LET US BRING ITALY TO YOU

Updated: Apr 9

How are you all doing? These days we’re experiencing a wide range of emotions, from stress and uncertainty to fear and anxiety. We’re all trying to cope with this to the best of our abilities. One thing we’ve found that has helped put us at ease is spending more time in the kitchen. Cooking and baking has allowed us to unwind, relieve tension, and unleash some creativity. It’s been really hard not being able to travel, let alone barely leave our own house. Cooking Italian recipes has made us feel like we’re bringing Italy to us. We wanted to share 4 of our favorite recipes with you. We hope that it’ll bring you a sense of adventure in the midst of the chaos going on in the world around us.

In Italy, you cannot eat without wine! If you would like to enjoy and experience some of our Italian wines to accompany your meal, we will be providing a special 25% discount on all orders for the next 24 hours. Be sure to use the Promo Code DRINKATHOME upon checkout to redeem your discount.

Buon appetito e salute!

In Italian they commonly say “salute” (short for alla salute) when you toast, which means “to the health.” Now, more than ever, we hope that you all stay healthy and safe.

Carly & Tommaso

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RECIPES:

PANZANELLA
PASTA AL PESTO DI PISTACCHIO
SALTIMBOCCA
SALAME AL CIOCCOLATO

PANZANELLA

This classic Tuscan tomato and bread salad is fresh and summery. Perfect for lunch, an antipasto, or even a light dinner. We love making this dish because it's a great way to use your stale, old bread. The staple ingredients are traditionally bread, tomatoes, olive oil and vinegar. But what's great about this dish is you can make it your own! You can include, disregard, or add as much or little of the ingredients as you like! For example, other common versions include chopped red onion. I'm not a big fan of raw onions, but if you like them feel free to add them in there! Here's the recipe for our go-to panzanella.

Serves: 4

Time: 45 minutes

What you’ll need:

Cubed, stale 2-day old bread (~ 3 cups)
2-3 diced tomatoes
3-4 diced celery stalks
1/4 cucumber thinly sliced
~10 basil leaves chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Start by toasting the stale bread cubes on a baking sheet to give a nice golden color. Heat oven to 425 F and bake for ~10-15 minutes, tossing occasionally to give all sides an even color.

2. While your bread is toasting, place tomatoes in a colander set over a bowl and season with a few dashes of salt. Toss to coat and set out at room temperature to drain, tossing & stirring with a spoon occasionally. You’ll notice the bowl will start to collect tomato juice, which is what you want. Drain for ~10 minutes.

3. Once you’ve collected all the juice from the tomatoes, remove the colander and place over another bowl to the side. Add olive oil, red wine vinegar and garlic to the bowl with tomato juice and whisk. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. In a larger bowl, combine the toasted bread, tomatoes and dressing. Toss to coat everything. Add the basil, cucumber and celery. Toss again. Let sit for ~15 minutes so the bread absorbs more of the dressing.

5. Serve, drizzle with additional olive oil and enjoy with a nice white wine!

PASTA AL PESTO DI PISTACCHIO

The very first time I had pistachio pesto was when we were traveling in Sicily. The region of Sicily in southern Italy is famous for their Bronte pistachio’s, grown around the village of Bronte on the eastern side of the island. So naturally, pistachios are used everywhere and in a number of different dishes. But one of our favorites was the pistachio pesto pasta. Pistachio’s give an extra hint of rich, sweet flavor. And for this recipe we added lemon, which balances the richness with a zing. This definitely rivals the traditional pine nut version of pesto!

SURPRISE! The wine we paired with this dish is a sneak preview of one of our wine's to come in the next Wine Club Shipment! 2018 Pecorino by Tenuta Mattei. Grape variety: 100% Pecorino. Have you tried this grape? Can you guess which Italian region June's shipment will feature? ;)

Serves: 4

Time: 30 minutes

What you’ll need:

2 cups, unsalted unshelled pistachio’s
Large handful of basil leaves (~3 cups)
3 tbsp grated Parmesan
Zest of 1/2 lemon, & juice of 1/2 lemon squeezed
1 peeled garlic clove (or 1/2 if you don’t like too much garlic)
100 ml extra virgin olive oil
100 ml water
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a food processor or blender, pulse the pistachio, basil, Parmesan, garlic, and lemon zest until finely chopped.

