Tuscan Traveler

Before the New Year’s diet resolution kicks in there was time for one last venture into the world of great hot chocolate in Florence. This time it was a paper cup of Grom’s Fondente with a moustache of whipped cream and a tall white ceramic cup of Catinari’s Fondente with only a silver spoon.

Deep dark chocolate from the best cocoa beans the world has to offer

Of all the cioccolata calda in Florence, Catinari is the best in quality, quantity, presentation and experience. Vestri comes in second in taste, but the plastic cup is a flaw. Grom serves three interesting versions of high quality, but the paper cup and no place to sit are drawbacks. Rivoire has the old world ambience, but has let the quality slip and, though unlikely, it seems like the cups have gotten smaller.

Mangia! Mangia! has already discussed the hot chocolate of Vestri and Rivoire. The first week of a new year is perfect for measuring Grom against Catinari.

Roberto Cantinari – Father of Tuscan Chocolate

A life devoted to chocolate – Roberto Catinari, now in his mid 70s, is credited with inspiring Tuscany’s young chocolatiers, who gave birth to the “Chocolate Valley” that runs from Florence through Prato and Pistoia and on to Lucca and Pisa.

It is said that his love of chocolate began in Switzerland where the young Pistoian immigrant began work at seventeen as a dishwasher in a pastry shop. It was over ten years before he worked his way into the white coat of a pastry chef. He spent ten more years perfecting his craft.

Roberto Catinari has the perfect face of a master chocolate maker

In 1974, he returned to the mountains north of Pistoia and his mother’s house in the hamlet of Bardalone, to start a business with his wife. Six years later they moved to a more advantageous location in Agliana (between Pistoia and Prato) where the kitchen and shop continued until 2007 when he obtained a larger space nearby.

Catinari, with his flowing white beard, could be a chocolate wizard from a Harry Potter novel, but he looks at his work as a craft to be mastered. Over the past thirty years he has created a business where at first no one would pay for quality ingredients until today when chocolate-makers beg for a chance to spend time learning in his relatively small chocolate laboratory. He demands attention to detail, the best ingredients, and a passion for chocolate from all who work with him. Catinari keeps the facility small by choice – a way of valuing quality over quantity. His focus is on the value that hand-made attention to detail and the best raw ingredients bring to the final product.

The beautiful entrance to Arte del Cioccolato

Except for the shop in Agliana, there is only one other Cantinari Arte del Cioccolato shop and that is in Florence, down a specially decorated little alley at the bottom of Via Porta Rossa where it meets Via Tornabuoni. It’s easy to miss. Here the attention to the main ingredient is readily apparent and drinking cioccolata calda is a special experience.

First, there is the walk down the short paved alley with decorative trees and huge flickering candles. The tiny shop is paneled in dark wood with glass cases full of meticulously decorated chocolate candies. Two comfortable seats are inside and outside, heaters keep the small tables warm even in winter. Arte del Cioccolato serves either Fondente (dark chocolate) or Al Latte (milk chocolate) flavors, both made with chocolate from São Tomé, the small island in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Africa. A large ceramic cup is filled just over half way with thick hot hot chocolate, placed on a saucer with a spoon. The spoon is useful for cooling the first sips and capturing the last bit coating the sides of the cup. None should be missed.

Grom – The Boys from Piedmonte Aim to Bring Gelato to the World

Grom, the upstart youngster, opened its doors in May 2003 in the center of Torino, and the success was immediate, unlike Alberto Cantinari’s experience driving around Tuscany for years, slowly building a fan base. At Grom, long lines formed in front of the store from the very first day and the two founding partners, Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom, planned for world-domination with their artisanal gelato.

Grom has three great flavors

In January 2005, they decided to expand with the opening of new stores and invest in a centralized laboratory suitable to meet the production demand of the future. The goal was always the same: offering the very best. The centralization of the first phase of production (the mixing of raw materials) became a key decision allowing for a strict quality control standard. But most important, like Catinari, they wanted to assure the quality of the ingredients, for instance, by allowing only certain types of fruit available at local consortia, rather than at the wholesale fruit markets found in each city. The liquid mixtures produced in the laboratory, are checked by a team of experts and then distributed three times a week to each store, where they are blended daily to create incredible gelato. The same system is used for Grom’s cioccolata calda. This attention to quality and the right raw material is at the origin of what makes Grom famous throughout Italy and already many parts of the world (New York City, Paris, Osaka, Tokyo, and Malibu, so far).

