Ingredients are everythingI buy a lot of ingredients on-line. Amazon is one of my best friends as they deliver great products quickly and inexpensively. I buy most of my Italian flour, sardines, and other basic ingredients from them. Today, I discovered Zingerman's. Oh, my! I will be buying a few items from them for as long I can imagine based on the first shipment alone. I ordered two pounds of REAL Parmeggiano Reggiano cheese and a few bottles of olive oil. If you don't know about the real Parmeggiano Reggiano from Parma, Italy -- you must taste it to believe the difference. Zingerman's is licensed by the cheese makers of Italy to sell the real thing. They cut entire wheels of cheese and ship the Parmeggiano fresh from the wheel. The texture and flavor is beyond anything what can be acquired at the local store. It is a bit more expensive but so worth every penny. Real cheese from real cheese makers that are producing the world's best "prodotti". The texture is not hard-as-a-brick cheese or the artificial wood-fiber looking stuff in a green can. It is crystalline, uneven, natural and smooth at all the same time. Break off a piece and the flavors explode in your mouth. You do not need to shred it on pasta to enjoy it. Eat it with salami, prosciutto, olive oil or any other basic ingredient and you will wonder how we have screwed up Parmeggiano in this country. You will want to go to Italy tomorrow.
I also purchased a bottle of Poggio Lamentano Extra Virgin Olive Oil. As much as I loved the cheese, I may love this even more. In Italy, "L'olio Buono" is the house olive oil that comes directly from the Frantoio - the olive oil mill. It is green, delicious, effervescent and delicious. They do not typically use it for cooking but rather it is for eating with bread, antipasti, salads or on vegetables after they are are cooked. The Poggio Lamentano is L'olio Buono (the good oil). Poggio is an unfiltered, Tuscan olive oil with more flavor than any olive oil I have had since... well, since...Italy. The peppery finish is incredible and I imagine this oil on any vegetable we make as well as a good steak or fish. The color and taste is amazing. This is really the point to cooking at home. Finding the best ingredients and eating with passion for flavor. I could preach for days on the over-processed crap that we sell as food in the United States but there are any number of books, blogs and chefs talking about that. I would rather talk about the passion for taste and flavor. I have two kids in their twenties and they get it immediately. There is no trick in it. There is simpy an obvious difference in the ingredients from what they are used to. There is a nice Italian saying, "Non si puo discrivere, deve assiaggarlo!" It means that one cannot describe the difference as it must be tasted to understand. That is so true. Now immagine these ingredients in the hands of a great chef and you know why the best food in the world tastes so good. I have found that it works for me as well. My wife and I have a hard time finding good places to eat out now. Our food just tastes better and is far cheaper than most of what we can find anywhere. We live in Nashville and there are plenty of great places to eat. We just have a hard time finding those that are better than what we can make at home. It is possible for you and for anyone to experience the same thing. Except it is even better as it comes with the satisfaction of having made something truly delicious at home. Don't get me wrong, we go out and we find great restaurants around this great town. They are just not around the corner anymore. The bottom line is that there are better chefs in restaurants but we use much better ingredients. It makes all the diffence in flavor and our food experience!! For now, I think it is time for some wine and a few nibbles of Parmeggiano and Olive Oil.
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Dennis SmithHome Chef and Wine Snob Archives
October 2021
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