Tag: Italy

Toast April with Nino Franco Prosecco – an 11% Sparkler!

Another month means another sparkling toast from us to the future. This time, we raise a glass of Nino Franco Rustico Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG. Not only does this wonderful Italian sparkler add light and life to our day, but it also does it with a low 11% alcohol so that we can have a glass for lunch and then go back to work.

(Note: We're not recommending that you drink and drive or do critical tasks after a glass of wine. We walk to our home office and only operate keyboards and cameras.)

This wine is 100% Glera, the traditional grape for Prosecco. In fact, the grape was called Prosecco for most of its history until recently. According to Wikipedia, the book "Il roccolo Ditirambo," written by Aureliano Acanti in 1754 says, "And now I would like to wet my mouth with that Prosecco with its apple bouquet."

This sparkler is also a great value when you can find it around the $15.99 price at retail. We bought ours at Bauer Wine & Spirits on Newbury Street.

It is straw colored with persistent bubbles and a crisp, pleasant flavor and, yes, an apple note that makes you understand how a host in the Veneto or Friuli regions of Italy might greet evey guest with a glass of this as a sparkling welcome.

You'll also find it on wine lists across the area. While it is about to rotate off the list at Island Creek Oyster Bar in Kenmore Square, we did enjoy a glass for lunch last week and could return to work and accomplish something post Nino! (Island Creek also has a reserve offering from Nino Franco on the current list that you may want to try.)

We're on the hunt for more wines in the 12% alcohol or less category. We'll also be posing this topic to some of our wine mentors and reporting back on their recommendations.

If you find a good one, let us know.

Here's more about Our Sparkling Resolution

And, Our Sparkling Resolution Winner’s List

Want to learn more about wine? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site! Here are three of our favorite wine books.

The Food Lover's Guide to Wine

The New Wine Lover's Companion

The Wine Bible



Details:
Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers’ comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

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Primo Franco

Wine Tasting – The Exciting Wines of Southern Italy

April 1, 2013
Salad Before, After, or With Your Entree?
Do you serve salad before, after, or with your entree? In France and Italy, salads are often served at the end of meals. For many years, American restaurants and especially catered events have placed salads at the start of the menu.

This was a recent topic of conversation at our house. We were mainly interested in the reasons why salads should be served at the beginning or end of the meal.

Ed thought it might have to do with the interaction of wine and vinegar. His theory was that you wait until the end of the meal so you can enjoy your wine without the vinegar.

Penny has been reading about vinegar as an aid to digestion and use as a sort of antacid and added the possibility of salad with a vinaigrette dressing being used as a digestive aid.

A tour of the topic around the cyber world found it an often asked question with a wide variety of answers – some that agreed with ours and plenty of additional thought.
- Over at the www.kitchn.com the community responded to: Cultural Differences: Salad Before or After Dinner?
- Nutritional experts at www.sharecare.com gave opinions on: Is it better to eat salad before or after your meal?
- And the chowhounds weighed in on: eat your salad after the entree?
We have three guesses as to why restaurants and caterers opt for salad as a starter, because it:
- Gets the meal underway fast
- Turns the tables quicker
- Gives diners something to eat while waiters circulate with the next course
Around here, a salad is often the meal. We add this-and-that and turn a plate of greens into lunch or supper. The photo above is from a salad we made to clean out the kitchen before we left Provincetown last September.

Food writer Patricia Wells has often inspired salad meals around here. In addition to the offerings in her Bistro Cooking
and The Provence Cookbook, she also wrote the wonderful, Salad as a Meal.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

How to eat more salad

Yes, Salads Really Do Help With Weight Loss

10 Tips for Shepherd's Pie

Are You Drinking Wine Too Cold and Coffee Too Hot?

10 Decluttering Tips from "The Clutter Queen," Rhea Becker
February 18, 2013
Salad Before, After, or With Your Entree?
Do you serve salad before, after, or with your entree? In France and Italy, salads are often served at the end of meals. For many years, American restaurants and especially catered events have placed salads at the start of the menu.

This was a recent topic of conversation at our house. We were mainly interested in the reasons why salads should be served at the beginning or end of the meal.

