You might think I am joking, but I am not! Although it is only July, we have started to prepare for Christmas. Most importantly, we have asked us the following question: what would our American friends like to have made available to them?? As I have a pretty sweet tooth, Giovanna, Niccolina and I sat down together to think about a Christmas item that is true to Italian tradition, to Tuscany, can be transported all the way and does not need any preservatives? And something that Americans will also like to eat...If you are shaking your head at this point, wondering why this is so complicated, let me assure you: it ain't easy. Take for example the most classic Christmas cake of all: The Panetone. It comes traditionally from Milan, but has been sitting on dinner tables at Christmas all over Italy for many decades now. Because it is just so darn good. But unfortunately it is impossible to bring it to the US without compromising the natural ingredient list. The humidity, temperature changes, pressure... they would ruin the Panetone, if it were not for preservatives and other additives. Which we do not like in our food. So - no Panetone.

Next big Christmas cake is the Panforte: dried fruit and nuts, it comes from Siena and was once so valuable that it was used as currency: Sienese paid their taxes this way. Giovanna and Niccolina do a Panforte that any king would accept as tax payment even today, but for some reason it is really difficult to convince the American palate of it's yumminess.

So we took the most classic Tuscan cookie - the Cantucci - and varied the ingredients to give it a christmassy taste. Kamut flour, chestnut flour, spelt flour, walnuts, hazelnuts, chocolate, orange peel, cinnamon, cardamom .. you name it, we tried it!
We went through a lot of tasting (which we thoroughly enjoyed) and finally decided on a Cantuccione of …. no telling yet! It will be our November surprise! And if you have any ideas of ingredients for Cantucci, pls. let us know! We would love to hear them!

Updating...

... is exactely you will end up doing after having shopped at La Cuisine! A small independent cookware store with a fine selection of specialty food items in Alexandria, Virginia, LA CUISINE is the place to shop. And the best is: you can do it online - you just need to go to www.lacuisineus.com

The Cuisinetts, as the women that run the store call themselves, have a gifted hand to source great products that are delighting hobby and professional chefs alike! All of them are passionate cooks themselves, wich is the secret of their success. Nothing is stocked on the shelves of LA CUISINE without having been tested and tested again.

For Food lovers living in the VA/DC/MD area: the Cuisinettes do organize weekly events, tastings and classes such as knive skills. Check out their website to not miss the next time this small store LA CUISINE becomes the center of the cooking world!

Side note: we are proud to have convinced Nancy and her fellow Cuisinettes to stock our Roasting and Grilling salt by Roberta and Giulio. Buy it here: http://lacuisineus.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2419

What a great picture I received from Judy, Sally, Lin and Pamela from the LA Yacht Club's women's rowing team. You can see them enjoying The Scrumptious Pantries' Tomato Jam with Grappa - accompagnied with some great cheese from the Artisan Cheese Gallery in Studio City - as a delicous snack after an intense training session and to celebrate a birthday. (Unfortunately I do not know whom of the four we can congratulate, Happy Birthday from everyone at The Scrumptious Pantry)!!
We are delighted to have been part of the celebration! Keep rowing strong (and eating that panforte Niccolina and Giovanna make certainly helps - it is dried fruits and nuts and nothing else).
Side note: In Los Angeles, The Scrumptious Pantry is available at the Artisan Cheese Gallery, 12023 Ventura Boulevard, Studio City

It is winter in San Miniato, which means it is time to eat "Cardoni". After checking on the internet about the availability of "Cardoni" in the USA I feel there lacks some information about what they are and where to find them.

There are two types of "Cardoni" (Cardoons in English) - and you can generally use both to cook the recipes you find on the various internet sites.

Cardoni type number 1 is a plant that is a relative of the artichoke, can grow quite tall, is of a whitish green color and has an artichoke like taste. These Cardoons grow in the north of Italy (they are sown out every season), as one website tells can sometimes be found growing wild in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, but are generally hard to find (you cannot even find them in Tuscany or Southern Italy, they need a very specific soil in order to grow). They do not bear any other fruit. Their "sense of being" is to be a Cardoon.

BUT NOW COMES THE SOLUTION: Cardoni type no. 2 - is not a relative of the artichoke, it IS PART of the normal artichoke plant! Here in Tuscany, we harvest "our" Cardoons of the artichokes a couple of months before the artichokes are harvested.