Grom’s centralized laboratory also produces the excellent liquid chocolate served at each store as hot chocolate. Grom offers a choice of three flavors:  Bacio, Al Latte and Fondente.  All include fresh milk, dark chocolate of the best “crus” around the world (Al Latte uses Teyuna cocoa of Colombia, Bacio incorporates Tonda Gentile Trilobate hazelnuts and the Fondente starts with Ocumare chocolate from Venezuela), and a few drops of cream. There are no thickeners and the liquid chocolate is heated on the spot in each gelateria so as not to weakening the complex flavors of the great chocolates.

It’s true that it may not be fair to measure Grom, a gelateria, against three chocolate makers when weighing the merits of cioccolata calda in Florence. It didn’t come in first ,but it certainly was a credible competitor. Next winter, perhaps the hot chocolate at Café Giacosa and Café Florian will be on the list of challengers. But now, the New Year’s diet commences…

Grom – www.grom.it (in Florence) Via del Campanile at Via delle Oche – Ph. +39 055.216158. Open from 10:30am to 11:00pm

Roberto Catinari, www.robertocatinari.it,www.artedelcioccolato.it Arte del Cioccolato, Via Provinciale, 378; Agliana; +39-0574-718-506; (in Florence) Chiasso de Soldanieri, near the corner of Via Porta Rossa and Via Tornabuoni); +39-o55-217-136.
Open from 10:00am to 8:00pm

To dress a salad in Italy is simplicity itself: bring a bowl of salad greens (preferably one to three varieties of radicchio tossed together – that’s all) to the table, add some of the best extra-virgin olive oil available, a small splash of red-wine vinegar or lemon juice, a generous sprinkle of salt and a bit of pepper; toss again and serve on a salad plate (don’t infect the leafy greens with left-over pasta sauce or juice from the ossobuco.)

Fresh greens are all a salad needs

The only debate is whether inexpensive balsamic vinegar (not the traditional DOP stuff from Modena) is an acceptable substitute for red-wine vinegar. Purists would say emphatically “No” but the number of Florentine neighborhood restaurants that bring the sweeter version of vinegar to the table seems to argue for, at least, an acceptable option to the Food Rule.

Add a bit of good olive oil and red-wine vinegar

Italian Dressing, known and loved in the United States (as well as Canada, the U.K and most of the British colonies), is a vinaigrette-type salad dressing, consisting of water, vinegar or lemon juice, vegetable oil, chopped bell peppers, usually sugar or corn syrup, and various herbs and spices including oregano, garlic, fennel, dill and salt. Onion and garlic is often added to intensify the dressing’s flavor. Usually it is bought bottled or prepared by mixing oil and vinegar with a packaged flavoring mix consisting of dehydrated vegetables and herbs.

Zesty dry Italian salad dressing flakes

North American-style Italian dressing, and especially Creamy Italian, which consists of the same ingredients, but with buttermilk or mayonnaise added to make it creamy, is not acceptable to the Italian palate. (”Che schifo” or Che esagerazione!” says Francesca.) Don’t ask for it in a restaurant in Italy or particularly from the cook in an Italian home.

At home in many American refrigerators

Needless to say, you will also not find the following dressings in any Italian kitchen: Thousand Island, Ranch, Blue Cheese, Russian, Louis, Honey Dijon, French, Ginger Honey, and, perhaps surprising, Caesar Dressing

Caesar Dressing is much more American than Italian. The most reliable story of its origins reports that Caesar Cardini created the salad and its dressing in Mexico.

Caesar Salad with Caesar Dressing croutons and Parmesan cheese

Caesar (born Cesare) came from near Lago Maggiore. He and his brother Alex emigrated to the U.S. after World War I. The Cardini’s lived in San Diego, but operated a restaurant in Tijuana to circumvent Prohibition. According to Caesar’s daughter Rosa, on July 4th 1924 the salad was created on a busy weekend at Caesar’s Restaurant. It is said that Caesar was short of supplies and didn’t want to disappoint the customers so he concocted this salad with what was on hand: romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese (another Food Rule, coming soon), lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and black pepper. To add a bit of flair, he prepared it at the table.

That last bit was the only thing truly Italian about Caesar Salad – a salad should be dressed at the table or right before it comes to the table – the greens should never sit soaking in the olive oil and vinegar.

Radicchio with a bit of frisee greens

Try being Italian for awhile – leave the salad dressing bottles in the fridge and simply add a bit of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to some fresh leafy salad greens. You may be surprised by what you taste for the very first time.

Although I’ve learned to never say never – Italians never eat while they’re walking or standing. They have no culture of snacking on the types of food that Americans are frequently noshing on as they hurry from place to place – no Big Gulps, Grande Lattes with extra foam, bags of Cool Ranch Doritos, Walking Tacos , Big Macs, or even, a panino con mortadella. (Yes, there are Big Macs in Italy, but they are being eaten – slowly – while at the table provided, not on the run.)

