Aromataste Blog

Do you like Italian cooking? What would you think if I invited you for dinner and I prepared for you something typical Italian? Do you like Carbonara and Parmigiana made with aubergines? I have decided to cook something I usually prepare for my best friends: two typical regional dishes of the Italian cooking. Carbonara is a main dish whose origin is quite uncertain, however, it is considered a typical delight of Lazio, while Parmigiana is an excellence of Campania and Naples probably offers the best one.

Have I convinced you? If you are Italian cuisine lovers I should probably make you curious and hungry. If you have already been in my country, maybe you have tasted our Parmigiana and Carbonara, haven’ t you?... No? We must do something then…immediately. Well, shall I start?..I really think so. I would start from the main course, the Carbonara. I am not going to talk about its origins; I will prepare "my Carbonara", which is quite similar to the original one. This recipe is for four people. I fry a half medium onion (don’t cut it too thin otherwise it will burn) in plenty of extra virgin olive oil and, after about one and a half minute, I chop and add 200 grams of bacon, sliced or in cubes, in fact, in your house, you can do as you like. It is important that the bacon becomes crispy. In the meanwhile, I take the eggs. Somebody, I don’t exactly remember who, told me that the right number of eggs to use must be one more than the number of people who will eat it. So, in this case, 5 eggs. I put them in a plate. I add two handcuffs of Pecorino cheese, a little bit of salt and a lot of pepper. I mix everything with a fork as if I were preparing an omelette. As concern the kind of pasta, I would recommend a kind of spaghetti known as “spaghetti alla chitarra”, which are a little bit thicker than usual and quite squared; they will keep better the cooking and will absorb better the Carbonara sauce. I drain the pasta when it is still “al dente” (not completely cooked) and I put it in a saucepan. At this point I add the bacon and the mixture of eggs. In Rome, they prefer the eggs to be cooked only by the heat of drained pasta while in the North they prefer to add some cream, making this recipe a little bit heavier. Personally I prefer to finish the cooking over very low heat, splashing a little quantity of cooking water. In this way, everything becomes quite creamy. In fact, as I told you, it is a Carbonara in “my” way, and I will serve it with a lot of pecorino cheese and some more pepper. What do you think? Is it a tasty way to start our dinner?

Parmigiana needs a longer preparation. Boil a bottle of tomato sauce (700 ml.) with a clove of garlic and some leaves of fresh basil, remove the stalks from the aubergines, slice them up into 1/2 cm. thick and fry them in plenty groundnut oil; once they are ready, put them on paper towel to absorb the excessive oil. Take a baking dish, spoon over some tomato sauce on the base and top the sauce with a layer or two of aubergine slices. Spoon over a bit more sauce, then scatter over some sliced mozzarella, parmesan and basil leaves. Repeat this operation for three times, layering up and finish with the last of the tomato sauce. Scatter over the parmesan and put the Parmigiana in a 200˚ preheated oven for about 35, 40 minutes. I usually wait some minutes before serving to avoid unpleasant burnings of palates.  Very well so far. For my dinner, I will have a main course, the Carbonara, and a second course, the Parmigiana. What will we be drinking? With the Carbonara I would choose a dry white wine, maybe Frascati. And with Parmigiana? Well…there are tomatoes, aubergines and mozzarella…. I would choose a red wine, an Aglianico from Campania.

I will end my invite for dinner in my little but cosy house with an advice: follow the traditional recipes but don’ t forget the fantasy…maybe the best ingredient for a successful recipe. Parmigiana and Carbonara are two classic recipes of regional Italian cooking, but nothing stops you from revising them, without changing them completely but adjusting the taste following your desires and needs. I really hope you took some notes. Enjoy preparing some Italian cuisine for your guests. Now you have two secret weapons: Carbonara and Parmigiana.

Food photography...the new tendency of taking pictures of food! A genre born relatively recently which, in a time where socials dominate, has spread out very quickly. But what is exactly food photography?

How many of you have been out to eat and have shared a photo on your social of the succulent and beautiful aspect of the dishes you had just ordered? Maybe, once published the pic, you notice that the images are all similar, the lights and shots are all the same and we are a little bit disappointed by the results. Well…food photography is not exactly this.

Food photography is having a real boom such as everything concerning food; it is perfect for commercial and advertising purposes but also just for fun.Following some expedients, we will get closer to a more professional approach to this genre of photography. In this article, we will see how few, simple rules can help us to improve our food pictures. Obviously, these rules are perfect for cooked dishes after we have prepared a small set of shots. So…what are the basic rules to improve our food photography? 