So what is the Tuscan Cardoon - which to my understanding should be possible to recuperate from every artichoke plant on this planet? When the plants start growing, they develop several stems. Each stem is to carry a so called "mamma" - the mother artichoke. Of this main stem about 15 artichokes can be harvested from healthy plants, which are deeplt routed in the soil. Now: YOU ONLY WANT ONE MAMMA! The other stems you need to prune, in order to give room enough to the mamma. These "excess" stems are what we call "cardoni" and we use them in all the varieties of COOKED recipes that I found browsing the net. Do you have artichokes growing close to you? Why don't you try the Tuscan side dish "Cardone in umido":

> wash cardoni and clean out the strings (as you would do with celery)
> cut in bite size pieces and cook in boiling water with a hint of lemon juice (important, the lemon stops the cardoon to turn brownish... this trick works also for artichokes!)
> when almost done, take the cardoons out of the water, turn them in flour until they are evenly covered (shake off excess flour)
> in the meantime heat some good olive oil (e.g. Cosimo's extra virgin olive oil in The Scrumptious Pantry) and fry two pieces of whole, but slightly crushed, garlic
> add the flour covered cardoons and fry for about five minutes
> add a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce and let cook another 3 minutes over medium heat
> take out garlic and put salt and pepper to taste

Makes a great side dish for meats! Calculate about seven cardoons (that is the type 2 ones, which are much smaller) per person.

BUON APPETITO

Sun, stone, drought, silence and solitude: these are the five ingredients that, according to Italian folk traditions, create the ideal habitat for the olive tree. And Italians should know, as cultivation of the olive tree started there as early as the 8th century BC. It arrived from Greece (where its cultivation began around 5000 BC), with the expansion of its colonies. The liquid gold was treasured so highly that it was awarded instead of medals at the Olympic games.

Its properties were valued for food conservation, as medicine and as cosmetic – both internal as external. Although we nowadays lack the necessity to treat out torn skin after circus fights – as the roman gladiators supposedly did - the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil are well reported: their high levels of antioxidants are said to be beneficial to fight cholesterol, coronary disease and cancer.

When buying olive oil, there are two kinds of information that need to be evaluated correctly: one is the grading into extra virgin, virgin and olive oil and the other is the reference to IGP and DOP.

Extra virgin tells you two things: it has been cold pressed at a temperature below 77°F (virgin) and is has a very low acidity of less than 1% (extra). Cold pressing guarantees that the enzymes are not destroyed, but the yield will be much lower and the oil hence more precious. The “extra” can only be obtained from a first pressing of perfectly intact fruit. Olives are very delicate and need to be picked carefully and pressed as fast as possible – preferably 24 hours after the picking – otherwise it decays.

IGP and DOP are indicating that the oils are representing a typical regional oil. The producers need to follow a production protocol and shared standards. There are more than 40 different IGP and DOP labels for extra virgin olive oil in Italy. Exaggerated? No, because the character of an extra virgin olive oil varies significantly based on where the olives were grown. An olive oil from the Ligurian Coast shimmers yellow, is fruity and sweet, where as the Tuscan one is more spicy, almost pungent and is dressed in green. The Apulian oils are more fruity, also in their scent, and have a more herbal note. Going further south to Sicily the oil will be fruity and very mellow.

An extra virgin olive oil does not need to be IGP or DOP though in order to be exceptional. Many small artisan producers cannot afford the pricey certification and sell beautiful oil without the IGP or DOP label. One of these is Cosimo. The Scrumptious Pantry brings you his two single estate olive oils from the hillsides of the northern Chianti region. The nights there are cool and the days are hot – a more peppery taste is the result. The blend is a spicy, pungent oil that works perfectly to top of soups, grilled veggies, pasta dishes and risotto. The premium blend is a more elegant oil, sweeter at first, but quickly developing a peppery sensation: it is great to top off meats, salads or to be drizzled over cheese. Given its pungent note, it might not be the best match for peppery salads such as arugula or delicate fish dishes (useless to say that Tuscans and Cosimo do use their oil on everything and totally love it). We are working on a detailed report of the 2008 olive harvest at Cosimo's - stay tuned for more!

One last note: Olive oil needs to be conserved in the dark at a low temperature. Do not keep near the oven and make sure your olive oil is in a dark bottle or wrapped in aluminium foil. Do not keep a selection of too many varieties if you do not use them regularly or buy more special oils in small containers. That way it will not oxidize or become rancid.