Sugar perspectives in the Galleria

The doge′s platter
Magazine: April 2008

Rice in Veneto is happily ‘at home'. It is cooked in lots of ways, but only risi e bisi (rice with peas), benchmark of Venetian cuisine, has a precise position in the history of the Republic. On the 25th April, St Mark's day (the city's patron saint), it was the chosen dish at the Doge's tabl...

Blessed springtime
Magazine: April 2008

Ready to use salad washed, cut and packaged is one of the most successful products of recent times. Convenient but also lazy. It is yet another less direct contact with nature. Pick a head of salad in the orchard, choose the leaves from the bunch, break off the roots from the leaves and rinse them ...

Milky pearls
Magazine: April 2008

The dairy products from the mountain slopes arrive on the plains to be tasted, bought and sold. It all happening at Mantova with ''Mille e 2 formaggi''. From 11th –13th April the show reunites products and tutelage consortiums, promotional authorities and vendors all united in the task of the...

Let's come to the crunch
Magazine: April 2008

The Val Venosta is one of the most emblematic and clearly identifi able locations of northern Italy. Stretching from the Passo Resia to Merano, it is a territory rich in history and legends narrated by the strips of the great glaciers, by the peaks of Ortles, Gran Zebrù and Cevedale and by t...

Green pearls
Magazine: April 2008

Symbol of good fortune and prosperity, peas have always been well loved in every era since they made their debut in Asia, 6,000 years before the Christianity. In the past, fl owers of the legume were plaited as auspicious garlands for brides, whilst the long green pods were one of the principal sou...

Neither garlic nor onion
Magazine: April 2008

There is a good reason why the scallion from Romagna has never been found in its natural state: as it does not fl ower there is no chance of pollination between infl orescence of other plants. It is fundamental to keep apart bulbs from the previous year to plant to obtain a new production. They hav...

Heads or tails?
Magazine: April 2008

Monkfi sh, more usually called ''coda di rospo'' (toad's tail, a fi sh) is a normal item on Italian restaurant menus, being rich and tasty. It is nearly always stewed or in cooked in soups. Despite the fact that it is much appreciated by chefs it is rarely purchased in fi shmongers maybe because of...

Imitation cheese
Magazine: April 2008

Sold under the erroneous denomination of Soya ''cheese'', the pale pats of tofu made their fi rst appearance in Italy thanks to the wave of healthy food habits that took a stronghold in the ‘70s, heralded by the followers of macrobiotic philosophy. Being highly nutritious and low in fats and ...

Irresistible temptations
Magazine: March 2008

Poor is the man who has not eaten a Sicilian cassata on Easter morning: the ancient saying bears witness to the fact that the famous dessert was typically an Easter cake. Originally, it was a type of zuccotto of fresh cacio cheese, later substituted by ricotta. This work of art is a scenographic fe...

“Chocolat” in the Lange hills
Alba (CN)
Magazine: March 2008

Near the Duomo in Alba, lies a modern pastry shop with an antique heart. Behind the counter… a talented pastry chef who interprets peoples' tastes, just like Vianne who caused a ''chocolate upheaval'' in the life of a French village. But ''Healthy Gourmand'' is not the title of a film. We ar...

Valuable tuber
Magazine: March 2008

Never beautiful, ungainly in shape and often covered in warts, but it is good indeed, and versatile. Its appearance is much nicer now, and typologies have multiplied. We are speaking of Italy, naturally, which is not much in potato consumption. We eat around 40 kilos per person each year, to an ave...

From stables to stars
Magazine: March 2008

Parmigiano-Reggiano has survived undamaged from the distant past to reach the XXI century with its same original characteristics. It was created in a faraway era and in an area abundant in milk and salt. In the Padana plain in the Middle Ages, the Benedictine monks transformed the raw material into...

Lovely bitter
Magazine: March 2008

They form a ''close knit'' family: chicory is subdivided into different varieties, but all have one thing in common, that bitter like taste. The following are part of this group; Radicchio, the root type and Belgian endive, but the one that represents chicory the most is the green leaf cut variety....

“Saffron” powder
Magazine: March 2008

The chilli pepper from Senise has special characteristics that differentiate it from all other known types. It can be consumed fresh, used in condiments and spicy, rustic dishes but is also highly appreciated when dried. It is typically woven into ''wreaths'', long, sun-dried twists, or made into p...

Slippery goodness
Magazine: March 2008

The fact that the ichthyologists catalogue it in the eel family confirms the fact that the similarity between a conger and an eel is not just by chance. The two are quite close relatives despite their diverse habits and dimensions. Generally speaking, its flesh is not particularly esteemed yet the ...

A pungent thrill
Magazine: March 2008

It is thanks to its accompaniment with raw fish morsels and bitter rice that the wicked wasabi root has made a name for itself in the world, becoming one of the most loved-hated condiments hailing from the land of the rising sun. The little pointed mounds of bright green that sit neatly next to the...

As white as...
Magazine: February 2008

Just let freshly milked cows milk sit and there it appears on the surface: cream rising up and forming a dense white-yellowish layer. This fatty part is a neutral ingredient; this is why cream is used to give texture and blend foods in cooking. ''Whipped'' is used in the pastry shop, for decorating...

Genuine Neapolitan?
Napoli
Magazine: February 2008

No legend here, just history. All the facts are known, who invented it, how and why. King of Poland twice, then Duke of Lorraine, Stanislao Leszczynski dabbled in gastronomy. Around 1740, inspired by the Lorraine dessert Kugelhupf, he had young cook Stohrer create an ultra soft pastry, with Corinth...