1) A good light

Light is generally the main element to get a nice pic and, therefore, it is necessary also for food photography. Natural light is highly recommended: it is in fact more uniform, it doesn’t flat the image and it doesn’t produce too high and strong lights or too marked shadows. It is possible to use artificial lights but we should never and I really mean never use the incorporated flash of our camera. It is better to use an adjustable external flash which in food photography (in some ways like still life) can be softened by white tissue paper or banks and by orienting the light source from the back or from the side. In this way, we will have a softener and more delicate light. 2) The right composition

For the composition of food photography, we use the same rules of general photography. The basic “rule of thirds” whose basic principle is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds both horizontally and vertically. Intersecting the lines, we obtain four points on which we will position the main subject of our photo which will be the guide of the photographer. 3) Framing The great expertises of food photography prefers three types of framing, which consider three camera angles: 15˚, 45˚, 90˚.Using the first 15˚ camera angle, we will put into evidence the verticality and the dimension of food type, we will also highlight the verticality and size of the food by taking a picture at the dish height to play more with the depth of the field. If we take a picture using a 45˚ camera angle we will give a more natural aspect to our photo. It will be as if we were taking the picture while sitting at the table. With 90˚ camera angle we will highlight the shapes and geometries of our dish, perhaps wisely created and thought before the shot.

4) Style and history of the dish 

It is very important in photography to give pictures a style and a history. What does it mean? We need to understand what we want to photograph and put our object into evidence thanks to kitchen utensils, foods and complementary colours which go well with the dish. It is better not to combine certain elements such as fish and cheese for example because, in this way, the image itself will lose its credibility. Therefore, in food photography we could complete and fulfil the image with elements linked to the main subject or with complementary ingredients useful for the dish preparation, avoiding exaggerating. In photography, in my opinion, it is always better to use few elements, what is important is they have a sense and that they help to give a clear and pleasant image. 5) Food and colour  In photography, the main element is the subject, it is important to have this concept clear on one’ s mind. Since we are talking about food and to be a good food photographer it is better to choose for our pics raw or half raw food to preserve the freshness of the ingredients such as their colour. As said before we could complete the image with kitchen items, wooden utensils, plants or even vegetables. It is only important to combine the right colours. 

6) The background 

We should avoid distracting people who will admire our works of art. Too focused or showy backgrounds could distract the observer from the subject. So, for our perfect food photography we will have a faded background (in common with the subject) or we will use neutral backgrounds such as a white paper tissue. 

7) Lens and diaphragms

During the first part of our trip through the history of the Italian cuisine we have seen how it has been deeply influenced by foreign populations. We have also noticed how the Italian cuisine was linked to the disintegration of the country into small states caused by the falling of the Roman Empire.

In the Middle Age, as we pointed out in the previous article, the Italian cuisine underwent the influence of the Arabic and the Barbarians who introduced in our country some new elements such as: the Arabic spices, beer and butter.

After the poverty of the Middle Age dishes and  the rejection of luxury due to religious influences, we will see how during the 1200, but above all during the Renaissance, there is an important refinement in the customs visible also in the Italian cooking.

At the end of 1300, Italy was made of dukedoms, domains and little kingdoms. The artistic and cultural phenomenon of Renaissance had its birthplace in Tuscany, above all in Florence. 

In fact, the Italian cuisine was strongly influenced by the elegance which characterised the nobles of that time that in this way, wished to affirm their social strength and power. Consequently, we can see that the famous banquets characterised by luxury and by an attention to the presentation of the dishes typical of the Roman empire reappeared. Large dining- room with semi-circular shaped tables set up only on one half to leave space to exhibitions and shows. The use of cutlery was also seen as a must for good manners, though, often the same fork or knife was used by different people and food was mostly consumed with hands; the spoon was used only for soups. However it is in the Italian cooking of Renaissance that we can see an attention to the presentation of the food. The poverty of the Middle Age dishes was revised and re-elaborated to create new recipes: spices were no more used like before and they were replaced by sugar that, at that time, was expansive so considered a symbol of wealth. There was also an increase of the use of sauces and stews which gave a new taste to old recipes. Dishes with legumes kept on improving; fruit was still present, but it was served at the beginning of the meal. During the Renaissance, they also had a real passion for offal and the use of butter instead of lard and still a large use of sweet and salty pastries. The 1492 represents a crucial year: the discovery of America completely changes the habits of the Italian cuisine introducing a lot of new ingredients, unknown till then:  turkey replaced goose, potatoes and tomatoes appeared on the Italian tables becoming important for the famous Mediterranean diet. Towards the end of XIV century and the beginning of 1600, also new professional figures appear such as the "scalco", the main responsible for the banquets, while the chef, though important, had a secondary role.One of the most famous "scalco" of that time, was, undoubtedly, Cristoforo from Messiburgo, who wrote the most complete gastronomic treaty of that time entitled: “The banquets” (1549). It was the beginning of a new literary gender completely dedicated to cookery that, together with recipe books, is still present in our bookshops today.   In conclusion, thanks to this new appointment with the history of Italian cuisine, we can affirm, once again, that culture and gastronomy are strictly linked. Without the Humanism and the Renaissance there probably wouldn’t have been that attention for culture and art that enriched and influenced even the gastronomic field. 