Ed thought it might have to do with the interaction of wine and vinegar. His theory was that you wait until the end of the meal so you can enjoy your wine without the vinegar.

Penny has been reading about vinegar as an aid to digestion and use as a sort of antacid and added the possibility of salad with a vinaigrette dressing being used as a digestive aid.

A tour of the topic around the cyber world found it an often asked question with a wide variety of answers – some that agreed with ours and plenty of additional thought.
- Over at the www.kitchn.com the community responded to: Cultural Differences: Salad Before or After Dinner?
- Nutritional experts at www.sharecare.com gave opinions on: Is it better to eat salad before or after your meal?
- And the chowhounds weighed in on: eat your salad after the entree?
We have three guesses as to why restaurants and caterers opt for salad as a starter, because it:
- Gets the meal underway fast
- Turns the tables quicker
- Gives diners something to eat while waiters circulate with the next course
Around here, a salad is often the meal. We add this-and-that and turn a plate of greens into lunch or supper. The photo above is from a salad we made to clean out the kitchen before we left Provincetown last September.

Food writer Patricia Wells has often inspired salad meals around here. In addition to the offerings in her Bistro Cooking
and The Provence Cookbook, she also wrote the wonderful, Salad as a Meal.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

How to eat more salad

Yes, Salads Really Do Help With Weight Loss

10 Tips for Shepherd's Pie

Are You Drinking Wine Too Cold and Coffee Too Hot?

10 Decluttering Tips from "The Clutter Queen," Rhea Becker
February 18, 2013
Salad Before, After, or With Your Entree?
Do you serve salad before, after, or with your entree? In France and Italy, salads are often served at the end of meals. For many years, American restaurants and especially catered events have placed salads at the start of the menu.

This was a recent topic of conversation at our house. We were mainly interested in the reasons why salads should be served at the beginning or end of the meal.

Ed thought it might have to do with the interaction of wine and vinegar. His theory was that you wait until the end of the meal so you can enjoy your wine without the vinegar.

Penny has been reading about vinegar as an aid to digestion and use as a sort of antacid and added the possibility of salad with a vinaigrette dressing being used as a digestive aid.

A tour of the topic around the cyber world found it an often asked question with a wide variety of answers – some that agreed with ours and plenty of additional thought.
- Over at the www.kitchn.com the community responded to: Cultural Differences: Salad Before or After Dinner?
- Nutritional experts at www.sharecare.com gave opinions on: Is it better to eat salad before or after your meal?
- And the chowhounds weighed in on: eat your salad after the entree?
We have three guesses as to why restaurants and caterers opt for salad as a starter, because it:
- Gets the meal underway fast
- Turns the tables quicker
- Gives diners something to eat while waiters circulate with the next course
Around here, a salad is often the meal. We add this-and-that and turn a plate of greens into lunch or supper. The photo above is from a salad we made to clean out the kitchen before we left Provincetown last September.

Food writer Patricia Wells has often inspired salad meals around here. In addition to the offerings in her Bistro Cooking
and The Provence Cookbook, she also wrote the wonderful, Salad as a Meal.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

How to eat more salad

Yes, Salads Really Do Help With Weight Loss

10 Tips for Shepherd's Pie

Are You Drinking Wine Too Cold and Coffee Too Hot?

10 Decluttering Tips from "The Clutter Queen," Rhea Becker
February 18, 2013
A Frisky Italian Malvasia to Celebrate June!
This sparkling Malvasia from the Emilia region of Italy is a perfect way to celebrate the arrival of June. As we scour the vineyards of the world for interesting candidates to fulfill Our Sparkling Resolution – to greet each month by popping a bottle of bubbly – we couldn’t have found a more perfect fit, right in our own backyard.

Our first impressions: fruit, almonds, a briny nose, hints of Manzanilla sherry, light, subdued bubbles (frizzante).

We consulted an award-winning wine source, The Oxford Companion to Wine , Edited by: Jancis Robinson, that described Malvasia from Emilia as, “lightly sparkling dry to demi-sec.” It’s known as, “champagnino or ‘little champagne’, and where local trenchermen consider it the perfect accompaniment and digestif for the rich local fare.”