No one looks good eating or drinking while walking

This aversion to eating and drinking while walking (”Che schifo!” says Florentine Francesca) is ingrained from a young age, perhaps by a mother who values spotless clothes on her off-spring. More likely, by a mother who wants her family at the table on time and hungry, not missing in action or stuffed with chips before the meal even begins.

Che schifo!

But more to the point, eating is still very closely linked to the national heritage of consuming good food for pleasure. Even in today’s busy world, over 70 per cent of Italians eat meals they have prepared at home; the favorite place to eat both lunch and dinner is in the home, with almost 70 per cent eating at the family table. In the U.S., by contrast, we eat our meals (a) standing up in our kitchens, (b) in front of Jersey Shore, CSI or the PBS NewsHour, (c) at our desk while catching up on emails, (d) in our cars, or (e) walking down a city block between appointments.

Major violation of an Italian Food Rule

Whereas the Italians wishes spend up to two hours over lunch, we bolt down our food in the time it would take them to savor a crostino spread with duck liver. The Italian secret to avoiding obesity is to sit down with friends or family for a meal, and to eat three times a day at regular intervals; eating slowly, enjoying both the food and the company.

In Italy, a meal is a very particular moment, in which you share pleasure, the food as well as the conversation. From an American point of view, food is usually just fuel to give energy and drink is to add the caffeinated turbo-charge.

Of course, Italian food is real food – prepared in the kitchen, with time taken to choose, buy and prepare meals. In other words, there is space for food in the daily routine. Eating in Italy is a social activity. There are several courses, but they are small with plenty of time between dishes for the physiological feedback to kick in as the brain tells the stomach enough is enough.

Gotta stand? Use the shelves for your drink.

Even when Italians are forced to stand while eating, like at my favorite panino place, I Due Fratellini, a small hole in the wall (literally) where the best sandwiches in Florence are made, it is done with style. There are two sets of numbered shelves so you can set your glass of wine down as you take the six bites that will finish the minimalist panino made with a maximum of three of the finest ingredients inside a warm crunchy bread roll.

Only in your dreams

So what about gelato? Yes, it is an exception to the Italian Food Rule – No eating while walking. Italians walk while licking a small (2.50 € or less) cone - a cone, not a cup – of gelato. If you order a medium or large cone you are not Italian. If you are eating gelato out of a cup, you should be sitting in the gelateria or on a nearby bench. It’s complicated.

In conclusion, while Americans are speed-eating, gulping down a 550 calorie lunch solely consisting of a Starbucks Venti Dulce de Leche Blended Creme Frappuccino (”Che esagerazione!” says Francesca) before the light turns green and it’s okay to cross, the Italians are taking small mouthfuls, resting their cutlery between bites, discussing the food – because it is worthy of discussion.

“Where’s the butter for the bread?” asks a tourist from Chicago. “Can we get some butter out here?” asks a lady from Atlanta. “Perché?” queries the waiter.

Perché? indeed. In Italy, bread is not better with butter.

Butter from Reggio Emilia rarely found on the table

Butter never meets bread in Italy. except for a breakfast of a slice of toast with butter and marmellata or an after-school snack of bread and butter and Nutella.

At lunch or dinner, Italians wouldn’t think of slathering butter on the bread from the basket on the table. (They don’t dunk it in oil either, but that is the subject of a separate Food Rule.)

In fact, bread is served with the meal solely for the purpose of acting as the scarpetta – the little shoe – “fare la scarpetta” or use a little shoe of bread to scoop up the lasts remnents of sauce on the plate. A comprehensive discussion of “Scarpetta si, scarpetta no …” can be found on the Dellano website, saving you from the pitfalls of proper and polite public bread use.

Not Table-Ready

To ask for butter in a restaurant, or many family homes, puts the host in a quandary. The kitchen may have a quarter kilo or more of butter, but it isn’t table-worthy. No cute pats or butter dishes.

Marcella Hazen adds a historical note: “Olive oil is all around the Appenine and at the heel of the boot so it is used all over but much more in the south because they don’t have cows so they don’t have milk, butter, and cream.”

Burrino or Butirro - Butter as a hidden surprise

Hazen may have forgotten about burrino (aka butirro) a cheese from the southern regions of Basilicata and Calabria that has a core of butter, served as a first dish with warm bread. The butter was historically stored in the cheese to preserve it before refrigeration.

Ginger at allrecipes.com sort of got the idea when she submitted a recipe for “Italian Butter”, but then she broke about five Food Rules with her ingredients: red pepper flakes, black pepper, oregano, rosemary, basil, parsley, garlic powder, minced garlic, salt, and extr virgin olive oil. One of Ginger’s reviewers, Ashlie H., broke a few more rules: “An incredible recipe! I mix it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar over finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese. We eat it until our bread is gone!”