The Italian gastronomic culture is one of the most widespread and appreciated all over the world. It is an excellence of the country that has spread out in every corner of the earth thanks, above all, to its simplicity and to the delicacy of the raw materials that, luckily, in Italy are present in large quantity. It, in fact, offers a large variety of recipes and dishes which differs from region to region. The reason of this variety is due to the history of the country itself which has seen first the country to dominate almost the entire world thanks to the Roman Empire, and then its never-ending decline followed   by the birth of the Middle Age in which the country was made of little regions, each of one, characterised by different cultures, due to the various dominations they had previously had. If we keep this in our mind and we also think about the significant differences of resources and of climate which differs from North to South completely, it is easy to have a clear idea of Italian cuisine. It is funny to think that the large variety of Italian cuisine can be considered also its limit. In fact, it looks like an enormous puzzle, probably less structured if compared to other important culinary traditions such as the French one, for example. Moreover, in Italy, even nowadays, the culinary tradition is strictly linked to recipes handed down by previous generations. However Italian cuisine has affirmed itself all over the world and it is appreciated above all for its simplicity and for its variety. It would definitely take us too long time to discuss about the development of  the Italian gastronomic  evolution just in one article, that is why I have decided to talk about it in various steps, starting now from the culinary influence of Romans, the ancestors of Italic cuisine. The Romans did not considered  a meal just a moment to eat , but it was a banquet, almost a feast  and in the houses of nobles it was served in the “triclinio”, an appropriate large dining room ( some houses could have more than one “triclinio”).

At the beginning the Roman cuisine, above all for lower classes, was quite simple and made of fruit, legumes, cheese and not a lot of meat; after the conquests of the Big Empire, on the nobles’ tables , also the  spices of the Middle East were added together with the cereals coming from North Africa. The consume of fish and meat increased and wine was everywhere. The preparation of the dish didn’ t include only the cooking of it, but it took into consideration also some techniques which were already quite sophisticated: roasted meat, sauces, a sweet and sour mix, contrasting flavours and audacious combinations, were already present in the recipes that the Romans preferred. The lower classes had a simpler but healthier cuisine which could be summed up in what can be defined as the Mediterranean triad: wine, olives and cereals. From these three simple ingredients and from the products which comes from them, we can see the birth of the modern Mediterranean diet, to which the Romans added cheese, legumes and vegetables. Practically, the base of modern and healthy cuisine of the Mediterranean coast. After the barbarian invasion and the fallen of the Roman Empire in the Occident which took place in 476 A.D., there is another important moment of fusion and, therefore, of evolution of the Italian cuisine. With the beginning of the Middle Age, the population coming from the North of Europe, introduced the consume of butter and beer during the meals, at the same time, they exported oil and wine in their country. Remaining in the field of the gastronomic influences, we must obviously talk about pasta which is still considered the main food of the Italian daily diet and culture. In its dried version, pasta was introduced for the first time in Sicily from the Arabic population. In fact we must remember that the transport of food was above all by sea and pasta in its dried version did’ t loose its qualities and it easily spread out from Sicily to other Italian harbours also overtaking the Italian borders and reaching France and Spain. Sicily, in particular, has been influenced by Arabs since IX century, as we can see from the typical Sicilian cuisine, characterised above all by fish, couscous and spices which come from Arabic countries. During the first part of the Middle Age (after the falling of the Romans and the Barbarian invasions) another factor changed  the Italian cuisine: the spreading out of Christianity considered the only accepted religion which associated a poor and simple cuisine to the values of chastity  and spirituality. So,  meat disappeared because it was associated to the sin and to the pleasure of sex. In monasteries, in fact the meals were very simple and made of legumes, vegetables, cheese and bread. The dualism between food and religion was enforced also by Carlo Magno at the end of the VIII century when days of absolutely fasting where followed by days in which eating a lot was considered an act of respect and of prayer.

