giacomo's

Illy Coffee Founder Dead at 82

From the New York Times:

Ernesto Illy, who as chairman of Illycaffè, maker of an expensive brand of coffee, was renowned as a scientific perfectionist of coffee and especially as an evangelist of espresso, died Sunday in Trieste, Italy. He was 82.

. . .

“Our coffee is twice as expensive as the run-of-the-mill stuff, at least,” Mr. Illy told The New York Times in 2001. “Our goal is perfect beans, zero defects, and we think we get close to that.”

“Fine espresso paints the tongue,” he said of his favorite drink, which he made a product of precision.

. . .

“He ran what amounted to the Bell Labs of coffee in Trieste,” Corby Kummer, author of “The Joy of Coffee,” said of Mr. Illy in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “He was an international leader in the science of grading and choosing the coffee; in promoting research on how coffee should be grown; on engineering the machines and the way it’s roasted and brewed.”

The Illy company sponsors an annual competition in Brazil for the grower of the best green coffee, with a prize of $30,000.

Mr. Illy, a chemist, was chairman of the company from 1963 to 2004. It was founded in 1933 by his father, Francesco, a chocolate maker from Hungary who moved to Trieste after World War I. By then, Trieste, a port city on the Adriatic, had become a coffee hub, the most convenient place to receive beans from Africa and South America and ship them to caffeine-craving European cities.

Largely under Ernesto Illy’s direction, the company built a laboratory equipped with sophisticated instruments like gas chromatographs, infrared emission pyrometers and flame ionization detectors. There, coffee beans are cut into slices eight microns thick for analysis in an electron microscope. Every step of the manufacturing process is monitored by computers. There are 114 quality-control checks between the time bags of raw beans arrive on the loading docks to the time roasted beans are shipped in sealed cans.

. . .

Disdaining standard-size cups of over-roasted coffee and any sort of added ingredient — particularly milk, which he viewed as a cover-up for badly roasted beans — Mr. Illy saw something sublime in espresso’s vibrant aroma, potent flavor and velvety, hazel-colored head of foam, known as crema in Italian.

. . .

The company started packaging coffee for home consumption in 1965, and in 1972 was the first to sell it in teabaglike pods for making single cups. Illy entered the North American market in 1975. Currently, with annual sales of about $350 million in 140 countries, it is dwarfed by international giants like Kraft and Nestlé, but it remains a prestigious brand.

Mr. Illy studied engineering and ergonomics to design an espresso cup that would most perfectly enhance taste — by considering factors like the amount and fineness of grind and water temperature. In 1990, one of his sons, Francesco, used those cups to start limited-edition collections, decorated by contemporary artists, including Julian Schnabel and Jeff Koons.

. . .

“It takes 50 beans to make a one-ounce cup of espresso,” he once said. “One bad one, and I guarantee that you’ll taste it. It’s like one rotten egg in an omelet.”

Rustichella d'Abruzzo Pastas

Giacomo's proudly carries one of the finest lines of pasta around --Rustichella d'Abruzzo.  This week, the chestnut tagliatelle arrived and I can't wait to try it. We also carry lemon, porcini mushroom, and saffron tagliatelle as well. They have being selling really well and customers have not been shy about telling us what sauces they have been pairing with our flavored pastas.  The majority have been making very simple extra-virgin olive oil or butter based sauces which makes perfect sense.  A more elaborate sauce could cancel out the flavor of the pasta.

Does anyone have a good chestnut pasta sauce recipe for us???

We are opening a new Italian food store!

Maine in general and Eastern Maine in particular has always suffered from a lack of a good source of Italian and other specialty food.  We have an opportunity to rent the space below my husband's law office which is on a busy corner in the middle of downtown.  There used to be a convenience store in our other building which suffered from poor management and yet did fairly well.  We will have a selection of organic and non-organic foods as well as beer, wine, soda and Italian specialty beverages.  I really want to make our store a destination for all Italians and those who love Italy. 

