Tag: supermarket

Even the supermarket wears the party dress – Italian Cuisine

At the end of the year, even the supermarkets wear the party dress. Not only do they become more sparkling and inviting, but they are also enriched with many gastronomic specialities which can only be purchased and tasted during this period of the year. Some chains have expanded their Christmas assortment to such an extent that they are dedicated to them temporary shop, that is "time shops" where they offer many delights to enrich the holiday menus, to make gourmet gifts and to indulge in a delicious sin of gluttony. Here's what's special for Christmas 2021.

Limited edition products
Is the menu changed to celebrate the end of the year holidays? Modern distribution knows this well and adapts by proposing exclusive products, which can only be purchased for a few weeks, from venison ham to Bresse chickens to feathered game (such as pheasant, mallard, goose and partridge) or lobster in plain sight. How does Despar which every year presents a Special Edition with a selection provided by small local producers, who through a craftsmanship, have created unique products, available in limited quantities and while stocks last. This year there are a dozen cheeses and cured meats, such as Lard from Mora Romagnola and Salame di Varzi Dop, Parmigiano Reggiano Dop aged 60 months and Schiena d’Asino aged in a cave.
Even the highest-end private labels are expanding their assortments ahead of the holidays, aiming to offer the best ratio between product quality and affordability. This year, for example, the range Deluxe by Lidl offers new specialties, such as cuttlefish ink lunettes with salmon filling or rum pralines with extra dark chocolate, while among the signature products Gourmet Aldi there are truffles stuffed with Marc de Champagne and Parmigiano Reggiano Dop aged 40 months.

"Turnkey" lunches
Some chains (such as Iper La grande i and long S) create real catalogs where they present all the proposals of the deli counter, with Christmas recipes and specialties, and a selection of fine meats and cheeses, giving the possibility to order an entire menu, from fresh pasta to roasts to desserts for the holidays, flawlessly crafted. "In recent years, our proposal has adapted to new trends, focusing on lighter dishes (for example by replacing the Russian salad of lobsters in plain sight with the Catalan of vegetables) and also offering vegetarian menus, such as lasagna with vegetable sauce" explains Francesca Scanarotti, coordinator of traditional fresh produce Iper La grande i.

Temporary shop
For distribution chains, and in particular for their high-end brands, the period from November to January represents the high season, as is August for the world of tourism. The offer becomes richer and more refined and the effort of the distribution chains is to make it known even outside their stores. Here, then, that the supermarket brand products explore new forms of sale. Like the temporary stores, "time" shops dedicated to parties, which are opened in the heart of the cities. As did, for the first time, Esselunga, which opened in Milan (via Spadari 4) a temporary store dedicated to Elisenda, his haute patisserie brand that offers the exclusive recipes created by the Cerea brothers in the starred restaurant Da Vittorio. At the "usual" range of products of cakes, mignon pastries, macarons, cream puff tartlets and cannoncini, filled at the moment, and the new line of spoon desserts, you can buy delicious panettone (the novelty is the marron glacé one) packaged in an elegant tin packaging. The temporary shop of Il Viaggiator Goloso, the top quality brand of Unes, returned to Milan this year too: in Vg Xmas Store of corso Venezia 6 you can choose from many gastronomic specialties and irresistible Christmas delicacies from the finest cured meats to the most sparkling bubbles. Do not miss the exclusive limited edition saffron panettone with which Il Viaggiator Goloso pays tribute to Milan and with which it contributes to the restoration work of the Duomo. And then many gastronomic baskets (also customizable and deliverable at home) with a wide selection of quality products, perfect for giving the authentic flavors of tradition.
In cagliari, the novelty of Christmas 2021 is the Christmas Store The Rose of tastes, in Piazza Yenne 6, the new private brand of food excellence developed by the Ibba Group (Crai brand). There you can find everything you need to make the holiday menus special: over 500 products, with a rich assortment of smoked salmon with beech wood and stuffed ravioli (among which those stuffed with Kobe beef and those with caviar stand out. and king crab) and a wide choice of wines, sparkling wines and champagnes. And, last but not least, the many panettone, including the one made by starred chef Gian Piero Vivalda, presented in an exclusive hatbox.