The refinement of cuisine was, therefore, still far away from Italian tables and the remembrance of the elegant Roman banquets had faded away, mixed with the habits of Northern European populations, definitely less elegant and, subsequently, oppressed by religious rules.

Something changed around 1200 thanks to the refining of the costumes of Italian courts which, this time, were in advance compared to the rest of the continent. And finally refined method of cooking such as the use of the oven, of sauces and of little decorations in the dish presentation reappeared.

We will also see how during the renaissance the cuisine will become even more refined  thanks to a new artistic sensitiveness which developed above all in Tuscany. For now, the Italian cuisine,  from the Romans to the Middle Age, seems to reflect perfectly the History of Italy: large refined raw ingredients, excellence of food which change from region to region pointing out the lack of unity and of a real national feeling of the country. Also what could be considered the best qualities of Italian cuisine, its goodness  and its simplicity are a contrast, representing at the same time, the strength and the weakness of  a cuisine famous all over the world.

By Giancarlo Losco 

The best possible Easter gift for people who enjoy quality and sweetness. An Easter full of delicious Italian chocolate, produced only with the best ingredients, respecting the ancient confectionary traditions but presenting always exquisite and new ideas. Delicious handcrafted chocolate, the best ingredients of the territory used, an elegant and fine packaging. That’s what the Autore’s chocolate eggs are...the right Easter present for true chocolate lovers.

The Autore enterprise was born from the centenary confectionary tradition of Sannio, in the Benevento area and its aim has always been to unify the respect for ancient tradition of the South of Italy  with the attention for high selected ingredients so as to offer an extraordinary range of products which represent the ancient and the modern thanks to a continuous research for new sweet products. In San Marco dei Cavoti, where the whole productive process takes place, from the making of chocolate eggs to their packaging, Antonio Autore, together with his mother, founded his little family enterprise, starting from the production of the so called “croccantino”. Since the old times, probably  from the first century B.C., it is possible to trace in the Sannio area, the production of a little bar made of sugar mixed with almonds and hazelnuts, called “cupedia” ,a word that stands for good food. In the following centuries this sweet bar was covered with dark chocolate so as to become the modern “croccantino”, which conquered also the kings and popes’ tastes, in fact it became king Ferdinando of Borbone’s favourite treat. It is starting from the “croccantino” that the Autore masters of chocolate follow the ancient traditions, respecting the original recipe but at the same time looking for new and delicious creations, always using the best quality products.

We met Antonio Autore at the Pitti Taste fair 2017 (an important food and gastronomic event which took place in Florence, at the suggestive Leopolda station) and talking to him, we have had the chance to better realise on which solid bases the Autore chocolate products are founded: they are all hand- made and completely made in Italy. We have become aware about the attention they pay for particulars, for the selection of the best ingredients and the attention for the packaging which results to be always fine and elegant. An extraordinary range of products the one proposed by Autore so as to satisfy every desire of sweetness with many gift ideas that, for Easter 2017,offer many sweet temptations such as the Autore Trio: an elegant pastel paper gift box characterized by a modern and elegant graphic which contains three different chocolate eggs of about 250 gr. In the Autore Trio we find: - a milk chocolate egg fully covered with hazelnut crumbles, here only the best variety of hazelnuts, coming from Viterbo and Avellino, are used. - a milk chocolate egg fully covered with pistachio crumbles. Here the pistachio is the famous Sicilian pistachio of Bronte, also known as the green gold which has become PDO since 2009. - a dark chocolate “croccantino” egg made with sugar, almonds and hazelnuts.

Among the delicious gifts proposed by Autore, it is impossible not to notice the chocolate shell with pralines. A chocolate chest containing a lot of little delights: chocolate pralines filled with soft assorted flavoured cream, small dark chocolate glasses which are perfect to enjoy coffee or liqueurs, small assorted chocolate eggs. They are definitely made to meet all different tastes.

Autore proposes this delicious shell in three varieties: dark chocolate, milk chocolate and “croccantino” chocolate.

Another little Autore delight are the assorted mini chocolate eggs which are presented in a practical cube made of PET wrapped in a light-coloured paper with an elegant graphic. Here all the hand-made characteristic of the Autore company is contained in small dark, milk, “croccantino” and assorted chocolate eggs.

