GORDON RAMSAY RECIPES

It helps to sleep and at the same time energizes; it is used for burns as well as to fight harmful bacteria: honey is a real ally of well-being. And the more pollen and royal jelly are. I am the amber heart of CONAPI, the National Apiculturist Consortium, that gives forty years enhances the production and alliance of men & bees.

They define themselves "Biodiversity growers" the members and members of CONAPI (over 250, representing more than 600 producers on the national territory), because really beekeeping plays a crucial role in protecting biodiversity and helping the environment. Have you heard ‘the api alarm’ in recent years? The danger that these will disappear and the consequent catastrophes for nature and food production? Well, believe it: these incredible insects they really have a fundamental task in nature. The bees are responsible for 70% of the planet's edible crops! CThere are at least 5 ways we can help them survive. And returning to our health, to close the circle: you know that they even protect us from pesticides?

CONAPI, founded in 1979 by the initiative of 9 young people, is based in Monterenzio, in the province of Bologna, and is today the largest cooperative of beekeepers in Europe and among the most important worldwide, with the mission to carry on, giving strength and voice even beyond national borders, to the values of sustainability, cooperation, links with the territory and biodiversity that are the basis of their work.

An internal regulation of the Consortium aims to ensure that the members, who collect honey and other fruits from the approximately 100,000 hives scattered from Piedmont to Sicily, adhere to the commitment to produce clean, healthy and high quality food – about 50% of the members' production is organic and the consortium is the leading producer of organic honey in Italy.

176794 CONAPI owns one factory of 6,200 square meters which produces 3,200 tons of honey and fruit-based preparations: composed with reduced cooking times and made with honey. The historical brand of CONAPI beekeepers is Mielizia: not just one honey, but many honeys – with a traceability system can be used simply by connecting to the site with the product's QR code. Among the various product lines, that of the biological supplements (for example the Bio Energy and Bio Sport Energy bars) and the one for the HO.Tre.Ca channel, dedicated to bars and hotels, with dispenser, squeezer, exhibitors. Then there is Heart of honey, a brand of products 100% organic dedicated to the Ecor Naturasì sponsored bio channel.

But what are they? the "fruits" of the hive?

Bees transform nectar or honeydew in a long-life product – honey – of which they feed especially during the winter. CONAPI honeys are never subjected to pasteurization treatments.

Propolis it comes from the resinous substances of barks and buds of different plants that the bee carries attached to the hind legs up to the hive where it transforms them into a building material and disinfection of the environment. The propolis, from the Greek pro polis, it is not really a food but rather a substance that is used for pprotect our health. It has a chemical composition that varies according to the seasons and the territory.

THEwith royal jelly it is a glandular secretion that young bees produce between the 4th and 14th day of life (common bees live 45 days; queens 5 years), when they perform the function of nurse of the larvae and queen. In conclusion, a kind of mother's milk from the hive: it is a gelatinous substance with a whitish or yellowish color and a typically pungent smell. Its composition is unique; extremely rich in vitamin B5, a real one substance mine able to grow metabolic activity of cells. IS really precious and when we choose it it is very important to make sure of its origin: Italian and organic, like the one guaranteed by CONAPI.

Pollen it is the colored powder present in the flowers necessary for the reproduction of plants, which occurs above all thanks to pollinating insects, among which bees are the most effective representatives. A part of the pollen that remains attached to the body of foraging bees it is used for the colony, a complete and necessary food. Among the products of the hive, it is that more balanced in its components; it is very proteic and very rich in nutrients useful also for the human body.

176788 Unlike honey, it is a food easily perishable: for this CONAPI has created a plant for its packaging in modified atmosphere, to keep its qualities unaltered. It consumes itself, or mixed with juices or again in the pastry dough rather than in salads or as a topping for yogurt and ice cream. By the way: did you know that CONAPI produces even ice cream ???

Carola Traverso Saibante
July 2019

DISCOVER THE COOKING COURSES OF SALT & PEPE

From trench distillates to modern camouflage bottles, passing through the inevitable Alpine grappa: what to choose for a toast by soldiers on the occasion of Republic Day

On Via dei Fori Imperiali the stands have already appeared, the Frecce Tricolori have started the tests: all the signs that June 2, the Italian Republic Day, is approaching. For Rome it is the day of the parade of the Armed Forces, which culminates precisely with the spectacular passage of the acrobratic patrol of the Frecce Tricolori on the Vittoriano. Together with the parade of the Alpine troops that recently flooded the streets of Milan, June 2 is the occasion to tickle a curiosity: do the liquors of the armed forces still exist? From the stainless grappa of the Alpine to the ever-present cordial, the answer is yes, but many things have evidently changed also in the tastes of the soldiers, with more petty and less trench proposals.

From Cordiale to Cordialcioc

The official reference of the Armed Forces is the Florence Military Pharmaceutical Chemical Establishment, born in 1832. If its main activity is in the production of drugs, however it has always been engaged in the distillation of soldiers' liquors, starting from the mythical cordial. The Enocordial is its flagship product, or a brandy aged at least three years in oak barrels. Then there are the grappa, the Amaro delle Alpi and the Aninolo, or an aniseed distillate. The Elixir of China is particularly interesting, obtained through the cold extraction of cinchona bark and bitter orange peel, then aged for at least one year in oak barrels according to the historical recipe found in the Military Pharmacopoeia of 1877. And, again, the more ruffian versions of the cordial wine mentioned, from Cordialcioc, with pure extra-dark chocolate, to Cherry Cordial, flavored with cherries.

The camouflage bottles

A cordial, or rather another brandy aged three years, softened with DOP buffalo milk, is instead the proposal of the ancient Petrone distillery, complete with a mimetic bottle and a name that cannot be more evocative: the name “Esercito” appears on the label 1659 ", where 1659 stands for the year in which the regiment" of the guards "was born, or the date of birth of the Army, which granted the mark to the bell distillery. In the presentation we read that the original distillate, Cordiale 15 18 (where obviously the numbers stand for the beginning and end of the Great War) was "a must in the history of the Armed Forces of Italy, was a loving companion of the soldiers in the long winter nights .

The Alpine grappa

That the Alpini are big drinkers and that their parties are very alcoholic is not a mystery, although still very civilized (see the images of the post-parade Milan, cleaner than before the event). That said, there are several distilleries that compete for the reference grappa palm, even though only one can boast the official brand: it is the South Tyrolean distillery Psenner which produces the Grappa of the Alpino, complete with a soldier on the label. It is a grappa barricaded at 40 °, obtained by distillation with continuous and discontinuous method in bain-marie stills using exclusively pomace from South Tyrol. For those who prefer white grappa, there is the Grappa Trentina of the Cappelletti Distillery, which also bears the characteristic hat with the pen on the label. On the Lombard side, instead, in Mapello, in the province of Bergamo, there is the Locatelli Distillery, with its "free-range distillate, strong, consumed for more than a hundred years in the whole of Bergamo".

Gordon Ramsay Recipes

Tag: Forces

Italian companies: CONAPI, when men & bees join forces – Italian Cuisine

The liquors of the Armed Forces of yesterday and today – Italian Cuisine

From trench distillates to modern camouflage bottles, passing through the inevitable Alpine grappa: what to choose for a toast by soldiers on the occasion of Republic Day

From Cordiale to Cordialcioc

The camouflage bottles

The Alpine grappa