We have almost 100 new apartments 

Our address is 1 Cenral Street in Bangor and we anticipate opening by the 1st of the year.  More soon!

An Italian (Gelato) in New York

Here's an interesting story about one of my favorite things in the universe...gelato...the only question now is how do I get me some???

From the New York Times:

A FEW years ago Guido Martinetti, a young winemaker here, noted to a friend, Federico Grom, that Italy suffered from an odd market gap. Its gelato was plenty good, he observed, but few made it the way Italians approach food and wine generally: with only fresh seasonal products, the highest-quality ingredients and handmade care.

“I forgot what I said to Federico,” Mr. Martinetti, 32, said. “But a week later he came back with a business plan for five years.”

Thus Grom gelato was born, and in just four years, not much time in traditionbound Italy, it outstripped the business plan and earned a name as one of the best. “Sensationally good,” one top food expert here has called it.

On Saturday, Grom opens its first shop in the United States, at Broadway and 76th Street in Manhattan, and it does so with some nervous questions:

Are Americans, whose tastes often tend toward the robust and even flashy, ready for a gelato created almost like the subtle wines the Piedmont region here is famous for?

And maybe more to the point, will they pay the matching price, starting at $4.75 for a small cone?

“You have this culture — big, big in everything,” Mr. Martinetti said. “In Italy, there is sort of a different way.”

“But I think when you taste this ice cream, it’s more fresh,” he said. “It’s more natural. I am an optimist.”

He was speaking, in a white lab coat and a hairnet, in Grom’s factory near the Turin airport, pint-size but big enough to supply the nine existing shops in Italy and five more, including New York’s, in the works.

The company’s whole way of being was on display. Five workers were slicing spring strawberries for sorbet, made only with San Bernardo mineral water from Piedmont. Mr. Martinetti was surrounded by boxes of high-grade Ecuadorean and Venezuelan chocolate, hazelnut paste from Piedmont and Madagascar vanilla.

Into a huge steel vat, workers had just poured several cases of $30-a-bottle Spanish sherry for one flavor, Málaga, otherwise made of milk, organic eggs and sugar. (Raisins would be added later.) Mr. Martinetti dunked a lowly plastic cup into the vat and poked his nose in as if it were a glass of his family’s Barolo.

He sniffed, then tasted. It is pretentious to say about ice cream, but maybe the best word — apart from “delicious” — would be “balanced,” with each ingredient nicely playing off the others rather than one shouting over the rest.

“It’s what I look for in wine and ice cream,” Mr. Martinetti said, shucking off any high-mindedness by noting, too, that Coke’s sweetness wouldn’t work if it weren’t balanced by citric acid.

“I don’t want to say it’s the best ice cream,” he added, though clearly that is his ambition. “But it’s very serious. It’s made in a serious way.”

That seriousness is reflected in the price, which is significantly higher than those of his competitors. Il Laboratorio del Gelato, on the Lower East Side, which also makes fresh, high-quality gelato, charges $3.25 for a small serving of two flavors, $4.50 for medium and $5.75 for large. Grom’s medium will go for $5.75, the large for $6.75. Grom’s “huge” size — not a very Italian concept, although it is available here, too — will cost $9.

“It’s a different approach,” said Mr. Grom, 34, a business executive before settling in full time at Grom two years ago. “We hope the clients will accept the idea and understand. For sure we don’t sell quantity. We sell quality.

“We think New York is ready.”

Indeed, New York has no shortage of either high-quality ice cream or gelato — the Italian version, which is lower in butterfat and whipped with less air than American ice cream.

Jon Snyder, the New York gelato guru who owns Laboratorio and who also created and sold the Ciao Bella chain of gelato shops, said that although Grom’s price is higher, New Yorkers may well pay it if the product is good enough.

“In New York and certain cities, you can almost charge what you want,” he said, though he added that his own prices reflect the fact that his retail customers are not quite so well-heeled. “If you have a quality product, people will come and buy it.”

Though he travels to Italy often, he said he hasn’t yet tried Grom here and is “looking forward” to visiting the shop in New York to see how it stacks up.