Italian Butter

And then there was the “Murder by Butter” case from Sicily, reported in Corriere della Sera, last February. Maybe this is why butter is not found on most tables in Italy.

When you visit Italy, give up bread and butter for the duration of your stay – you and your waistline will appreciate it – and think how good it will taste when you get home.

By now even a glance at TuscanTraveler.com (see here, here, here and here) will tell you of a greater than average interest in gelato. Imagine my distress to find that I would not be able to be in Cefalú on the north coast of Sicily for the fifth annual Sherbeth Festival.

If you love gelato and especially sorbetto and are traveling to Sicily in mid-September, head straight to Cefalú for four days of ice cream heaven.

Cefalú Sherbeth Festival 2011

From September 15 to 18, the historic center of the town will be transformed into the Gelato Village.

Whereas Florence (and Catherine de’Medici) lays claim to the creation of milk-based Italian gelato, Sicily fights for the honor of sorbetto, a divine combination of fruit, sugar and water. Sherbeth is an Arab word that became sorbetto in Italian (and sherbet when I was growing up in New Mexico).

Mango sorbetto will be a favorite at the Sherbeth Festival

The Romans say Emperor Nero started the craze by having his slaves carry buckets of ice and snow down to him from the Appian Way. But the Turks and the Chinese also had sherbeth frozen fruit desserts and Marco Polo is claimed to have carried the idea back from his travels. Certainly Sicily got the inspiration from the Arabs.

Here would be my idea of a perfect September day in Cefalú: In the morning, you can walk Cefalú’s sandy beach, one of the best in Sicily (burning off some calories in preparation for the rest of the day), and swim in the clear, warm sea (mid-70s).

Or you can begin as you mean to go on and order a typical Sicilian summer breakfast, a sweet brioche with gelato inside. (See Joe Ray’s WSJ post that describes the experience perfectly.)

Sicilian breakfast of sorbetto in brioche

Finish off the morning wandering the narrow streets with buildings displaying Arab, Norman and Byzantine influences, seeing the impressive Duomo, and then heading to the Corte delle Stelle and along the waterfront to indulge yourself at 35 Sicilian and international artisanal gelateria stands, savoring their hand-made sorbetto.

Stop by Carpigiani Gelato University’s gelato school and take a class in how to make sherbeth. Carpigiani is providing the equipment at a central production lab for all of the gelato makers where they will create their own proprietary recipes for the delight of the expected crowds.

Fruit flavors reign, but try chocolate sherbeth, too

Under the stars, a final gelato in hand, on my perfect September day, I would take in the wide variety of musical and other entertainment provided by Sorbeth Festival 2011 in Cefalú.

Gelato tourism has to be coming soon. Sign me up!

“Mangiare la pizza prima delle nove mi fa tristeza,” asserts my friend Teresa, echoing Italians everywhere – “To eat pizza before 9pm makes me sad.”

The Italian Food Rule: No pizza for lunch.

In the U.S. pizza is eaten at any time of the day – even cold for breakfast in dorm rooms on every college campus. Italians refuse to eat food served any which way, at any time of day or night.

The reasoning behind this Food Rule is exact: Pizza is to be eaten at a pizzeria at night because: 1) pizza must be made to order (no frozen pizza); 2) pizza must be eaten immediately after it comes out of the pizza oven (no take out); 3) pizza must be made by an expert – not a generic cook – a pizzaiolo (preferably born in Naples), who 4) is using a wood-burning pizza oven.

The pizzaiolo slides a pizza into the wood-burning oven

A wood-burning pizza oven takes a long time to get to the proper temperature (485º C or 905º F), so it will not produce the perfect pizza before 8:30 or 9 in the evening and it is usually considered a waste of time and energy (as well as a violation of the Food Rule) to fire it up for lunch. Pizzerias stay open until midnight or later, so a pizzaiolo gets in a full shift of work from prep at 7pm to clean up at 1am.

Another reason for the Food Rule is that pizza, unlike pasta, is considered a social food – a food for lovers and friends, not family. Pasta is associated with home and Mom’s cooking. Traditionally, Italians were expected home for lunch for Mom’s pasta. After Mom started working outside the home, the pasta meal moved to dinner – everyone was still expected to have their feet under her table at 7pm and pasta was served more times than not.

