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Strawberry Grapes or American Grapes? Let's find out! – Italian Cuisine

Very sweet taste, reminiscent of strawberry thanks to the aromas it contains, but no more caloric than other varieties

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But it's called "strawberry grapes" or "American grape"? We tell you: it is correct to call it both ways, or if you prefer you can also call it "Isabella grapes”, The greengrocers will understand you anyway. As its name suggests, this sweet variety of grape comes directly from overseas, more precisely, its first appearance in Italy is recorded in the distant 1825. Today, its cultivation is mainly concentrated in Piedmont in the areas of Cuneo and Vercelli. Yes, we know, they are lands with a rather harsh climate, but thanks to its resistant structure, the strawberry grape plant perfectly resists the cold and is able to give us very sweet grapes every year. Have you also thought of dark colored bunches? It's normal. We are used to thinking of strawberry grapes as a black-purplish fruit, while strawberry grapes can also be white (characterized by a more acidic flavor) or early white (very sweet).

The benefits of strawberry grapes
It is fruit, and as such it is good for you. No doubt. Nutritionists inform us that it is very rich in vitamins of group A, B, C and mineral salts such as potassium, calcium, phosphorus, manganese and magnesium. The richest part of properties is the peel (as well as the rest of fruit and vegetables) in fact, it contains polyphenols and flavonoids that protect our cardiovascular system. Not only that, the peel also contains resveratrol, a substance that inhibits the formation of blood clots.

When are strawberry grapes harvested?
The strawberry grape harvest period is very short: it starts from the second half of September (very soon!) Until the beginning of October. The berries are very delicate, once harvested they last about 10 days if stored correctly in the refrigerator, or at most 3 days if stored at room temperature.

Fragolino wine
But do you know that the production and marketing of the Fragolino wine is it regulated by European legislation? Yes, the strawberry grape is not part of the vitis vinifera, or that quality of vine suitable for the production of marketable wine; rather, it is part of the family of vitis labrusca, a type of table and wine grapes. And here you will ask yourself "but if both types of vines can be used to produce wine, why is Fragolino not marketable?" We tell you. For the legislation Italian and European, the wine that can be purchased must come exclusively from grapes belonging to the vitis vinifera category, therefore, since strawberry grapes are part of another category of vines, the production of Fragolino and its consumption are only linked to that familiar. Not only that, strawberry grapes naturally contain a much higher level of methanol than the classic wine vine.

Strawberry grape jam
Sweet at the right point, never cloying. Excellent to spread on a fragrant slice of freshly baked bread, to fill pies, brioches or to flavor yogurt.
You will need them 1 lemon, 1.2 kilograms of fracola grapes and 600 g of cane sugar.
Let's begin!
1. Shell the grapes and put them in a saucepan with 1/2 glass of water. Cook the berries over high heat for about 5 minutes and mash them with a spoon. Remove from the heat and pass the grapes through a vegetable mill to remove the skins and seeds.
2. Pour the sugar into a clean saucepan, add 1/2 cup of water and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Add the filtered lemon juice and the previously prepared grape juice. Continue cooking for another 20 minutes, stirring often.
3. Check the cooking point of the jam, by cooling a teaspoon in the freezer, if it becomes firm, put it in immediately, seal tightly and turn the jars upside down on the work surface.
4. Turn the jars only when they have cooled completely.

September 2021
Giulia Ferrari

Posted on 17/09/2021

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Home you go … crescionda you find – Italian Cuisine

History, curiosities and infinite variations of a typical dessert of the Spoleto carnival

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Before the flavor I liked the name: crescionda, a term that remains impressed, bombastic and sinuous at the same time, a bit of a fun fair game, a bit of a futurist term, instead it indicates a typical cake of the Spoleto Carnival. How I came across this recipe I don't know, certainly during some of my nocturnal research, and the encounter evoked a memory that remained in a hidden corner of my memory. There was a time when every Sunday my father, who didn't even cook an egg, tried his hand at butter creams and filled two or three-layer cakes with them, soaked with plenty Alchermes. The basics, tall and perfect sponge cake, they came from the hotel institute where my father taught physical education and where his gluttony (surely the two aspects will seem in contradiction) led him to forge not only connections but also friendship with those who taught cooking or pastry techniques including a colleague of Umbrian origin who arrived one day saying: "hold Luciano, I made you a sweet from my land". And so there crescionda arrived home, today I'm sure, I could never forget a name like that. And out of mine onomatopoeic fantasies the meaning is that of "Grows" that is focaccia and "onta" because it was used in the dough old chicken broth, but also olive oil or lard and with these fats the dry bread was soaked by adding the "Schjianci", semi-wild sour apples, eggs and sheep's cheese and honey to sweeten, because it sugar it cost too much. In practice, until the eighteenth century it was a sort of sweet and sour pizza, cooked on the embers of the fireplace if you did not own the oven, made by eye, in two versions, both on the occasion of the Carnival: the "Dorge" or sweet and the "poretta", poor thing with only flour corn, water, eggs and apples. There crescionda modern is the daughter of the nineteenth century when the use of sugar, cocoa and the Mistrà liqueur. Depending on how the ingredients are mixed, the cake changes color and texture, so much so that we can define it as “magical”. But it is only a matter of physics and chemistry. It can be dark if you use cocoa, white with milk and bread, yellow with corn flour. Or it can be of two colors with the macaroons and the milk, the macaroons rise to the surface and the milk remains below or of three colors: amaretti, milk and chocolate. Also changes consistency, if the version is the one that involves separating egg whites and yolks, working these with sugar and whipping the first peaks. Once cooked it will be crunchy on the surface and soft underneath. Because of this specialty, which today is, there are many, indeed many versions so as to feed the Spoleto saying "home that you go crescionda you find ". But what will mine ever be? I just don't remember this.