2. While the food processor or blender is still running, slowly add in the olive oil until it’s completely combined. Then add the water. Taste test and if you feel like the lemon zest isn’t enough squeeze half of the lemon and add the juice. Pulse again. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Cook the pasta of your choice. While cooking, add your pistachio pesto to a pan and turn to medium-low heat.

4. Once your pasta is nearly finished cooking reserve several cups of pasta water. If your pesto seems too thick, add some of the pasta water to make it the consistency you like.

5. Drain the pasta and add into the pan and toss all together.

6. Serve and garnish with a basil leave.

SALTIMBOCCA

Pronounced "sahl-team-BOH-kah", the name comes from saltare in bocca, meaning to jump into your mouth. These are SO good that they'll leap into your mouth and you won't be able to stop eating them! This dish is typical of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. The traditional saltimbocca always uses veal, prosciutto, sage and white wine and butter for the sauce. If you can't find veal (or if you don't like it) you can certainly substitute it for chicken, beef or even pork.

Serves: 2

Time: 30 minutes

What you’ll need:

6 thin slices of veal (or chicken, beef or pork)
6 slices of prosciutto
18 sage leaves
Plate of flour
1/2 cup white wine
3.5 tbsp butter
Salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Lay out the veal on a cutting board. If your slices are already thin you won’t need to do any preparation. If they're thicker, pound with a meat mallet until ~5 mm thick.

2. Season both sides with some salt and pepper. Then place slices onto a plate of flour and coat both sides. Remove and set aside on cutting board.

3. On each flattened veal, lay a slice of prosciutto, covering the meat, then place 2 sage leafs. One on the top half and one on the bottom half. Pierce through the sage, prosciutto and veal with a toothpick and weave back up through all layers like you would when sewing.

4. Repeat with remaining veal slices.

5. Heat a large pan on medium heat and add the butter. Once melted, add additional sage leaves and place the saltimbocca slices (as many as you can fit), plain side down.

6. Cook until golden brown (~5 minutes). Once cooked, flip sides and add the white wine. Turn up the heat slightly and cook until evaporated (~couple minutes). Flip sides to ensure their cooked and remove from pan.

7. If you couldn’t fit all slices of saltimbocca in the pan, repeat until all cooked.

8. Serve with il contorno (the side dish) of your choice.

SALAME DI CIOCCOLATO

Yes, that's right. We have a recipe for CHOCOLATE salami. It doesn't get any more Italian than that, am I right?! This sweet treat is the perfect way to either end a meal or even for a tasty snack. This is not a meat product! The name comes from its physical resemblance to salami. It's delicious, fairly simple to make, and no baking required! However, this recipe takes time before you can enjoy the final result. It must be refrigerated overnight, so be prepared to wait in anticipation!

Serves: 4 or more

Time: 45 minutes, plus rest refrigerated overnight

What you’ll need:

200 g chocolate fondant finely chopped (dark chocolate)
10.5 tbsp unsalted butter chopped at room temperature
2 eggs at room temperature, slightly beaten
1 3/4 cups roughly crushed Nilla Wafer cookies
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp rum
Powdered sugar to decorate

Directions:

1. Make a bagnomaria (Bain Marie), by placing a large heat proof bowl over a boiling pot of water on the stove. Place your chocolate in the bowl. Once the water boils, you’ll notice the chocolate start to melt. Continuously stir until completely melted. Remove from pot and let it cool.

2. Place the chopped butter in a large bowl and using a hand mixer whip with sugar. Add rum and eggs and continue to beat with the electric whisk until a light and frothy mixture is obtained.

3. At this point, pour in the melted chocolate that's now at room temperature and keep beating until the chocolate is well incorporated.

4. Remove electric hand mixer and add your roughly crumbled cookies to the chocolate mixture. Using a wooden spoon, lightly fold them in to mix.

5. Once mixed, transfer dough onto a sheet of parchment (or wax) paper on a countertop in front of you laid horizontally. With a spatula, distribute & start to form a sausage shape, starting from the furthest end working your way towards you vertically. (Note: if you find you have too much dough you can make 2 salami like we did).

6. Lift the salame from both sides of the parchment paper and use your hands to further lengthen and shape the salame.

7. Start to roll the salame. Lift the left side of the parchment paper over the top. Use your hands to tighten and roll the salme to the right until it's completely wrapped with the parchment paper. Fold the 2 opposite ends like a present and tuck inside.