italian food 2

italian food
In days of old, those fortunate enough to own land in the country would open cantinette to sell the produce from their estates to the city folk -- not a bad idea, if you think about it. Though Antinori is primarily known for its wines,Melissa Mulliken recently asked if Florence's Enoteca Pinchiorri is still as good as its reputation -- to which I replied that I cannot say since I have never eaten there. However, it was ranked 3rd in the annual restaurant roundup printed in Civilta' del Bere, Italy's leading wine magazine (they considered the ratings of this year's editions of the major restaurant guides, among other things). This is up from 4th last year, so she will be in excellent hands.

about 20 years ago they decided to revive this custom -- not with a cellar store, but with a restaurant in Palazzo Antinori. It's one of the most comfortable and welcoming places in Florence, and one of the few that's split-level.
italian food
I recently had a business lunch, which began with a flute of spumante (dry) to accompany the toasted bread and liver paté we nibbled on while browsing the menu. We settled on sharing a pair of appetizers. One was insalata di lenticchie, a delightful and extremely interesting lentil salad seasoned with curry, fennel and lemon -- a combination that wouldn't have occurred to me but was quite good. The second, bruschetta con il cavolo nero, bruschetta with kale, was less interesting but not less good. Standard Tuscan fare, but perfectly prepared, with a thick bed of kale atop the slices of bread, and just the right amount of good oil. The kale was a little bit salty, to compensate for a lack of sharpness attributable to unseasonably warm weather, and the whole was quite nice. The second course was arista in crosta, roast loin of pork en crust, though crust is something of a misnomer here as the wrap was moist and herby. And quite good, as was the meat, which was extremely tender. There was also creamed spinach, which was simple and tasty. The wine? Cantinetta Antinori features all of Antinori's wines, and is thus an excellent place to taste by the glass. We had Guado al Tasso, a Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon blend produced at Bolgheri, which was quite nice, rich and enticing of bouquet, and full, round and with nice fruit on the palate.
italian food
For dessert, a simple crostata di mele, a delicately made, tasty apple pastry that went very well with a glass of Muffato della Sala, the botrytized dessert wine Antinori makes in Umbria. It's similar to Sauternes, though this vintage had more pronounced fruit and less evident botrytis than the French wines I've tasted. Quite good, however, the sort of wine you could easily spend an afternoon enjoying sip by sip.
italian food
The cost? Depending upon what you eat, expect to spend between 35 and 80,000 lire per person Though it has undergone a serious facelift since I first went in 1985, I Ricchi remains a well kept secret. To reach it you really have to drive - there is the number 45 bus (ask the driver when to get off ), but it stops running at 8. Take the Via Bolognese up past Trespiano, the city cemetery, and turn left onto the road for Cercina (right after the turnoff for the cemetery parking lot). The road winds for several kilometers, passing through a couple of hamlets and up a steep hill (turn left at the top of it), and the restaurant is on the left at a spot overlooking the valley, with the cemetary bleow. There is unfortunately no sign, but there is a terraced trellis out front which should help you recognize it.

Once you get there, you're in for a treat: Hearty Tuscan fare, with rich pasta sauces and traditional thick soups such as ribollita to start you off (after the appetizers), as well as lighter dishes such as tagliolini con limone, tagliolini in a delicate creamy lemon sauce. The second courses are excellent; the restaurant is famous for its mixed fried meats, which are dipped in a batter that becomes wonderfully crunchy. Accompany them with mixed fried vegetables and you've got a meal fit for a bishop, especially with the house wine, a young zesty Chianti whose acidity nicely counterbalances the fritto. The desserts are the damnation of the dieter: Massive portions, and so delicious you'll want more. The meringato, interlayered meringues and chilled cream liberally sprinkled with bits of chocolate, is heavenly on a summer day.

Price? Surprisingly reasonable, about 40,000 lire per person. One major quibble: there's no printed menu, and as one person who visited pointed out, this makes it hard on those who don't speak Italian. And a minor quibble: the house wine is now Antinori's Santa Cristina, which seems a little much. Something by the flask would be nice to see.

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noteca Fuori Porta
Via Del Monte alle Croci 10/r (Florence, just outside Porta San Niccoló, on the road up to San Miniato). Tel 055 2342483, closed Sundays

It's a little bit out of the way, but well worth the walk, especially on a pleasant spring afternoon when you can sit outside. What will you find? Nice people, good foods, especially cold cuts, cheeses, sandwiches, and simple first course dishes (though how simple taglierini with a liberal sprinkling of white truffles are is open to debate), and Florence's best wine list -- All the producers in Tuscany make sure the Enoteca has their wines, and you can sample some spectacularly rare vintages -- say a 1971 Tignanello or Monsanto, for example. Nor is it just the Tuscans; the Enoteca has a wide selection of wines from other regions and from abroad.

