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In this issue:
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Pasta
Pasta
Parmigiano-Reggiano
Back in Stock
Recipes of the Week
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Best Spaghetti
This is the best Spaghetti on the planet. Blue, Yellow or Red box, when you eat one of these you realize how great pasta can be!
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 Pasta Pasta Pasta
There is a debate amongst scholars about dried pasta versus fresh pasta. One scholar will bless fresh, the other will bless dried. Perhaps, though, it is more like comparing apples to oranges.
Fresh pasta has a wonderful taste and feel that is hard to beat. Roll it out of your machine and into your pot of boiling water. Perhaps the best part about hand made pasta is the act of making it yourself and the inconsistency of each piece of pasta.
Dried pasta allows you to cook to al dente, something that you can't do with fresh. Additionally, variety of shape and size is another wonderful attribute of dried pasta. The easy availability of a wide variety of dried shapes makes it mostly impractical to make them at home. Just the same, hand made fresh pasta can be spectacular.
Like olive oil, we have tried, tasted and tested a lot of pasta.
Shop now for True Italian Pasta!
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A Divine Pasta should start a conversation
The shape of pasta is critical in the annunciation of the accoutrements that join the pasta on the plate. More than just visual, which of course is critical, the shape is key to how the elements are carried, via fork and spoon, to your mouth. Without the correct shape all is lost, almost to the point of why bother. Why bother to make an intricate sauce of mussels and clams with a delicate garlic sauce and then randomly placed on a bed of poorly chosen macaroni.
Great pasta, shapes aside, and the way it is made can and should bring on conversation and debate. Not the debate between fresh or dried, but how it contributes to a dish. It should go beyond being viewed as a vehicle and instead appreciated for its subtle nuances; how it feels in the mouth when you take a bite, and subtle differences in taste. If you haven't experienced this, then you haven't had good pasta. Yes, good, divine pastas are, in fact, more than flour and water!
Squid Ink Stringozzi from Umbria. Really has the flavor! from Umbria. Really has the flavor! This is just-in from Umbria!
50 - 50 Farro and Durum wheat combined in a classic
Umbrian cut to make this brand new pasta perfect!
Egg Pasta in the classic Umbrian shape, has arrived just-in-time for Easter. Giuseppe's Egg Pappardelle has been a run-away best seller. You just don't find good egg pasta like his!
Shop now for Pasta Pasta Pasta
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Time to Order Spring Cheese
It's time for Spring Cheese - Spring Parmigiano-Reggiano. It will be just shy of 36 months old when we split the shell and break open the wheels!
Spring is flowery and sweet, and that's what the cows eat, when their milk is churned and turned into wheels just short of three years ago. Some believe Parmigiano-Reggiano is best when the cows and the cheese live 600 metres above sea-level, and that's where the wild things grow.
It seems every year and every season, starting from its creation, shares similarities with it's previous Parmigian-Reggiano brethren. And yet each brings it's own personality to the table.
We always seem to run out of cheese just when we start craving a good chunk. And, because we ship within a day of breaking open the wheel, the oxidization of your cheese is kept to an extreme minimum. It’s nice to know when you've cut the cheese.
Shop now for the Spring Parmigiano-Reggiano
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Pasta from Umbria
Divine pasta is nothing more than flour and water. Though a good pasta is like a parakeet in the pot. It tells you if the water was good, and if the wheat that was chosen is just that, chosen. It tells you if the ratio of flour to water is right, and if the drying was not rushed. It tells you if the pasta came from some commodity bag of flour brought in from who knows where, and if it was squeezed through a tube at breakneck speed to be shaped and dried all at once!
In the case of Etruria's pastas, Giuseppe has chosen the farmer and the grain from which his pasta will be made. We asked him the other day where he gets his flour. His answer was simple, “I go to the farm to look at the grain after harvest. I choose what is best.” It conjures up the image of a fishmonger at Tsukiji, but instead of fish, it's grains ... Though I think it is more like a friendly visit with the local farmers.
It is this personal attention to detail that only a small producer can still achieve. The bite, the taste, even the look is pronounced and notable; a pasta epiphany is beheld.
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