Well, alright, if it’s good enough for local trenchermen, than we must be in good company. Our local fare included pretzels, a cucumber & tomato salad, and our favorite shell-on roasted almonds from Fastachi.

The Malvasia Dell’Emilia’s also won points for its 11% alcohol, a trend we enthusiastically support. We say, “serve this sparkler cold and keep it cold,” (with a chilled sleeve on the bottle).

Who might like this wine?
- Riesling Lovers
- Anyone with a “Life-List” of Wine
- Trenchermen (of course)
- Italian Wine Fans
- Moderately Priced Wine Advocates
Malvasia Dell’Emilia – $18 @ TerraVino Wines in Brookline

Here's a look at the Wines We’ve Been Tasting

And, more about Our Sparkling Resolution

Thanks to everyone who begins their Amazon shopping for one of the links or products on our site. It doesn't cost you any more but Amazon puts some coins in our tip jar for everything you buy.

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.
June 1, 2012
Benvenuto March with Prosecco from Bisson & Rosenthal

We’re welcoming March with a bottle of prosecco– always a safe bet, but with Rosenthal on the label it’s nearly a sure thing! We once advised a friend, who was uneasy about the thought of ordering wine at an upcoming business dinner, to just ask the restaurant for a Neal Rosenthal wine. She got a Standing O!

The terms, “artisan, traditional, and natural” are more than words on a label, they’re part of this wine merchant’s philosophy. When Rosenthal talks about Enoteca Bisson and Pierluigi Lugano’s care and passion as a grower and producer of distinctive wines, you can begin to appreciate the vision and effort that goes into his prosecco.

Vino Frizzante Prosecco (Glera in Italy) 2010 Bisson is produced in a “bone-dry style.” That would normally be enough for me to take a pass on a sparkler, but one sip and I was intrigued.

Bisson Prosecco uses a Crown Cap (also called a “Spark Cap”)

Yes, it was dry but not in an overwhelming way. We both could taste the fruit– concentrated pear? Penny compared the wine’s body to that of a Bollinger Champagne!

When we returned to buy another bottle from Howie Rubin at Bauer Wine & Spirits, he wasn’t surprised, “I find it’s got a little more chalkiness, more like real Champagne.” Rubin pointed to, “…the yeast in the nose. It could be the limestone in the soil, it could be more Champagne-like soil.”

Whatever it is, we’ve added our applause and another bottle to our wine rack. There’s a lot of prosecco out there. “Leave it to Neal Rosenthal to give us something that’s a little drier, a little more complex, a little deeper in flavor,” said Rubin. “It sets it apart from all the rest.”

Links:

Vino Frizzante Prosecco 2010 Bisson, Rosenthal Wine Merchant, NY at Bauer Wine & Spirits

Here's More About: Our Sparkling Resolution

Check Out: Our Sparkling Resolution Winner’s List

Want to learn more about wine? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site! Here's, The Food Lover's Guide to Wine the latest addition to our wine reference wish list. We heard a great interview and review of this book over on Taste of the Past.

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

March 1, 2012
Pecorino di Moliterno- Cheese from Sardinia

We always like to let you know when a great wheel of cheese, like this Pecorino di Moliterno, is being cut at one of the area's great cheese shops. We bought this one at Salumeria Italiana in the North End.

Pecorino means it's made with sheep's milk but, in this case, it may have a bit of goat's milk added. Some Moliternos do. Salumeria also had a second version of this cheese with truffles added.

As you can see, we paired this with Bosc pears. It was a great combination! Some vendors selling this cheese suggest following the Sardinian tradition of serving it with a smidge of hot pepper jelly.

Sheep's milk has a higher fat content than cow or goat milk. Therefore, the experts suggest you remove from refrigeration and bring to room temperature only what you want to eat immediately. As the cheese warms, some of the fat will come to the surface. That will never be reabsorbed if you have to put it back in the cooler.

Here are a few of our favorite books on cheese. But, click here for many more choices over at Amazon.

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 25, 2012