December 2021
Manuela Soressi

Follow the taste, at the supermarket choose the Slow Food Selection – Italian Cuisine

The Sigma, Sisa and Coal supermarkets take you to discover the most authentic territories, where relationships are more transparent and communities more united. With many good and genuine products selected together with Slow Food Italy

Whether you live in a big city or in a provincial town, there is only one way in which everyone would like to shop: by finding typical and authentic Italian products, with a value that goes beyond taste. To actively promote social responsibility, the "Taste & Passion Slow food Italy selection"Of the supermarkets Sigma, Sisa and Coal, a" four-handed "project with which to research the small and large gastronomic excellences hidden in our territories, select only local raw materials of the highest quality, collaborate with the most representative producers, respectful of ancient manufacturing processes that embody the noblest Italian artisan production. A good trip to our country that today can be done without leaving home, choosing from the many products of the Gusto & Passione line in your trusted supermarket Sigma, Sisa or Coal.

Four projects to explore the best of Italian food and wine products with the guarantee of Slow Food: craft beers, wines, cold cuts and pastries. Where to start? Discover them all on www.gustoepassione.info

Biscotti factory Grondona: canestrelli and more

With 200 years of history behind it, this company embodies the Genoese confectionery tradition. Able to innovate while respecting its past, its Gusto & Passione Selezione Slow Food Italia sweets and biscuits are prepared with natural and refined ingredients. Only precious mother yeast, Baci di Dama with tonda gentile hazelnuts from Piedmont and pure dark chocolate, traditional Pandolce with raisins, candied fruit and pine nuts, Biscotto della Salute and Biscotto Legaccio, delicate, light and nourishing. And then the Canestrelli, with the crispness and flavor of the past.

Wines of the Tre Monti Winery: Romagna DOC Sangiovese and Pignoletto DOC

The wines of this winery are the result of the love and emotions of the Navacchia family who handed down their passion from father to son. The study of the land and the selection of the best plants are the starting point for the organic wines Gusto & Passione Slow Food Italy Selection: Romagna DOC Sangiovese, saline and balsamic, perfect with the classic tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce and Pignoletto DOC, fresh, carefree and pleasantly aromatic.

Salami from the Falorni Butcher: nine generations of knowledge

In the heart of Chianti, the Falorni family has been working high quality cured meats since 1806. For 9 generations they have selected exclusively the best cuts of fresh Italian pigs that the master butchers work by hand and treat "with a knife", respecting the artisan knowledge to guarantee the quality of the Sbriciolona Chiantignana Gusto & Passione Slow Food Italia Selection. Absolutely to try, this typical Florentine salami is an excellence known and appreciated throughout Italy. It is a soft sausage, prepared using lean and fat pork meat, chopped to medium grain and then salted and flavored with fennel seeds, pepper, garlic and other spices.

Beers from the Soralamà Brewery: only with mountain spring water

Soralamà is among the top 15 Italian craft breweries and its beer stands out for the purity of mountain water and for the use of top quality natural raw materials, typical of the surrounding area: in Val di Susa at the foot of the Sacra di San Michele, Soralamà in fact creates its craft beers drawing directly from the source that has excellent organoleptic qualities. This unique ingredient makes their beers light and easily digested. Pils, IPA, Blonde Ale and Bock Rossa.

In Milan the new sustainable supermarket – Italian Cuisine

His name is Erbert and wants to be the answer to those looking for healthy (also through ready and balanced menus) and sustainable food (the brand's packaging is 100% compostable)

A supermarket of selected and, above all, sustainable products: this is how it describes itself Erbert, landed this summer in via Moscati 11 a Milan. Here they are fruits and vegetables, bread and desserts prepared with wholemeal flours, leaven mother and extra virgin olive oil, fish, organic meat, cured meats (without polyphosphates), cheeses (including mountain pastures), take away gastronomy dishes (can also be ordered at home) and packaged products from snacks to preserves, up to condiments. The new supermarket was created with the intention of responding to current trends in terms of expense, or the well-being through nutrition and the environmental sustainability.

Healthy products and balanced dishes

The products for sale by Erbert, they explain, are selected according to the criteria of healthy eating and ready meals are designed to be balanced in their components (a sticker explains the different combinations of nutrients) thanks to the collaboration with a team of nutrition biologists who thought of several balanced menus (there is, for example, the Mediterranean one, the vegetarian one, the one for children, but you can also create customized ones). And nutritionists are also present in the shop to give advice to those who make it expense.

Erbert's sustainable packaging

The shop is made only with low environmental impact and totally plastic free materials, as well as the packs of the products of the Erbert line are made 100% compostable material. The selection of the fruit and vegetable department tries to favor biodiversity and prefers organic and biodynamic crops, while some gastronomy proposals use the waste from plant-based processing to reduce food waste.