Pizza is for lovers and friends

Since the perfect pizza can’t be made at home (no kitchen oven reaches 485º C and most of the private wood-burning pizza ovens built in Italy are installed on the request of foreigners who want a “true Italian experience” at their vacation villa or Tuscan farm house), it becomes a social event. Pizzerias provide an upbeat, carefree, casual environment (no worries about getting tomato sauce on Mom’s favorite tablecloth). If there is a wood-burning pizza oven, it is usually on display, as is the pizzaiolo, adding to the festive atmosphere.

Americans are frequently disappointed with the pizza they eat in Italy. Of course, this is mainly because they ignore the Italian Food Rule: No pizza for lunch. But it is also because they expect Italian pizza to be like the pizza in Chicago, heaped high with everything. Perhaps generic pizza is more of an American fast food than a traditional part of Italian cuisine. Whereas, Italians have eaten pasta since the 12th century, pizza is relatively new on the scene.

History of Italian Pizza & How it Was Introduced to the World

Some say pizza was created in Italy in the late 19th century because of the tale of the queen and the pizza. But the pizzeria that served the queen tells this story:

Queen Margherita - famous because of a pizza

“In 1780, the pizzeria Pietro e basta così (which means “Peter and that’s enough”) started its activity in Salita S.Anna di Palazzo near P.zza del Plebiscito. Its pizza, already extremely favored by the Neapolitans, soon became famous and appreciated in the whole city.

For this reason a century later, in 1889, the pizzaiolo of that pizzeria, now called Pizzeria Brandi, Raffaele Esposito, was invited at Court along with his wife Maria Giovanna Brandi. He baked three different pizzas for King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen’s favorite was a pizza evoking the colors of the Italian flag – green (basil leaves), white (mozzarella), and red (tomatoes). This combination was named Pizza Margherita in her honor.”

Just over 150 years ago, Italy was a land of city states – Florentines did not eat what Romans ate and Venetians did not eat like the Sicilians. Pizza was strictly a food of Naples. But as World War One loomed, Italians from Naples emigrated to the U.S. In 1905, the first Italian pizzeria opened in New York and the fad spread much faster in the states and the rest of the world than it did in Italy.

Only with World War II did pizza become a dish made throughout Italy, this time sought by American soldiers as they made their way from Sicily through Naples to Milan and Venice. The pizza craze was also spread in Italy by the migration of southerners looking for jobs in the north after the war and was made trendy by the popular croonings of Italian-Americans Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin: “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie … that’s amore.” (Turn up the sound on Pizzeria Da Michele’s website.)

Pizza Margherita was named for a queen

Rules for Making Perfect Pizza

The uneven nature of pizza quality throughout Italy, of course, led to new Food Rules. Purists, like the famous pizzeria Da Michele in Naples consider there to be only two true pizzas – the Marinara and the Margherita and that is all they serve. The Marinara has a topping of tomato, oregano, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and usually basil. The Margherita, is simply tomato sauce, mozzarella di bufala, fresh basil, and extra virgin olive oil. In Florence, Enzo, the pizzaiolo at Osteria Cafe Italiano serves three – Marinara, Margherita and Napoli (with capers and anchovies).

Due to the large number of pizzerias in Naples, the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (True Neapolitan Pizza Association) was founded in 1984 to certify the pizzerias using the proper ancient artisan traditions of authentic pizza. They have illuminated signs outside of pizzerias that follow their methods so Neapolitans know where to go for pizza verace.

A thin layer of perfect sauce is all that is needed

The association set out very specific rules that must be followed to create an authentic Neapolitan pizza, including using ‘00’ flour (highly refined Italian flour), San Marzano tomatoes (grown in volcanic soil surrounding Mount Vesuvius – less acidic and slightly sweeter than other tomatoes), and Mozzarella di Bufala or Fior-di-Latte (fresh mozzarella made with milk from either water buffalo or cows).

The dough must be hand-kneaded by the  pizzaiolo and must not be rolled with a pin or prepared by any mechanical means, the pizza must not exceed 35 centimeters in diameter or be more than a third of a centimeter thick at the center. The sauce is spooned on and spread with the back of the spoon into a thin layer. Other ingredients are not piled on, but are scattered in a haphazard way. The pizza must be baked in a wood-fired, domed oven at 900°F for no more than 60 to 90 seconds.

Eccola! The perfect Margherita pizza – the crust is thin, dry and golden at the center; the edge is thicker, breadier and slightly scorched; the sauce is bubbling, but does not pool in the center; the cheese is melted and strings out as the slice is lifted (though some claim another Food Rule – pizza is to be eaten with a knife and fork); the two or three green leaves of basil are whole and only slightly cooked; and finally, a swirl of fresh extra virgin olive oil is added as an accent before the pizzaiolo releases it to the table.

Pizza Marinara - garlic and sauce, but no cheese

Other Italian Food Rules for Pizza:

One pizza per person.