“I’m so often disappointed with other people’s products,” he said. “It’s nice to see someone open and be impressed.”

The Big Pasta Bowl

I called my sister G tonight to congratulate her on her  move this weekend into a new house.  (She lives 4 hours away). She sounded so exhausted yet relieved that she was finally in.

Me: So, it well smoothly?

G: No, I found my first casualty of the move.  My big pasta bowl was shattered in a thousand pieces.

Me: Ouch, maybe I'll get you one as a housewarming gift.

G: No, I can't wait til then.  I'm going to need one for Easter Sunday! It was my big bowl - the big one for company. Damn it...

Ah, the big pasta bowl. Every good Italian home has a pasta bowl so massive that it resembles a small boat.  A dish so gigantic that can accomodate at least 5 lbs of pasta.  A vessel so hefty that it takes 2 men or my mother to carry it to the table.

When I was a little girl my mom had this enomous white and blue ceramic bowl that she'd use as long as two criteria were met: 1. It was Sunday; 2. Company was coming for lunch.  The funny thing is it didn't really matter if only one extra person was coming over, the big pasta bowl would come out. 

As she'd place it in the center of the diningroom table overflowing with her homemade pasta alla chiatarra (or even better her handcut tagliatelle) she'd say to anyone listening:  "Call your father, la pasta e' pronta." 

Me: (screaming at the top of my lungs to my Dad downstairs in the basement watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom)  Dad, it's ready...the pasta's on the table!

I have to laugh at the fact that my mother had and has like 15 different pasta bowls in all shapes and sizes.  And me, I have like one...what's wrong with me?

Sunday Dinner Italian Style

Since this blog is basically about being Italian and loving Italian food I would be doing you a terrible injustice if I neglected to tell you about the best day of the week to be both Italian and a food lover...it's Sunday...Sunday dinners at my parent's house are the be all and end all of Italian life...It's about the food but it's also about the family and the conversation and the chaos and the arguing and your mother trying to run your life and whatever else comes up!  So let me describe it: First of all, if this is just a typical Sunday (non-major holiday) we skip the antipasto and go directly to the primo piatto which is pasta with homemade tomato sauce. This is the sauce that my mother woke up at 6am to start making so by noon it's perfection. She usually fries up some meatballs after starting the sauce just for the kids who can't get enough of them. My mother usually goes with a "long" pasta like fettuccini or tagliatelle but sometimes we have "short" pasta or pasta corta like penne or ziti.  The secondo follows and is typically roasted chicken and/or sausage seasoned with rosemary and tarragon served with roasted yukon potatoes and carrots. Sometimes my mother mixes it up abit and goes with a pork roast or roast beef.  We serve this with a large salad is of mixed greens, Spanish onions and tomatoes tossed with a dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sea salt and ground pepper.  Add crusty Italian bread (or french baquette) from our favorite Portland bakery, Standard Baking Company and you've got a meal fit for un re...Dessert is a bowl of seasonal fresh fruit and any type of cake that mom has baked the night before along with a cup of espresso. 

My favorite dessert that my mother makes is her Saturday cake - the marble version (the recipe is on this blog). It's simple, not too sweet and perfect for dipping in a steaming cup of espresso.

When my sister Giovina (Jo) heard that I had posted the recipe she was pissed..."That's our recipe...how could you?!"  She's over it but I say why not, sharing is caring!

Pasta with Shrimp & Asparagus

My husband is a huge asparagus fan as well as a pasta fan so this dish marries both favorites.  Of course the best part is that asparagus is one of the more nutritionally valuable vegetables out there. It's the best vegetable provider of folic acid, it's very low in calories, contains no fat or cholesterol, and is very low in sodium. Asparagus is also a great source of potassium and fiber. Finally, its a source of rutin, a compound that strengthens the walls of capillaries.

Enjoy!