For our young and dinamic enterprise, the search for new products is vital. Therefore, also this year, we have partecipated at Taste, the food fair dedicated to food culture and to the excellences of made in Italy. The exhibition, arranged by Pitti image, has taken place in the splendid setting of Leopolda, from 11th to 13th of March, which is resulted to be a very stimulating archeological location . Leopolda, in fact, is an old railway station belonging to the  XIX century , completely adapted to host cultural exhibitions and it has definetely represented for Aromataste the perfect occasion to find out new excellences of Made in Italy.

The Taste exhibition of Florence has reached its 12th edition and it is now considered a real point of reference for companies and consumers in the field of food and wine and for everything concerns the excellence of food. This year edition was focused on coffee and its trends , but it also took into consideration a series of others events such as: a championship of barmen, a taste ring, where experts had the chance to compare each others on many themes,  cupping and tasting sessions.

Aromataste team, going around the exhibition , has met Mr. Antonio Autore, whose company, situated in San Marco dei Cavoti, on the hills of Sannio, in the South of Italy, characterized by a family managemnent, has started from the traditional production of “croccantino” (a crunchy dark chocolate bar with a mix of almonds, hazelnuts and honey) and it has succeeded in expanding itself thanks to the production of a various range of products which respect the ancient recipes but also consider the new tastes. 

At Taste we have had the chance to talk also to Mr. Andrea Brezzo, one of the best Italian honey producers, who has explained us a lot about the new sweet or salty compotes. 

We have had the chance to find out new products among the 380 companies present at the fair which counted a presence of sixteen thousand peolple from all over the world.   Confectionaries, pralines , chocolate, bread products, biscuits, diary products, pickled vegetables where all  around us, and we were really  enthusiastic by this amount of delicious and high quality products.

I think that going out for dinner is always nice. I have always considered eating out useful, funny and exciting. Whenever I can I take my chance and I go out to treat myself; It doesn ‘ t matter if it is a restaurant  with a woman , a pub with some friends or a pizzeria with a colleague, in fact eating out is always satisfying, it is a break from daily routine. Sometimes I’ m late, other times I’m early and it is in this last case that I start day-dreaming of waiting somebody very famous, somebody from the international gotha, a real star. So I have decided to start a little funny game. If I were waiting for a star and she/he asked me to order something to eat, what would I order?  What the hell should I order to avoid a bad figure? That ‘s what has come up on my mind.

DAVID BOWIE - SASHIMI E OCHAZUKE

David Bowie, a great lover and expert of artistic and musical novelties, would appreciate  the rationality and the attention given to the presentation of a dish by Japanise cuisine where the Oriental chefs pay a lot of attention to the food disposal, the colour and the selection of vegetables. Meals in Japan are consumed before with the sight  and only after with the taste.So for David, I would order Sashimi (tunafish and capasanta) and Ochazuke, white rice sunk in tea, characterised by a strong but ancient taste.

CATE BLANCHETT - OMELETTE AU FROMAGE

An astonishing woman characterised by an elegance that leaves you speechless above all because extremely natural. If I had such a fortune (I don’t think so, but it doesn’t matter) I should order someting really nice, prepared only apparentely in a simple way, something tasty but not excessive so as to make a very good impression to such a woman. Here it is, I would order a very delicate "omelette au fromage" relying upon the chef ‘s capabilities in making this delicate recipe, who, I really hope, won’ t disappoint me.

CHARLES BUKOWSKI - TEXAS RIBS

Bukowski is a contradictory poet and writer. Always between moments of pure poetry  and moments of provocative lust. I think that if I ordered the wrong dish, he would probably insult me, so I must be really careful.  Maybe some Texas  pork ribs cooked in barbeque sauce  could go, it would definetely be a dish that would cheer up a homeless man or a tired but still alive poet . Obviously, in the case of Bukowski, I would order a good beer.

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI - CARBONARA I don’ t know why, but if I think about Mastroianni, I imagine a handy, descreet but funny person. An actor able to play many different roles, I can imagine him playing dumb  and being funny , an undoubtely charming man who knew how to enjoy life, maybe in a very simple way.  Probably he would generously smile at me while eating  a big and tasty portion of carbonara.