Perfect for lunch but better for dinner, when you want to spend a quiet hour eating good food, watching the world go by, and talking with friends. Highly recommended. The cost? Variable; if you don't want a whole bottle, or want to sample a number of different wines, you will be delighted by the variety of the 40 wines sold by the glass. If you want a bottle, on the other hand, you'll have hundreds to choose from. Depending upon what you order, figure from 20,000 lire per person on up.

L'Antico Ristoro di Cambi
Piazza del Tiratoio, just off from Ponte Vespucci in the Oltrarno (near the chuch of San Frediano); Closed Sundays

In the past every Florentine neighborhood had a fiaschetteria, a place where people would gather for a quick lunch, and where a segment of the population would pass the afternoons drinking wine by the flask. San Frediano was a poor neighborhood and had several, all hole-in-the-wall type joints whose clientele began to age inexorably in the 70s, as the younger generation adopted other pastimes. The one on the corner of Piazza del Tiratoio boarded up its doors about 10 years ago while the owners unleashed the stonemasons, and emerged about a month later as the Antico Ristoro di Cambi, an elegant eatery catering primarily to the lunch crowd. They still sell wine, of course, but now it's accompanied by a wide variety of salads, first courses, and entrées, things to be eaten by people on the go who don't want to slow down after lunch. I had pappa al pomodoro, a delicious dish made with fresh tomatoes, basil, and day-old bread that was spiced just right, followed by a "springtime salad," which was actually a platter with tomatoes, radicchio, mozzarella, thin slices of pecorino and some bresaola (cured beef drizzled with oil and lemon juice). Tasty, and since the items were distinct the flavors didn't run together.

Elisabetta, on the other hand, had had a heaping bowl of fresh salad and tripe salad, tripe served with thinly sliced fresh tomato and seasoned with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Both quite good. You can, if you want, order a steak -- the guy behind us did and appeared to be enjoying it, and in the winter the menu changes to reflect the cooler temperatures, with more rib-sticking entrées such as beans and sausage.
She also wondered where else I would dine in Florence, if I wanted to enjoy a memorable meal. I haven't been everywhere, but the people doing the restaurant guides presumably have. Firenze Spettacolo recently went through them and drew up a top ten list
The cost? Betty and I spent 39,000, but didn't drink any wine (too hot). If you want something simple, quick and quite Florentine, you should try this.

italy food.....

From the If you cannot imagine how mere cornmeal can be turned into a tasty meal, then undoubtedly you have never eaten polenta prepared in an Italian kitchen. Once considered peasant food, polenta is now appearing in even the most elegant restaurants. Earlier in this century, polenta was a staple food eaten out of necessity, sometimes two or three times a day. Some families would dump a big mound of polenta onto a board, and everyone would sit around sharing it. It would be flavored with broth, a little sauce, vegetables or sausages. Polenta is still a staple in many homes in northern Italy today, particularly in the regions of Veneto, Piedmont, and Tuscany, although generally considered "home cooking" and not served for company.early Middle Ages (beginning around A.D. 500) to the late 1800s, Italy consisted of separate republics, each with different culinary (cooking) customs. These varying cooking practices, which were passed down from generation to generation, contributed to the diversity of Italian cuisine. Italy's neighboring countries, including France, Austria, and Yugoslavia, also
In order to create a really great pizza, you need to start with the best ingredients, but unless your pizza has a great crust, it doesn't matter what toppings you put on your pizza. I was fortunate enough to have a very large bag of San Felice Tipo 00 flour sent to me to try out from Ben at Wholesale Italian Food and we quickly got busy making pizzas to cook in our backyard pizza oven. Now our pizza crust is usually pretty darn good, but I have been using all-purpose flour to make it up to this point, and it wasn't until I started to use the San Felice tipo 00 that I realized how much better it could be! San Felice is in fact certified Authentic Artisan Neapolitan Pizza Flour and creates a light crust that is crisp on the outside but tender to the bite. In Italy, flour is classified either as 1, 0, or 00, and refers to how finely ground the flour is and how much of the bran and germ have been removed. 00 flour is the most highly refined and is talcum-powder soft. I will never go back to all-purpose flour for my pizza again