12 oz. fettuccine pasta

2 lemons

4 tsp olive oil

1 lb. raw medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 1/2 lb. asparagus, woody ends snapped off, spears cut in 1 1/2 inch pieces

2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup heavy (whipping) cream

1 cup basil, chopped

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

1.  Boil pasta as pkg directs.  Save 1/3 cup pasta water. Drain; place in serving bowl.

2.  Meanwhile grate 2 tsp peel and squeeze 3 Tbsp juice from lemons.

3.  Heat 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet.  Add shrimp; saute 2 to 3 minutes until just cooked.  Transfer to a plate.

4.  Heat 2 tsp oil in skillet.  Add onion; cook to wilt.  Add next 4 ingredients and cook 2 to 3 minutes until asparagus are crisp-tender.  Stir in cream, lemon peel and juice, basil and olives; bring to a boil. Pour over pasta. Add reserved cooking water; toss to mix and coat.

History of an Italian Recipe

The New York Times is on an Italian roll lately.

A Grandchild of Italy Cracks the Spaghetti Code

Recipe: Italian Meatballs

Zappa Family Spaghetti Sauce

The Best Tiramisu Recipe Ever

Here is one of the best tiramisu recipes I've ever tried. It was given to me by a woman I was introduced to in Florence back in '99. Her name is Antonietta and she is the sister of my cousin's husband. She lives in Sesto Fiorentino, a suberb of Florence and is molto "alla mano" as they say in Italy, meaning very open and friendly...As I was stuffing my face with her masterpiece I jotted down this recipe on a paper napkin.

Ingredients:

5 eggs

500 g. mascarpone cheese

5 heaping tablespoons of sugar

1 box of Pavesini or saviorardi biscotti (200 g.)

Pinch of salt

Grated chocolate

Espresso coffee mixed with a little sugar (6 cup stovetop pot is a perfect amount - not 6 cups of coffee just 6 servings)

Beat egg white and salt until fluffy and light.  In another bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar and mix well until the mixture becomes creamy and smooth.  Add mascarpone cheese and mix well.  Then fold in egg whites. Spread a layer of the cream mixture on the bottom of a serving dish.  Dip cookies in coffee then carefully arrange on top of the cream. Sprinkle with grated pieces of chocolate.  Continue making layers of cream, cookies dipped in coffee and chocolate pieces until ingredients are gone.  Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.  Serves 10.

Saturday Cake

Today, Alessandro (4) and Hugo (3)  and I baked 2 chocolate cakes...one for Poppa's birthday which was Friday and one for the Mr. and Mrs. Martin.  The Martin's are our next door neighbors and they watch Hugo and sometimes even Giacomo (my 9 month old) every Tuesday morning for a couple of hours so I can get a break.  (Alessandro's goes to preschool)

The cakes turned out great despite the fact that Sandro cracked the eggs onto the counter and Hugo was a little heavy handed with the vegetable oil...but no harm done.  I love that they enjoy baking with me.  Especially little Hugo, he's my chef - he loves everything about the kitchen and is always trying to help. Sometimes its cute, sometimes its a pain but hey he's 3.  We're making memories and that's what its all about.  I still have such delicious memories of baking along side my mother.  Almost every Saturday we would make our family's favorite cake, my mother's invention aptly titled Saturday Cake.  Here's the recipe...it's a keeper!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening or 1 stick butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 3/4  cup flour

3 tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup milk

3 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. lemon extract

1/2 tsp. rum extract

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, cream together shortening or butter and sugar, then mix well until light and fluffy.  Add flour, baking powder, milk, vanilla, lemon and run.  Beat until well combined.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Pour batter into greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake for 40 minutes.

Marble Variation: Measure out 2 cups of the batter and place in a small bowl.  Add one packet of liquid baking chocolate and stir well with a spoon until combined.  Pour white batter in the pan alternately with chocolate batter. Bake as usual.

Ciambelloni Variation:  Substitute 2 tsp. anise extract for the vanilla, lemon and rum extracts.  Stir 1/2 cup crushed walnuts and 1/4 c. sliced maraschino cherries into the batter.  Bake as usual.