181781 "src =" https://www.salepepe.it/files/2020/02/laura-maragliano.png "width =" 130 "height =" 171 by Laura Maragliano, portrait by Gian Marco Folcolini, photo of the plate by Francesca Moscheni, in the kitchen Claudia Compagni

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The ancient Piedmontese apples: all the reasons to find them – Italian Cuisine

They are rich in vitamins and polyphenols three times more than the most famous varieties found in large retailers and have a wealth of aromas, aromas and taste that makes them unique

They have weird names, sometimes female, like Carla, or of colors, Grigia di Torriana, or, again, Gamba Fina, Buras, Runsé, Magnana, Dominici and Cavilla Bianca. They are all apples of native varieties, present in Piedmont since the end of the thirteenth century. Cultivated since the time of the Cistercian monks in abbeys, they have developed a particular resistance to diseases and are decidedly rustic varieties. Looking small, with a taste tending towards acid, in the 1950s and 1960s, when beautiful, red, huge varieties of apples, such as Fuji or Granny Smiths, appeared on the market, these tiny, imperfect specimens went out of fashion, effectively disappeared. "We have continued to cultivate them", says Federica Quattrocolo, contact person for the Slow Food Presidium products, "because they are on average three times richer in vitamins and polyphenols compared to more commercial varieties. But, above all, they have a completely different range of aromas, tastes and fragrances than those we are used to consuming from large distribution .

An inexhaustible wealth

There are about 700 varieties of apples registered in the territory that goes from Saluzzo to Turin, up to Pinerolo. There were more than a thousand when at the end of the eighteenth century the French nurserymen of Chambery brought them to sell to the botanical garden of Turin. In 2000, when the Slow Food project began together with the Malva Arnaldi School of Bibiana, a training institute for specific technical figures in the agricultural sector, eight qualities were chosen and with those the Presidium was established, which relates to realities or techniques that are considered to have historical value, which are linked in some way to products that define a territory, but which are considered at risk of extinction. Slow Food helps small producers to enter a communication network that gives visibility to the chosen product or reality. That of the ancient Piedmontese apples was one of the first Slow Food presidia in Italy.

A historical reality of the territory

The cultivation of apples for the Canavese area has always been very important. It is a foothill area, with great biodiversity, where there have always been many different varieties of fruit such as apple trees, kiwis, blueberries … In the town of Cavour for the garrison of apples a ten-day event has been held for many years, in mid-November All apples: here there is a fair part where fruit is sold, an educational part, with schools, and a gastronomic part, in which the chefs of the restaurants in the area offer menus based on apples, with the use of this fruit from dessert appetizer.

Ancient apples in the kitchen

All these ancient apples are perfect for raw consumption, with their crunchiness and their marked acidity. But they also lend themselves to cooking: the Gray, for example, is the most suitable to bake in the oven. Already at the time it was soaked in large jars filled with hot water and a syrup was made that could also be consumed in the following months. “In reality, all these apple varieties can be kept for many months. They are harvested in mid-October, apart from the Carla which is harvested at the beginning of September, and then they are left to mature in the lofts for months. In this time the taste softens, rounds, and buy all the nuances that make these apples an extraordinary product". In the kitchen they are extremely versatile, they are suitable both for making desserts and for savory dishes, such as roasts or risottos. They have a reddish, streaked or red-green hue, some are dotted, others are golden, such as Gray. They are apples that were once also used as a medicine in decoctions. Of all, the Carla variety is the one with the oldest taste, the one that refers to childhood memories.

Low yield, but great disease resistance

The ancient apples of Piedmont have been rediscovered thanks to events such as Salon of taste or the Basket of typical products of Turin. They are difficult varieties to grow mainly because the yield is not as abundant as that of the best known apples. They often have a tendency to alternate between: one year they are abundant, the next year the harvest is almost nil. This is the main reason why growers have decided to abandon them over the years, despite the fact that they are very resistant to pests and diseases. Fortunately the trend has changed, and now on the territory there are 25 farmers who have decided to replant these ancient fruits. The plants grow from 300 meters up to 600 meters above sea level and the higher they grow, the more good their fruits are. This depends on the type of soil, which drains and does not stagnate water and allows the plant to absorb all the nutrients present in the soil. Each plant grown in different valleys has its own particularity, and this means that biodiversity is, in these places, an unmissable resource.

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