contributed to differences in the country's cuisine.
Italy Food and Wine are varied in nature and is world famous for its cultural difference and diversity. It is not an imitation of any particular type of cuisine but a refectory blend of Greek, Roman, Gallic, Germanic, Goth, Norman, Lombard, Frank, Turkish, Hebrew, Slavic, Arab and Chinese culinary. There are regional differences in food tastes of Northern and Southern Italy. Italian food is also very seasonal. Italian food can thus be distinguished from other world class cuisines due its innate nature of being fresh and priority to seasonal productions.
Italy changed in many ways when the economy flourished following World War II (1939–45). During this time, farming was modernized and new technologies and farming systems were introduced. Various culinary practices throughout the country's regions began to be combined after people started migrating from the countryside to the cities. Many southern Italians traveled to the north at this time, introducing pizza to northern Italians. Those from the north introduced risotto (a rice dish) and polenta (a simple, cornmeal dish) to the south. Fast foods, mostly introduced from the United States, have brought more culinary diversity to Italy. However, pride in the culture of one's region, or companilismo, extends to the food of the locality, and regional cooking styles are celebrated throughout the country.
Northern and Southern Italy gastronomy are assorted. Where the northern Italian food uses more butter and creams, the southern residents like to have more tomato and olive oil. There is also a marked difference in the cooking style of fat and traditional food of pasta. Moreover, inland northern and north-eastern regions like extra butter, cream, polenta, mascarpone, grana padano, and parmigiano cheeses, risotto, lasagna and fresh egg pasta. On the other hand, the coastal northern and central Italians are somewhat fond tortellini, ravioli and prosciutto. The southern Italian food is more concentrated with mozzarella, caciocavallo, and pecorino cheeses, olive oil, and dried pasta. However, the traditional Italian cuisine does not follow strict North-South patterns
3 FOODS OF THE ITALIANS
Although Italians are known throughout the world for pizza, pasta, and tomato sauce, the national diet of Italy has traditionally differed greatly by region. Prior to the blending of cooking practices among different regions, it was possible to distinguish Italian cooking simply by the type of cooking fat used: butter was used in the north, pork fat in the center of the country, and olive oil in the south. Staple dishes in the north were rice and polenta, and pasta was most popular throughout the south. During the last decades of the twentieth century (1980s and 1990s), however, pasta and pizza (another traditional southern food) became popular in the north of Italy. Pasta is more likely to be served with a white cheese sauce in the north and a tomato-based sauce in the south.

Italians are known for their use of herbs in cooking, especially oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, and sage. Cheese also plays an important role in Italian cuisine. There are more than 400 types of cheese made in Italy, with Parmesan, mozzarella, and asiago among the best known worldwide. Prosciutto ham, the most popular ingredient of the Italian antipasto (first course) was first made in Parma, a city that also gave its name to Parmesan cheese.

Heat the olive oil over a gentle flame and slowly brown the garlic, taking care not to let it burn. When the oil is flavored, remove and discard the garlic. Next, turn the flame up and brown the breadcrumbs over a brisk flame, stirring in the pepper too. As soon as the bread crumbs are browned remove the pan from the fire. If you are perchance using dried oregano (just 1/4 teaspoon) add it now.

Set pasta water to boil, and while it is heating arrange the sardines on a grill and brush them with some of the bread crumb mixture.

Cook the pasta, and while it is cooking grill the sardines for about 8 minutes.

Drain the pasta, season it with the flavored oil and the fresh oregano, if that's what you have,, carefully incorporate the grilled sardines, and serve at once.

A wine? I might be tempted by a Frascati, and I'd follow the pasta with a more glamorous grilled fish.

Whether it is thin crust, thick crust, stuffed, rolled, topped with a dozen ingredients or served simply with tomato and cheese, there are few people who do not appreciate good pizza, myself included. Pizza, or flatbreads have actually been around for centuries, but today’s style of pizza can be traced back to the 18th century when vendors roamed the streets of Naples selling pieces of garnished flatbread to the poor. Although it is commonly believed that Italians invented the pizza, it's origins can actually be traced back to ancient times. The Israelites, Egyptians, and other Middle Eastern cultures ate flat bread cooked in mud ovens similar to today's pita bread, and later the Romans and Greeks began topping this flatbread with olive oil and native spices. Once the Italians accepted the use of cooking with tomatoes, the Italians perfected the pizza, and it evolved into what we call pizza today. Italians take their pizza so seriously in fact, that as they did for wine, they have established a controlling body (a Denominazione di Origine Controllata or DOC) for pizza: the Associazone Vera Pizza Napoletana. This agency produced a document called the Progetto di Norma which stipulates exact ingredients and methods required by Associazone members worldwide to produce "verace pizza napoletana
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