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Tourist information: Food & drink

 

Verona To Host Novello Debut

For the first time the Verona trade fair will be hosting the annual premier presentation of Vino Novello or Italian new wine, a cousin of the better known French Beaujolais Nouveau.
Up until last year the popular wine made its debut in Vicenza at the Salone Novello, the only trade fair which for 20 years was dedicated to Italian new wine.
The presentation will now be staged by the Verona trade fair agency VeronaFiera, which also organizes Vinitaly, Italy's most important trade fair for wine and distilled spirits.
Re-named 'Anteprima Novello', the event was presented here on Tuesday with the participation of Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia who will also be on hand for the gala dinner here at which the first corks of Novello 2008 will be popped.
Novello, Zaia observed, ''is the Italian answer to what was once a totally French phenomenon: Beaujolais''.
''We believe that the quality of our product is proved by the fact that the making of Novello is not just limited to one region but takes place from north to south in scores of vineyards of different sizes,'' the minister added.
After Novello makes its debut on the night of November 4, the Verona fair grounds will host for the following two days an exhibition of this year's production which will be opened to the public but will also cater to wholesalers, retailers, the leading distribution centers and restaurant operators.
Vino Novello, which was officially recognised in 1987, traditionally makes it debut in the first week in November in order to get a jump on Beaujolais Nouveau.
Beaujolais cannot be opened until the third Thursday of November, this year November 20.
Only 0.18% of Italy's wine production is now dedicated to making Novello, the popularity of which appears to have peaked in 2004 when 22 million bottles were produced, compared to some 11.5 million this year.
The number of vineyards producing Novello has also dropped, falling from over 400 in 2004 to 246 this year, and in four years turnover has declined from almost 100 million euros in 2004 to an expected 52.5 million euros in 2008.
Novello, like Beaujolais Nouveau, is a light, fruity red wine which by law must be bottled within a year of the harvest, but in practice is bottled within a few weeks.
Although connoisseurs may snub it, Novello gained popularity, especially among young people, thanks to its clear red color, fruity taste and low alcoholic content, only 11%.
The fruity flavour of new wine is in part due to the fact that the juice of the grapes is not left too long with the grape skins which contain the chemical tannin.
This allows winemakers to blend several types of grapes and the wine can even be served chilled like white wines.
One of the main differences between Novello and Beaujolais is that several of the Italian wines retain some of the carbonation used to accelerate the fermentation process while the French Nouveau is traditionally flat.
The tradition of producing new wine began in the Beaujolais area of France's Burgundy region during the 1950s and has really caught on in Italy in the last decade.

Italian Chef To Cook Molecular Lunch At CERN

An Italian chef will bring his brand of so-called 'molecular cooking' to the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva on Tuesday when he prepares a special lunch for guests at the official inauguration of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Ettore Bocchia will lead 36 cooks to provide the 1,500 guests with an impressive 20-course meal based on molecular cuisine, a discipline that embraces scientific principles in the creation of recipes.
''We are in full swing and the kitchen has changed look, with lots of test tubes, ovens and microwaves and a corner in which we've set up a computer,'' said Boccia, who usually works as head chef at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni di Bellagio, near Como.
Among the dishes on the menu will be guinea fowl eggs cooked at 65 degrees, following a molecular cuisine rule that it is the temperature at which an egg is cooked, rather than the time it spends cooking, that produces the best results.
A new invention to be tasted by guests for the first time on Tuesday is a Bearnaise sauce made without butter, which is instead replaced by the plant fibre inulin.
Ten puddings also feature on the menu, including raspberry, vanilla and chocolate ice cream made with liquid nitrogen.
Bocchia first introduced molecular cooking to Italy in 2002 and has written a recipe book with Parma University physicist Davide Cassi.
The LHC is the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world and is designed to allow physicists to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang.

How to Decipher an Italian Wine Label

meridian The Plate on the left says : It is always the right time for a good glass of wine

DOC? DOCG? Rosso di Montalcino? Brunello di Montalcino? Firenze? vino da tavola? Making sense of an Italian wine label can sometimes be a daunting task, but with a little practice, you too can be fluent in Italian wine labeling.

The most important components of an Italian wine label are place and grape varietal. Knowing the unique grapes used in Italian wines and having a good geographic sense of Italy will get you through all but the most confusing wine labels.

Place names are based on Italy's wine laws. Within these laws, there are three main categories: DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata, roughly translated: protected place name) DOCG (Denominatzione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, roughly, guaranteed place name) and IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica, typical place name.).

