Tag: discover

SIP TRIP: a journey (on demand) to discover Italian wine – Italian Cuisine

The concept behind SIP TRIP, ITALY it's very simple: a trip with some friends to discover the best wineries and wine regions while drinking good wine, taking the opportunity to meet and interview fascinating personalities. A means to explore the culture and history of Italy in a profound way, as valid for foreigners as it is for us, who sometimes don't know our country so well. Jeff Porter he had the idea that we all wish we had: "We try to understand people better based on what they drink; Sip Trip is truly 'Culture through drinking'. Everything becomes usable thanks to SOMM TV, one of the leading streaming platforms for the production of quality content dedicated to wine lovers.

Who is Jeff Porter?

Nice face, reddish beard and lively eyes: Jeff Porter he makes himself loved at first sight – and not even the wit of his interventions, based on a solid wine culture gained through study and work experience, does not go unnoticed. Originally from Texas, Jeff has cultivated his passion for wine since he was a student at the University of Austin. He began his career at Central Market in Austin, Texas. Upon graduation, he moved to California where he worked as a salesman for a Bay Area wholesale retailer. His career as a Sommelier began in Napa Valley, when he worked for the “Tra Vigne” restaurant in Sant Helena, California. In 2009 he joined the Bastianich group, working for Osteria Mozza. He moved to New York in 2011 to work as wine director of Del Posto and in 2014 as beverage operations director of the B&B Hospitality Group, taking over the management of the beverage sector of Babbo, Del Posto, Esca, Lupa, Otto, Babbo Pizzeria and Enoteca di Boston – all top places that carry on Italian food and wine excellence in the United States. He recently teamed up with barbeque guru Billy Durney to introduce a selection of natural wines at Hometown BBQ restaurants in Brooklyn and Miami and the Red Hook Tavern, a restaurant that won a star from New York Times critic Pete Wells.

From such a strong and productive personality, a beautiful project like SIP TRIP, ITALY. Together with a group of friends sommeliers and wine experts, Jeff Porter he met over 40 producers and visited some of the most beautiful Italian wine regions. Thousands of kilometers of road traveled from South Tyrol to Sicily, including Trentodoc tastings, walks on the snow of the Dolomites and night excursions on Etna, followed by tasting the best wines that the area could offer.

For our American site LaCucinaItaliana.com, we had met Jeff Porter in Rome last October 2019, as he was finishing shooting the episode in the capital. In a pleasant chat over a glass of wine (naturally), the American sommelier revealed some anecdotes and trends collected during the recordings. For example, he says he had his best food and wine moment ever in Asti eating a splendid polenta with egg and truffle and drinking an excellent Barbera. Or it reveals how the wine world is experiencing a strong, almost revolutionary renaissance thanks to the new generations. This and more HERE.

Personalities and wineries who took part in Sip Trip

Allegrini, Argiano, Argiolas, Brancaia, Cà del Bosco, Cantina Santadi, Monsanto Castle, Ciù Ciù, Col d'Orcia, Col Vetoraz, Colpetrone, Chianti Classico Wine Consortium, Brunello di Montalcino Wine Consortium, Lugana DOC Protection Consortium, Consortium dell'Asti DOCG, Consorzio Barbera d'Asti and Wines of Monferrato, Cotarella Family, Fontanafredda, Gagliole, Giovanni Rosso, Graci, Jermann, Masi, Mastroberardino, Michele Chiarlo, Mionetto, Pertinace, Pieropan, Pio Cesare, Planeta, Primosic, Producers di Manduria, Renato Ratti, Rocca di Frassinello, Roeno, Sella and Mosca, Tasca d'Almerita, Tenuta Sant'Antonio, Tommasi, Tornatore, Torre a Cona, Trento DOC, Umani Ronchi, Zenato.

In Argiano to discover Brunello – Italian Cuisine

A tour of one of the most representative estates in Montalcino, among the rows, the barrels, the newly restored historic cellar and the flavors of the Val d'Orcia accompanied by the elegance of Argiano wines

A castle, the vineyards, the barrels, the cellar, then the Brunello and a starred lunch. All this is the top of the experience that can be lived in the Val d’Orcia, precisely in Argiano, a stone's throw from Montalcino, where it is based one of the oldest and most renowned wineries in Brunello. Cellar since 1580, Argiano is the seat of Villa Bell’Aria, defined as "the most beautiful country palace in the State of Siena": a noble country residence that has just been restored at the behest of the new owner, Andrè Santos Esteves, a Brazilian tycoon passionate about author wines and in love with the sweetness of the Tuscan hills.

Vine rows and film scenarios

Scenarios so beautiful and characteristic that they can be defined as “from film”. And it is no coincidence that more than one film set has passed through these places: first the Tuscan stage of Julia Roberts in Eat, pray, love, most recently Liam Neeson, together with his son Micheál Richardson (son on the set and in life) was a guest of the Argiano cellar to shoot his Made in Italy, forthcoming film that tells the story of an American who inherits a farmhouse with a vineyard in Tuscany and makes it a project to restructure both the farmhouse and the relationship with his son, eventually also producing a wine called Made in Italy.