Drink beer or acqua frizzante with pizza

Leftover pizza is left, not taken home.

Do not ask for grated Parmesan for pizza.

Hot chili pepper (peperoncino) in oil or as powdered flakes is an accepted condiment.

Pizza may be eaten by the slice, usually while standing, at lunch.

It is sad to eat pizza alone.

Can you think of other Italian Pizza Food Rules?

Flying pizza dough

Short List of Great Pizzerias:

Best pizza in Naples:

Pizzeria Da Michele

Pizzeria Brandi (formerly Pietro e basta cosi)

Best pizza in Florence:

Pizzeria Osteria Café Italiano

Munaciello

Best pizza in Rome:

bir & fud

Pizzeria Da Remo

What are your favorite pizzerias in Italy?

One of the highlights of this summer was an invitation to spend two days at Carpigiani Gelato University, located just outside Bologna, on the historic Via Emilia, between Lavino di Mezzo and Anzola dell’Emilia.

48 hours of just thinking about gelato and, of course, tasting flavor after flavor of sorbet, semifreddo, granita, frozen yogurt, soft-serve, as well as, traditional Italian gelato.

Gelato Maestro Luigi Perrucci

At the Gelato Lab, Carpigiani’s freestanding high-tech gelateria, two brand new flavors of gelato were introduced to the world on July 20 during the presentation of the 2011 Gelato Pioneers (more about this later).

The two fascinating flavors were created by Gelato Maestro Luigi Perrucci in the Gelato Lab’s research and experimentation kitchen, using the most innovative of Carpigiani’s gelato and soft-serve machines.

Mortadella Gelato Crostini

The crowd cheered as a tray of Mortadella Gelato “crostini” was presented. Mortadella is one of Bologna’s most famous foods, dating back five hundred years. Maestro Luigi chose to serve his mortadella gelato on a small round slice of bread and top it with a shaving of Parmesan cheese, a squiggle of balsamic vinegar and bit of shredded lettuce.

Made with a sorbet base, the pink gelato offered a true mortadella flavor without any fatty mouthfeel or aftertaste. The bread, balsamic, Parmesan and lettuce made it the perfect sandwich, albeit an icy cold one.

Balsamic Gelato from the soft serve machine

For dessert, Maestro Luigi offered a Balsamic Vinegar Soft Serve Gelato. Of the palest purple in color, made with a milk and egg base, the delightful swirl of gelato was sweet with a slight tangy aftertaste.

Balsamic vinegar is not vinegar per se. It begins with late-harvest grapes (usually white Trebbiano) grown near Modena. Traditional balsamic vinegar is thick and sweet and very very expensive.

Balsamic Vinegar Soft Serve

Carpigiani is known for pushing the envelop of the tradition Italian gelato experience. The company seeks to bring Italian gelato to the whole world. Mortadella gelato may not find its way into any gelateria on a regular basis (except for perhaps Humphry Slocombe in San Francisco and on the Food Channel’s Iron Chef), but the balsamic vinegar soft serve is a keeper.

“Italians, it so happens, spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about digestion. The predilection towards a before-dinner drink-known as an aperitivo – is due in large part because Italians believe a drink such as Campari and soda “opens the stomach.” If you launch into your bruschetta – followed by pasta, followed by grilled fish, followed by panna cotta – without first awakening the digestive tract with an aperitivo, you’re just asking for trouble.” (The Daily Traveler for Condé Nast)

Cappuccino Classico

To sip a cappuccino after lunch is a direct and major violation of an Italian Food Rule. Italians believe the fresh whole milk that makes up over half of the contents of this drink plays havoc with digestion. To order a cappuccino after 10am, unless you are breakfasting after said hour, is seen as suspect behavior worthy of at least a slight frown, advancing to a worried shake of the head, and can escalate to outright ridicule.

Francesca, my guide to all of the pitfalls that lead to violations of Italian Food Rules, once had a hilarious exchange with a waiter after two German tourists at a nearby table unwittingly ordered cappuccini after dinner. Scornfully, she wondered if they were going to order breakfast for dessert.

Origins of Cappuccino

Most believe that cappuccino was named after the light brown hoods worn by a hard-core, split-away order of Franciscan monks, founded in the early 16th century – the Capuchin monks, or Cappuccini. The word cappuccio means “hood” in Italian, and the “ino” ending is a diminutive. Thus, cappuccino means “little hood.”

Cappuccino - the Italian breakfast

Others credit Capuchin monk Marco D’Aviano with the invention of the drink, allegedly after he discovered a sack of coffee captured from the Ottomans during the battle of Vienna in 1683. (D’Aviano was beatified in 2003 for his missionary work and miraculous power of healing.)