The DOC designation is given to over three hundred Italian wine growing areas. This designation governs such things as area of production, permissible grape varietals, maximum yield of grapes per acre, minimum alcohol content, aging requirement, and such vineyard practices as pruning and trellising. In addition, to be eligible for a DOC designation, wines must pass a taste test and a chemical analysis. DOCG has a stricter set of guidelines than DOC.

IGT wines must also meet geographic and grape varietals requirements, but the standards are less stringent for this designation. There are about 120 IGT areas in Italy.

One last label is : Vini di qualità prodotti in regione determinata (VQPRD)

DOCG and, to a lesser extent DOC, is, in most cases, an indication of a superior wine. There are, however, Italian winemakers who make very good wine but prefer not to have as much government involvement in their businesses. They choose, instead, to be labeled an IGT. Wine without a DOGC, DOC, or IGT designation is called vino da tavola, or table wine. Examples of DOGCs are Chianti Classico, Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino, and Barbareso.

Grape varietals are also found on Italian wine labels. Italy's unique climate suits grapes that are not often produced in other areas. Grapes such as Chianti's Sangiovese, Barolo's Nebbiolo, Corvina, and Arneis are most commonly found in Italy.

Some words found on labels indicate the type of wine produced, such as spumante (sparkling,) chiaretto (rose,) bianco (white,) dolce (sweet,) secco (dry,) or rosso (red.) Other words have to do with the winery: vigna or vigneto (vineyard,) tenuta (estate,) or produttore (producer.)

Italian wines are distinguished with the following labels in increasing quality order:

* Vini da tavola
Vino da tavola (VDT)
Vino da tavola con indicazione geografica tipica (IGT)
Vini di qualità prodotti in regione determinata (VQPRD)
* Vino a denominazione di origine controllata (DOC)
Vino a denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG)

In any case a large part of the best Italian wines are classified only as 'Vino da tavola' for example wines labeled 'Supertuscan'.

About Italian Food

Italian Food: The Italian food section of Life In Italy is divided into several categories: First we have our Italian food Ratings database, a rating of Italian food by selected Italian and American consumers. Second we provide recipes by Venetian chef Francesco the co-owner and chef at award winning restaurant Remi in New York City. Third we provide some general articles about Italian cooking like how to make Italian Pizza at home, bread, and articles about Italian foods such as olives, cheeses, herbs used in Italian cooking.

First some good news: I just found a large bucket of 500gr real Mozzarella di Bufala at Costco for under 10 dollars see Mozzarella di Bufala
NOTE ABOUT ITALIAN FOOD FOR AMERICANS traveling TO ITALY FOR FIRST TIME

While in New York city and in my area (Washington DC) - there are few real Italian restaurants, my subjective, but experienced, opinion is that 90% of the Italian restaurants in the US are not Italian at all. If "Italian food" conjures up thoughts of Italian American restaurant chains or pizza with a red-purple sauce and lots of garlic powder this is simply not Italian! I personally hate that type of cooking -Italian American food is loaded with too many strange tasting "additives". One might even call them "addictives" because these strong flavors cultivate consumer taste for heavy style foods, to the detriment of the much more delicate and healthier authentic Italian cooking. As an example of this altered taste are things like Italian dressing - Italian style bread crumbs - Italian seasoning are all things with 'oversaturated' taste that you will never find in Italy .

funny comic italian food

In the minds of many in the US, Italian food continues to be associated with the image of a pretty large guy eating spaghetti with meat-ball sauce - the reality is that in Italy practically no one eats spaghetti with meat ball sauce. Italians do have some meat sauce recipes that require long and laborious preparation (including marinating the meat for 3-4 days in aged red wine), but they also have an incredible number of variations of pasta dishes cooked with vegetables or seafood. prosciutto And when I say pasta, this is not equivalent to only spaghetti. Again there is an amazing range of forms, shapes, sizes of pastas, many of which are unique to specific regions. The variety in the Italian diet, the continued widespread reliance on fresh ingredients cooked on the spot, and the extensive use of vegetables, fruit and olive oil all contribute to the generally healthy state of Italians that on average appear to be much thinner than Americans, especially in middle and later years. In my opinion, there is a direct relationship between being overweight and heavy consumption of industrial and chain foods, widespread soda drinking and avoidance of fruits, vegetables and reasonable amounts of wine, not only in the US but also among younger generations in Italy that love to imitate the American life style. A lot has been written about the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Without going deeper into the matter, I would like to tell you that Italian food - that found in Italy - is not only good for you but it really tastes great! Enjoy the adventure of exploring authentic Italian food, not only a delight for the senses but also an expression of the cultural and traditional heritage of the country.