covering the countryside and towns with color. The season begins for outdoor food festivals and we’ll take the group to our favorite sagra celebrating pasta and grilled meats.

While we’re in Italy, we will also be visiting Piedmont and Emilia Romagna to put the finishing touches on our 2017 culinary tours to Alba, Asti and Bologna for next spring and fall. Think truffles, Barolo wine, balsamic vinegar and Parmigiano!

Our tours are all inclusive: we stay in lovely villas that become your home for the week, all meals and transportation to excursions are planned to help you relax and we’re there every step of the way to show you the best each region has to offer.

One of the things that rate our tours above our competitors is the attention to detail and personal service we offer and we consistently hear that our value for cost is exceptional. We lead small groups of 8-12 people where everyone stays together in a beautiful villa and excursions are carefully thought out to entertain and educate, introducing you to local people who love to share their vineyard or city or farm with you. It surprises us when we read itineraries of other tours that leave their guests at the hotel “on their own for the evening”, supplying them with a list of suggested restaurants to pick from. On our tour, when the culmination of the day arrives, we are there offering cocktails and wine before we all enjoy dinner together at a favorite restaurant! We’ll guide you through the menu and help you order and enjoy the best the season and locale has to offer.

When you travel with us, Mary is there from the beginning to help you pick the best airports and to plan things to do and see before and after you join our culinary adventure. Gina’s knowledge of the area and fluent Italian from her years living there, helps ensure that the week goes smoothly and you are able to immerse yourself in the culture, history and culinary delights of Italy without worry. Our guests also receive our comprehensive guide on traveling to Italy and have access to our local guides to maximize your touring experience, wherever you go.

We hope you’ll allow us to show you Italy! Check out the Ecco La Cucina website for more information

February 25, 2016 by Gina Stipo 2 Comments

Trusting in Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

There has been a lot of press lately regarding authentic vs adulterated extra virgin olive oil. Especially Italian, which everyone considers some of the best. In both taste and health benefits, extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany, Sicily and Puglia can’t be beat, and you feel good about buying it for yourself and your family.

Until they tell you it’s all fake and you can’t trust the label. Then what are you supposed to do?!

In some respects, it’s true: there is a lot of adulteration going on with extra virgin olive oil. You need to know who you can trust, where you can turn for good information. The label on the bottle says “Italy” or “Italian”, but the small print gives a key to where the oil comes from: ES -Spain, TU- Tunisia, GR-Greece, etc. Often the small sprint says “bottled in Italy”, which means the olives or oil can come from anywhere and are bottled in Italy. Berio and Bertolli, two of the only Italian olive oils available until about 25 years ago, were famous for this. At any rate, it gives a bad name to one of the most delicious and healthy products we have access to. That’s why a little knowledge can protect you and make you feel confident when purchasing olive oil.

In Italy, there are hundreds of comestible products that carry a seal of approval from the corresponding consortium governing that product. Think Parmigiano Reggiano DOP cheese, Aceto Balsamico, Brunello di Montalcino DOCG wine (in fact, all the hundreds of DOC/DOCG wines coming out of Italy). In short, there are governing bodies that control and regulate the growing, production, packaging and geographic area of hundreds of foods and drinks produced in Italy.

In America there is only one product that can carry its name only if the rules for ingredients, production and geographic area are followed. Anyone?? Bourbon: Must be 52% corn, aged a minimum of 2 years in brand new toasted oak barrels and must be made in the USA. One, out of all the things the US makes. By comparison, Italy has literally hundreds.

The consortiums that govern Italian DOP and IGP/IGT olive oil have a process they follow to determine that the product has followed all the rules for producing that oil: only the right olives that are grown, pressed and bottled in the given territory are given the seal that the producer proudly puts on the bottles. This seal has a serial number that can be used to see who grew the olives, where they were pressed and bottled. The process of pressing the extra virgin oil is also controlled to avoid heating the product, which deteriorates the oil and affects the acidity. That’s how important food is to Italians, that is an example of how seriously they take their olive oil.

Search out and purchase extra virgin olive oil that has either a DOP or an IGP/IGT seal on it. Make sure that the bottle has the year that it was made: olives are picked and pressed in November and December of each year and the oil should be as young as possible.

Look for a dark green bottle. Extra virgin olive oil can be very green when pressed if the olives used were predominately green. But it loses the green color over just a few months and will be golden yellow by the next summer. So avoid any green oil in a clear bottle; chlorophyll has most likely been added.

Italian extra virgin olive oil is one of the best products you can use and it is possible to get some really great stuff without traveling to Italy. Where to get the product? Gustiamo is an Italian import company that is very good and has several DOP oils to purchase. Costco brings in an excellent IGP olive oil from Tuscany and it’s available now. And obviously you can join us, Ecco La Cucina, on one of our culinary tours to Italy, which will give you many opportunities to purchase excellent oil to carry or ship home! I hope this information helps you to feel more comfortable in buying olive oil!

October 7, 2015 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Moving into Autumn

Indian Summer is my favorite time of year. Hot, clear and sunny days remind us of the summer that has passed and gives us one more chance to warm our bones in the sun before winter hits and envelops us in its cold, dry arms.

But it reminds us that cold weather is coming in earnest and holiday fun is soon to be enjoyed! For me, the cooler fall weather brings a most welcome change to the Italian Table with roasted meats, braised dishes and stews, warming soups and hearty pastas.

I love this time of year! The deeply flavored and long-cooked dishes I left behind in the spring when the weather lightened and warmed have been missed, and I welcome them back to my stove!

This season’s vegetables are visible in the farmers markets and stores: winter greens like kale and chard, pumpkins and winter squash, nuts and mushrooms all herald the harvest and the autumn. In Italy the grapes have been pressed into the fermentation tanks and they look to the olive trees to determine when harvest for the oil will begin. Chestnuts are falling in the woods and if the rain has cooperated, mushrooms and truffles are available too. October means deer season, with wild boar hunting not far behind.

In Tuscany, this time of year means we relight the big fireplaces and use them to grill sausages and bruschetta to be served with cannellini beans cooked with rosemary and sage and new olive oil drizzled over all. Hearty braised stews with wild game and wild juniper are paired with rich polenta for a filling and satisfying meal.

Some of my favorite dishes to cook are rich ragus of beef, pork and wild game serve with wide papparadelle, or rich pastas stuffed with mushrooms and cheese or butternut squash and nutmeg and served with a butter sage sauce.

Enjoy this return to the enveloping flavors of the Italian Table!