In reality, the popular coffee, topped with foamed milk, dates back to the early 20th century, but the name wasn’t associated with the beverage until just before 1950.

Cappuccino – Breakfast of Italians

Fresh Milk & Espresso = Cappuccino

To the Italians, milk is almost a meal in itself. So having a cappuccino at the neighborhood bar in the morning on the way to work or school requires no other food to be considered a complete breakfast. (A small pastry may be included, but not always.)

Cappuccino is more milk than coffee, so it is full of calories. Perhaps the reasoning is that slender Italians (the ones that don’t order the pastry) are more likely to burn off the calories through the day. Drunk later, those pesky calories stay on the hips

Some say that cappuccino is best in the morning because the milk has lactose (a sugar) and the body absorbs the lactose and milk fat quickly, so the carbohydrate energy is available immediately before the caffeine stimulant kicks in.

Food Rule – No Cappuccino after Meals

The real reason behind the Food Rule, however, is that Italians are firmly convinced that drinking milk after any meal will mess up the ability to digest food properly. So having a cappuccino at any time after lunch, or after dinner, in Italy is unthinkable.

Tourists, therefore, shouldn’t be shocked when the waiter refuses to grant their cappuccino requests “for your own health.”

Cappuccino Valentine

For further reading:

Best Writing about Italian Coffee

How to Order an Italian Coffee in Italy

Down a tight road, through a narrow gate, no people, no cars, seemingly abandoned farm buildings, an old red tractor, no animals in sight, but the smell of hay and dung hung in the warm early evening air near Spezzano Albanese, in the arch of the Italian boot. Not a promising start after assurances that we would find the best mozzarella di bufala in the world or, at least, in Italy or, for sure, in Calabria.

Unlikely spots yield wonderful buffalo mozzarella

But on the wall of the smallest ancient building is a beautiful ceramic sign that assures us that we are at Caseificio Torre Mordillo. (The Mordillo Tower, pictured on the sign, is nearby. The tower and the surrounding ruins date from the Iron Age and were expanded by the Greeks.)

Caseificio Torre Mordillo

We enter into a tiny space, the store, empty of any products. A man looks up from the adjoining larger room where he is washing down the white-tiled walls and cream-tiled floor with a hose. His name is Mariano. If we can wait, he will have the mozzarella made fresh in twenty minutes. Why don’t we visit the water buffalos?

Water buffalos at dinner

Across the cracked pavement of the empty parking lot and around the corner of of the huge abandoned building we find about twenty water buffalos munching on their supper of hay. Communing with buffalos is only interesting for five minutes or so and we couldn’t discern where the milking shed might be and we weren’t as happy as the buffalos with the swampy mud. So we headed back to the caseificio to watch the mozzarella being made.

Loaves of cheese curd from which mozzarella is made

Maddalena and Florina had joined Mariano. A round stainless steel vat of water was heating on one side of the room. On a stainless steel table were loaves of porous cheese curd made from milk obtained from the water buffalos during their morning milking.

Crumbled cheese before hot water is added

Mariano carved off a large piece of the curd, placed it in a large round metal pan and crumbled it into small pieces. He added scoops of hot water and  stirred the melting crumbs with a wooden stick into a smooth mass. This is called “stringing the curd.” After the desired elasticity was achieved, Mariano scooped off the excess water.

After "stringing" pieces of mozzarella are carved off to form balls

From the large mass of mozzarella, they used the plastic scoop and the wooden stick to cut off baseball-sized pieces and dumped them into a rectangular bath of warm water where Maddalena and Florina formed them into balls of mozzarella di bufula. Each loaf of cheese made about twenty balls, which then went in to a salted bath to cool.

Balls of mozzarella being formed in a warm water bath

We asked for a large braid (treccia) of mozzarella and Mariano carved off a huge hunk of the smooth elastic mass. He warmed it by dipping it into the hot water bath. Then he held it high and let it stretch.

Stretching the mozzarella

He dipped the long piece into the warm water again and then let it stretch even more. Folding it over at the center he began to twine the treccia into its classic form.

Mariano creates the rope of mozzarella for the braid

Braiding the treccia

Usually fresh mozzarella spends a few hours in a bath of cold salt water. We took our order (2 kilos (about 4.5 pounds)) with us, each ball or braid bouncing around in salted water inside tied-off plastic sacks.

The perfect braid of mozzarella di bufala

Before we left we each got a taste of warm unsalted mozzarella – an intense milky flavor with essence of the air around the Caseificio Torre Mordillo.