The historic cellar just restored

The walk among the rows precedes the visit of the cellars, first the operational one, where the bulk of the Brunello vintages in preparation rests, then the historical cellar, a real jewel of architectural recovery. It is the same curator of the project, the Sienese architect Filippo Gastone Scheggi, who shows us the photos of what it was like before the works, to better appreciate the result. To guide him in his work, respect for the place, for the ancient wisdom in the construction of cellars made to house wine, with the restoration of the air vents that let the precious nectar breathe in the barrels, therefore the skilful recovery of elements of the castle like the shards of the ceiling which, properly treated, become a magnificent herringbone floor, with all the ancient incrustations and the wonderful irregularity.
The restoration is played on material elements, on the ancient which marries the modernity of the integrations, such as the dizzying spiral staircase in corten that descends into the cistern, built following the succession of Fibonacci. It is a real journey into Brunello's past: "Each step is different from the other, laser cut to fit the millimeter", explains the architect, while going down the stairs you cross the ages. Here, as in the Tachis case, there is a wealth of unobtainable bottles, not only from the Argiano winery, but also from other producers who have made the history of Val d'Orcia, Montalcino and its fine wine.

Where the wine rests

And then there are the barrels, the wood, where Brunello rests. Strictly barrels, they are keen to specify, why Montalcino wine must be wide, while barriques have a smaller size and the contact between wine and wood is greater. "Brunello rests in barrels ranging from 60 to 7.5 hectoliters, but we have smaller barrels to refine our Supertuscan", says Bernardino Sani, general manager of the winery and young winemaker with great experience. This is the Solengo, which is an even more sought after product, brought back to its splendor by Sani who dusted off the recipes of the great Giacomo Tachis, king of enology and father among others of Sassicaia and Tignanello, as well as, precisely, the Supertuscan of Argiano.

The whole Val d'Orcia in food and wine

Finally we arrive at Dimore, the farmhouse of the estate. In recent months the lockdown has interrupted the hospitality business, but an experience like the one we have lived can be organized: the chef arrives at home, the kitchens of these delightful apartments overlooking the Tuscan hills are used and also subjected to a conservative and respectful restoration of the territory in which they are located, we eat a lunch (in our starred experience), we combine the excellent reds of the Argiano cellar with the winemaker.
In our experience at the stove there was the chef Roberto Rossi del Silene, the only starred in the Val d'Orcia, as well as the kitchen professional who best interprets the combination of Tuscan traditions and the richness and elegance of Montalcino wines. His is a frank kitchen, apparently without frills, but with a refined research in the raw material. From the homemade bread (and even the panettone), whose mother yeast was perfected with the collaboration of a professor from the University of Siena, to the meat of the tartare, passing through the duck egg that holds the dough of the fabulous ones ravioli and the pigeon which best represents the local cuisine.
Each dish was also a crescendo in the wines, chosen and presented by Bernardino Sani who is the author: if a fresh tartare goes well with a younger Rosso di Montalcino, when it comes to the pigeon it's time for Brunello, with a few years of aging to support such blood. A concentrate of Tuscany in one bite and one sip, looking at the hills with the glass in hand.

Ten restaurants in the hinterland to discover true Ligurian cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Unique products, age-old recipes, simple flavors: the essence of Ligurian cuisine is tasted away from the sea and from the dishes found everywhere. Here are the places to enjoy it to the top

One says Liguria and thinks of the sea, the Levant and the West, the fish. In fact, i red prawns of Santa Margherita and Sanremo are increasingly rare, but remain at the top in the Mediterranean, Monterosso anchovies – fried, with a drizzle of oil or in the famous one bagnun – are exceptional, i gianchetti (in season) pancake preparations make your head spin. And there are traditional recipes of great impact: the ciupin (the fish soup), the brandacujun del Ponente based on potatoes and stockfish, the rich lean capon with vegetables, the greedy frisceu of cod. Everything to enhance the fish products and the tradition linked to the Ligurian Sea.

Pasqualina, savory pie par excellence

But Liguria at the table is a different story: a land kitchen, basically poor, which makes the best use of vegetables with asparagus and artichoke on all, the herbs (marjoram, borage, basil and wild ones for the preboggion), i typical cheeses as the Brussu of the Arroscia Valley and the prescinseua destined for the focaccia di Recco, the rabbit and the game in season. There is no sumptuousness or abundance, if anything, simplicity and direct taste in preparations with more than one contamination with neighboring Provence. A kitchen where an important role is played from savory pies, to be consumed even days after preparation. There Pasqualina it is the summit for history (legend, perhaps) and fame, even outside Liguria. But the region is very rich: there are those stuffed with artichokes, chard, pumpkin, onions; those based on rice and vegetables of all kinds; those with potatoes, with very old specialties such as frandura imperiese or la baciocca Genoese. And yet the green cakes, with local peculiarities such as the turtun of the Alta Val Nervia that looks like a wheel.

