The Genepy liquor
It’s a niche liquor, with a yellowish-green colour and with a strong herbal aroma and a bitter aftertaste to balance the sweetness obtained from the maceration in alcohol of Artemisia, an Alpine herb growing in the Western Alps. It’s one of the symbol of Aosta Valley region, even though the majority of the producers are in Piedmont region. The herb ...
The History of the Spritz
In the past few years, Spritz became the symbol of the Italian aperitif all over the world and it’s probably the most popular in Italy too. The present recipe, made with Aperol, is the most famous and popular but actually is just one of the several versions of this cocktail. It was created in the Veneto region, early 1800 during ...
the Spumante wine
Which came first, Spumante or Champagne? It was really the abbot Pierre Pérignon who, thanks to his experiments in the Hautvillers Abbey in 1670, discovered the re-fermentation of bottled wine by chance? Probably not, as in 1622 Francesco Scacchi, a doctor from Fabriano, Italy, described a method to make normal wines sparkling in his “De salubri potu dissertatio” an essay ...
The Amaro liquor
Amaro is a bitter liqueur whose origin goes back to Middle Age, when the monks used to produce medical elixirs in the monasteries with officinal plants grown in their botanical gardens. Italy holds the leadership in the production and it’s where the Amaro was created at the end of the Middle Age, for this reason this is one of our ...
The Grappa liquor
Grappa, the Italian distillate par excellence. Grappa is a spirit distilled from marc obtained by the grape skins, whose alcoholic contents can’t be lower than 37,5% even if generally it’s between 40% and 60%. It’s traditionally produced in the mountains of Northern Italy, in particular in Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Piedmont, Lombardy and Trentino Alto Adige regions. The tool used ...
the courses of Italian cookery
The roots of the Italian cookery date back to the 4th century b.C. and its development has been going through political and social changes during the centuries.  The variety of the different regional dishes is one of its main characteristics as well as its simplicity, recognized all over the world. The Italian chefs prefer to give importance to the quality of ingredients, rather than to methods, as our grandmothers used to do. That’s why all the recipes of Italian cookery ...
The Balsamic vinegar
Balsamic vinegar: a product of excellence The term aceto balsamico (balsamic vinegar) is being used in general for a typical dressing, manufactured in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena in the Emilia Romagna region. On the contrary, it’s very important to know the difference between a non traditional balsamic vinegar and DOP balsamic vinegar. The non traditional balsamic vinegar is obtained from the fermentation of one part of concentrated must (or partially concentrated) and one part of balsamic vinegar ...
Ricotta cheese
It’s often considered a cheese, but actually is a dairy product obtained from reheated whey left from the production of cheese. Its name comes from Latin, re-coctus means cooked again. Ricotta has a very old history as the first evidence of its production dates back to Sumer civilisation and Ancient Egypt. It is mentioned in the ninth book of Odyssey, when Ulysses (Odysseus) meets Polyphemus while preparing it. This means that it was spread among the Greeks and the Romans. ...
The home made egg pasta
Home made pasta has an old tradition: tagliatelle, tagliolini, lasagna, ravioli, tortellini and maltagliati were made from the egg pasta dough many years ago already. Home made pasta was for our grandmothers the only pasta available for their families; it was prepared on Sunday and consumed during the week. Nowadays, women who work do not have much time to dedicate to cooking and can seldom prepare a dish of home made tagliatelle. Yet, altogether, it doesn’t take much time to ...
The different kinds of soup in the Italian cookery
MINESTRA (soup) is a vegetable broth enriched with cereals or pasta and dusted with grated parmigiano. The word ZUPPA (soup)  has a German origin and means soaked bread. It’s made of vegetables and pulses, without rice or pasta. It’s served with croûtons and it’s less liquid than minestra MINESTRONE is similar to both ZUPPA and MINESTRA. The variety of vegetables and pulses mixed with pasta, or cereals like rice and barley makes this dish thick and rich. VELLUTATA (creamed dish) ...
Buffalo Mozzarella
Mozzarella di bufala Campana DOP (PDO Buffalo Mozzarella) is an excellence among the Italian food products and is mainly manufactured in Caserta and Salerno areas. Today, it’s the most important product with Protected Designation of Origin in Southern Italy. Its name is derived from the fact that the cheese strings obtained from the curds are “mozzati” (cut off) by the cheesemakers. The Twelfth century documents prove that the monks living in San Lorenzo in Capua Monastery (near Aversa, Caserta) used ...
The gnocchi
The origin of the gnocchi lays in the old cookbooks. If related to durum wheat pasta, the gnocchi are very easy to prepare at home, with just a few ingredients available in all kitchens. The simplicity of the recipe has actually encouraged the creation of different variants of this dish, so gnocchi are not to be considered a mere pasta shape, but a separate family of dishes. Nowadays the are three kinds of gnocchi (potatoes, semolina and “canederli” or Knödel) ...
The SPELT
The spelt soup is as delicious as ancient; this cereal was a staple ingredient of the Roman Legions diet, thanks to its very important and valuable organoleptic properties. Spelt was so important that it was always served during wedding ceremonies; actually wedding was called confarreatio by Ancient Romans (Spelt = Farro in Italian) a term indicating the focaccia bread prepared with spelt that the newlyweds should share.
Raising or Sultana?
Do you know the difference between raising (or currant) and sultana? The two terms are often thought to be synonyms, on the contrary Sultana is a grape variety, while raising is dehydrated grape, under sun or in stove. The misunderstanding is due to the fact that raising is mainly produced with Sultana grape, besides Corinto and Malaga varieties. Sultana variety comes from south Western Asia, it’s good as table grapes and for the production of juices, distillates and obviously to ...
the history of the genoese Pesto
The first example of pounded sauce at Romans’ time, was the MORETUM, described by Virgilio. The first recipe of PESTO ALLA GENOVESE (Genoese-style pesto) dates from mid of XIX century, made by Giovanni Battista Ratto, and it’s described in his “La Cuciniera Genovesa” book. From the excerpts we know that: <we need a clove of garlic, basil or, in case this is not available, marjoram and persil, Dutch cheese and Parmesan, both grated and mixed together, pine nuts, all ingredients ...

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Bookcity Milano
Milan, Lombardia
November 13-17
Merano WineFestival
Merano - Trentino Alto Adige
November 6-10
November Porc
touring event
November 1-30 2020
Tomato Museum
Collecchio
Bagna cauda day
Asti, Piemonte
November 27-29
Ice cream Museum
Anzola dell’Emilia
Alba White Truffle International Fair
Alba, Piedmont
10 October 8 December 2020

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