From the mud-splattered, scruffy water buffalo (yes, I admit they have soulful brown eyes) comes the most sublime cheese, which due to its short “sell by” date, is only enjoyed by few people outside of Italy. Mozzarella di Bufala or Buffalo Mozzarella is the most prized of all of the mozzarella cheeses. “I always say mozzarella has 99 flavors,” said Antonio Palmieri, a buffalo mozzarella producer from Campania. “You can taste those flavors from the milk itself, without having to add anything, neither salt nor oil.”

Lunch of hay, a roll in the mud, and the result - sublime mozzarella

History

Food historians still argue over the genesis of mozzarella di bufala in Italy. One theory is that Asian water buffalo were brought to Italy by Goths during the migrations of the early medieval period. Some say that Arabs brought water buffalo into Sicily and later, the Normans brought them to the mainland.

Water buffalo were a familiar sight in the swampy coastal countryside of medieval Italy. They were widely used as draught animals in plowing compact and watery terrains, both because of its strength and the size of its hooves, which do not sink too deeply into moist soils.

Cheese products made from water buffalo milk appeared for the first time at the beginning of the 12th century. Buffalo mozzarella became widespread throughout the south of Italy in the late 18th century, going into small-scale commercial production

Bocconcini of mozzarella di bufala go into a saline bath

Production in and around Naples was briefly interrupted during World War II, when retreating Nazis slaughtered the area’s water buffalo herds. The farms were restocked a few years after the armistice was signed and the mozzarella has been growing ever since. Twenty percent of today’s Italian mozzarella di bufala output is shipped to France and an equal amount makes it overnight to the United States.

In early 2010, a scandal erupted over allegations that as much as a quarter of cheese sold as mozzarella di bufala contained cow’s milk rather than water buffalo milk.

It is widely known that the best and most highly prized artisanal produced buffalo mozzarella is still found south of Naples near Battipaglia and Caserta where small factories continue centuries-old traditions making buffalo mozzarella fresh daily for their local customers, who travel for miles to buy it only a few hours after the morning milking.

Obika, the mozzarella bar/restaurant with locations in London, New York and throughout Italy goes to the Campania region for all of the fresh mozzarella di bufala served in each of its unique bars.

How Mozzarella di Bufala is Made

Paula Lambert of the Mozzarella Company of Dallas Texas describes the process of making mozzarella best:

There are two basic ways to make mozzarella: direct acidification of the milk to form the curds or the culture/rennet method. In both methods, raw milk is pasteurized and then coagulated to form curds. Once the curds reach a pH of 5.2 they are cut into small pieces and mixed with hot water and then “strung” or “spun” until long ropes of cheese form.

This “stringing of the curd” is unique to cheeses in the “pasta filata” family, such as mozzarella, scamorza and provolone. When the proper smooth, elastic consistency is reached, the curds are formed by machine or hand into balls which are then tossed into cold water so that they maintain their shapes while they cool. They are then salted and packaged.

It is a short making process, usually less than 8 hours from raw milk to finished cheese. The critical moment is determining exactly when the cheese is mature and ready to be strung…waiting too long can result in a mushy cheese, while stringing too early can result in a tough dry cheese.

Once strung, the curds can be formed into balls of varying sizes: Ovolini (egg size) 4 ounce balls; Bocconcini (bite size) 1.50 ounce balls; Ciliegine (little cherry size) .33 ounce balls. My favorites are the braids (treccia) of mozzarella or, even better, burrata, which is like a mozzarella truffle – a ’skin’ of mozzarella surrounding cheesy “rags” and cream.

A perfect treccia (braid) of mozzarella di bufala

Mozzarella di bufala can be smoked, either in a smoking chamber or by “painting” with a liquid smoke, but a little affumicata can go a long way so use sparingly with a spicy side dish or in bits on a pizza with eggplant. Herbs and sun dried tomato bits can be added. There are many possibilities, but just fresh and plain is always best.

The Queen of Mozzarellas

Mozzarella di Bufala is the ultimate mozzarella tasting experience – everyone remembers their first time. Buffalo mozzarella should taste fresh and reminiscent of cream. Tasted the same day it is made, it will leave a lingering pleasant musky aftertaste – perhaps of hay. It should be mild and delicate, but creamier than cow’s milk mozzarella. There should be a hint of sourness and salt. (If it tastes too tart or sour the cheese is past its prime.) The color should be white; however, seasonally the cheese can be more yellow due to the cows’ diet of grasses. The fresher the cheese, the more elastic and springy the curd, but it shouldn’t be rubbery.

A face only a mother could love?

Once you have tried fresh mozzarella di bufala it is almost impossible to go back to regular mozzarella, or any other cheese.

View a video of Antonio Palmieri’s organic water buffalo farm where happy buffalo make delicious mozzarella.