Italian writer Mario Soldati (1906–1999), “If you want to enjoy Italy you must discover it on your own, relying on your luck and your instinct, as one of Italy’s great laws is the following: ‘Everything that bears a title, a name, advertising is worth less than what is unknown, hidden, individual.’”
Category: Communication
Barbaresco a Tavola
Translates to: Barbaresco at the table.
Each guest gets two glasses at their place. There are a number of wines to choose from, ordered by number and a meal that you would find in the village of Barbaresco. For the dinner Kristen and I put on we had 13 different Barbarescos. I’ve been to events in Italy where there were 25 wines to sample.
All of the wines are from the same vintage. The wines are sampled without knowing the producer or the vineyard. A tasting sheet is provided to make notes and at the end of the meal all of the producers are revealed.
Welcome
Hi my name is Donna. This journal is the electronic version of little pieces of paper I have stuffed in my bag and notebook. Things that interest me and I want to hold onto but don’t have anyplace to put them.
It’s mostly about Italy and Italian food, New England and the recipes and ingredients from this rugged and beautiful land that I now call home. There are also thoughts culture and language.
We are in the process of moving our belongings back from Italy where we lived for more than 11 years. So you might be subjected to some reminiscing while I open boxes from our Italian life.
John Anthony Rizzo is my partner in life and without whom this adventure wouldn’t have happened!
Cognata | Sister in law
La mia cognata è fantastico!
Noun
She and my cognato have chickens and ducks and they give us eggs!
Italian Pantry
At one point I became obsessed with teaching a class (or classes) on the Italian pantry. When we first started traveling to Italy and staying in farmhouse apartments called an Agritourismo and later going to friends parents houses or vacation places, I got interested in the staples that you find in most Italian houses. There was something satisfying about knowing if you showed up late at night at a rental apartment somewhere remote I could often count on finding a box of dried pasta and some tomato sauce or anchovy paste.
- Coffee
- Olive Oil
- Dried Pasta (maybe polenta or rice)
- Tomato Sauce
- Bottled water
- biscuit
- marmellata
- aceto / vinegar
- flour
- sugar
- Herbs/spices/salt/pepper/peperoncino
Things you bring with you:
- Chocolate
- Milk (maybe a room temperature sealed box
- good olive oil because what is there might be old
- cheese
- bread
- salami
- eggs
- wine
Maybe:
- Honey
- wine
- anchovy paste
- can of tuna
- Olives
Old school winemaking
“All of our new tanks are temperature controlled. But a good percentage of our older tanks are not, so in the fall, after the harvest, there are 24 hour shifts that members must sign up to watch over the tanks until the fermentation is complete.”
Dreaming of Barbaresco
John and I moved to Neive, one of the Barbaresco wine growing villages.
One of the first projects we worked on was a book titled Barbaresco Terroir. The memories of collaborating with Aldo Vacca on this book was one of the most enjoyable and satisfying experience of my life.