Mistress focaccia

The street food par excellence is the focaccia: that of Recco with cheese, the Genoese fugassa, the one with potatoes or onion. The latter was born as a food in the most popular neighborhoods of Genoa where it is called a fugàssa co-e çiòule. It was the usual breakfast of the harbor unloaders, very cheap and able to satiate a lot, as the onion blocks the hunger stimulus receptors. With a glass of white wine – u gianchettu – gives the best. The farinata, made from chickpeas, is no less passionate, Food spread throughout Italy with various names. But legend has it that it was born by pure chance in 1284, when Genoa defeated Pisa in the battle of Meloria. With the same ingredients as the farinata, except for the Ligurian extra virgin olive oil, of course, the panissa not to be confused with the Piedmontese rice dish. The farinata can be enriched with rosemary, spring onion, pumpkin.

The poetry of pesto

The first courses have in the trofie with pesto (other Ligurian typicality, which cannot be more terricolous) e in the pansotti with walnut sauce the cult dishes. But there are other pastas to taste like the trenette – linguine with an ovoid section – or the Genoese corzetti, the testaieu of the Val Graveglia and the testaroli of the Lunigiana, the mescciua spezzina (soup of leguni and cereals) and the famous Genoese minestrone. There is ancient history in tuccu zeneize: the ragù prepared with only one piece of meat – a touch in fact – cooked for a long time in (little) tomato sauce. The ideal is to combine them with mandilli, handkerchiefs of egg pasta, imported from the Arabs with whom the Genoese had commercial relationships. If the rabbit is the king of meats, the most famous recipe in the region is the Genoese top which consists of a piece of veal belly, cut so as to form a pocket and stuffed with numerous and varied ingredients. Poor cuisine that becomes rich.

Ancient sweets

Beyond the thousand local specialties, two are the symbolic sweets of Ligurian cuisine. The first is the Sacripantina, the soft and fortified cake once served during the holidays and which was born in 1851 to the renowned Preti pastry shop. All Genoese delight, it is composed of ingredients from sponge cake soaked in rum, marsala and sugar and covered with different butter creams. The pandolce it was born around the 16th century under the Lanterna, following a competition between pastry chefs called by the doge Andrea Doria, interested in finding a dessert that was long-lasting and representative of the Republic of Genoa. Praise be to the anonymous winner and for having found a dessert you would never tire of: raisins, fennel, pine nuts and candied fruit embrace this brick of pasta, sweetening it and softening its consistency. It well represents the soul of Ligurian cuisine, rough only in appearance, but engaging. Like the "lasagne da fiddià ai quattru tucchi" sung in the marvelous Crêuza de mä by the unforgettable Fabrizio De André. You will surely find it in the premises of our very personal selection.

La Brinca – Ne

For many it is the best Ligurian trattoria – it is a historic Slow Food Snail – favored by a splendid view. The Circella family offers the whole repertoire of specialties, Genoese in the first place. The cellar is famous.

Da Fiorella – Ortonovo

The ravioli in various recipes are a strength of a 1950s-style tavern, which is located among the olive groves on the border between Liguria and Tuscany. But the typical appetizers and meat main courses are also worth tasting.

House and Shop – Dolceacqua

A pleasant place furnished with a curious mix of vintage and modern pieces. The cuisine is not exempt from fish, but offers unique specialties such as the gran pisteu – the wheat soup – and the Rossese zabaione ice cream.

Caccia C’a Bugge – Campo Ligure

Raw materials from the area and great respect for tradition in this restaurant in the Stura Valley. Among the best dishes there are the pesto mandilli, the Genoese top and the tripe served with beans.

Antica Locanda Luigina – Carrodano

A few kilometers from the Cinque Terre, an evocative inn where you can taste many local dishes, also offered in two tasting sessions. To taste local cold cuts and cheeses, first courses and lamb dishes.

The Friends – Varese Ligure

In Val di Vara – bio zone par excellence – there are many good places. The most famous is that of the Marcone family. Super seasonal cuisine, apart from some classics such as corzetti with chopped pine nuts.

Mse Entirely – Calizzano

The tavern on the first floor of the historic building in the center is also suggestive. The cuisine is good at revisiting Western dishes, from smoked polenta with cheese to sheep's ricotta mousse.

Da Pippi – Masone

Establishment of the area, with a century of activity, offers Ligurian cuisine with some Piedmontese contamination. The Ligurian rabbit is not to be missed as much as the homemade desserts. Level cellar. Tel. 010.9269126.

Cian de Bià – Badalucco

It can only be reached on foot, but it's worth it. Two rustic rooms where you can taste after a taste of brandaujun, the first home-made, stewed tripe and grandma's pudding. Encyclopedic wine list.

Il Castagneto – Castiglion Chiavarese

A farm in Val Petronio that offers quality cuisine, based on raw materials all found in the area. Direct dishes: ancient prebuggion, risotto with Prescinseua, veal tip with aromatic herbs.