My guest this week is Eugenia Bone who partnered with Julia della Croce to put together a splendid new book “Tasting Italy” with Recipes by America’s Test Kitchen.
The experts at America’s Test Kitchen and National Geographic bring Italy’s magnificent cuisine, culture, and landscapes–and 100 authentic regional recipes–right to your kitchen.
Featuring 100 innovative, kitchen-tested recipes, 300 gorgeous color photographs, and 30 maps, this illustrated guide takes you on a captivating journey through the rich history of Italian cuisine, region by region. Rich excerpts feature the origins of celebrated cheeses, the nuances of different wine growing regions, the best farmer’s markets in Venice, and more. Intriguing prose illuminates key ingredients, from olive oil and how it’s made to the various pasta shapes of Northern Italy. In every region, the food experts at America’s Test Kitchen bring it all home, with foolproof recipes for standout dishes as well as hidden gems: Piedmontese braised beef in lustrous red wine sauce, crispy-custardy chickpea flour farinata pancakes from Genoa (achieved without the specialty pan and wood-burning oven), and hand-formed rustic malloreddus pasta of Sardinia that is a breeze to make. Get your copy NOW!
Eugenia Bone is a nationally known food and nature journalist and author. Her work has appeared in may publications, including Saveur, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Martha Stewart Living and the New York Times. She is the author of six books and has been nominated for numerous awards, including a James Beard Award. She lives in New York City.
Learn more about Eugenia at www.eugeniabone.com
Follow Eugenia on Facebook & Twitter
Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
2015 Pian Di Nova “IL BORRO” Toscana
The grapes are harvested, de-stemmed and sorted by hand and then pressed and gravity-fed into vinification tanks. Each variety is vinified separately. Maceration, the process by which whole grapes are fermented in a carbon dioxide rich environment prior to crushing, takes about 20 days in the stainless-steel tanks at a temperature controlled 26°C.
The last stage is alcoholic fermentation which takes around 10 days on average after which the wine is decanted in to barrels. After racking, the wine is placed in Allier oak barrels, one third new, another 2 years old and the final third 3 years old. After Malolactic fermentation around the end of November, the grape varieties are blended and put in to barrels. Maturation in casks lasts 6 months, after which the wine returns to the stainless-steel vats for approximately one month, before being gently filtered, bottled and matured for a final 6 months in the bottle.
“Very perfumed and bright with flowers, light cloves, pepper, licorice and cherries. Full-bodied, with very fine tannins and a juicy, dark-fruit finish that adds hints of black pepper and sweet tobacco. Beautiful wine. First year from organically grown grapes. 65% Syrah and 35% Sangiovese. Drink now.” (Sep 2018)