It often happens to me to finish late at work. I usually spend most of my days away from home, without even going back for a moment, for a little break or for a quick meal.  I generally  have to go around  my city trying to meet all my business engagements and also meeting many people. In conclusion , I can’t enjoy my house the way I would like to, that is why  , when it is possible, some evenenings, it doesn’t matter how tired I am, I try to have a very relaxing night dedicating myself to one of my hobbies :cooking;  I think cooking is extremely relaxing and it is exciting to look after myself preparing some nice meals. At the end, that ‘s what it is : to look after myself and tonight is one of those nights.

As soon as I shut the door of my house I start looking , instinctively and in a compulsive way, into the fridge : vegetables, potatoes, eggs, chicken and many bottles.  Ok, let’s go for courgettes and chicken. I take the trencher and in a few moments I cut the courgettes into tiny irregular slices, then, I notice that my house is very quiet and I decide that my dinner will be prepared while listening Marvin Gaye  with "What's Goin On". Just the time to put my cd on and I go back to my dinner. I spread the courgettes all over the oven-paper, a little bit of salt, pepper , bread-crumbs all dressed with olive oil and I put everything into oven.

Now  I just need to quicky prepare my chiken and I start thinking about the wine that could go well with it. Maybe  a fruity dry wine could go, so I decide for an “Etna” a Sicilian white wine which has been waiting in the fridge for too long and that will suit perfectly my recipe .Once I have made up my mind with the wine, I decide to cut the chiken into little stripes covered with flour and a sprinkling of lemon just to give a fresher taste. I drink a sip of my wine and I put the chicken into the pan on a medium fire. Just a few minutes , keeping on sprinkling my lemon , and a delicious and inviting sauce starts to appear around the chicken. Dinner is ready.

I put everything in a plate without paying attention to the form ( I am by myself, who cares!) and I decide I will have my dinner  sitting on my sofa, with the plate and glass on my little talbe. I cuddle my self for about twenty minutes and everything is absolutely delicious , all the ingredients are perfectly melted  and go very well with my wine choice. I feel happy and satisfied, the music and the wine take care of me and I spend  a quiet mid week evening in a very relaxing way. Tomorrow my working day will start definetely better.

With the increase of the productivity in contemporary  society  and the following lack of time to spend for daily meals , the spreading out of street food , the typical meal sold by small shops , has become very common all over the world.

The characteristics of this kind of meal supposes that the meal is consumed quickly in the street , above all during the small breaks of a working day , in informal locals which are not very expensive , therefore with  affordable prices.

This situation has allowed street food to become , above all in modern and developed countries, the more common strategy to satisfy the daily food needs.

The FAO estimates that 2.5 billion people consume street food. But how are the habits  changing from country to country? Without considering only the different type of products offered by the various cultures, in which way do they appear sociologically different? In what do we find differences between American street food culture and the southern Italian one,  particularly the Neapolitan one? The Hyper productivity, which is typical of one of the most dominant economy  that is the American one,  and the young age of this new continent characterised by a cookery quite immature if compared to the Mediterranean or Asiatic one , has made  street  food  less settled down and , maybe , for this reason easier to be spread out. The food used for street food ( thanks to the high diffusion in the world  of large retail chains) such as the hot dog for example, can be found all over the world. Nowdays it is possible to find the typical hot dog stall  also in cities and towns with an ancient cookery tradition such as Rome, Paris or Tokyo. The American street food is everywhere regardless the presence of a “food culture” in the country.

Americans  spend very little time on their meals . Everybody is always in a  hurry because the work calls for people and they have to respond. If you want to be on the top of the world economy, you don t have time to spare.

On the other hand there is the Neapolitan  cultural tradition  which is very different. You can perceive the differences  even in the street food field. Probably you will find the small hot dog stall imported from America  just around the corner of a main street but with some characteristics that make it completely different due to the high presence of women  involved in the production process itself that make the street food superior in quality. Think about the so called “pizza a portafoglio” (which is the classical pizza  margherita  which differs from the one sold in the restaurant for the price, it is definitely cheaper, and the size, it is a little bit smaller). This kind of pizza it is sold above all in the historical centre of Naples and it is served folded into four parts. We also have the fried pizza (which has the shape of an half moon and it is filled  with ricotta cheese, mozzarella, ham and/or salame) and the so called “cuoppo” (a mixture of fried specialities which are served in a rolled up piece of paper  in a shape of a cone). However in Naples you will find any kind of street food  everywhere , also in very small  but at the same time  very ancient  and historical locals.

Summer is already over, but don't be sad!

Passion, tradition, love and respect for its territory.  A company strongly linked to its place of origin which do not forget the value of its culture, deliverying a product that preserves ancient flavours and communicates its history to its consumers. 

These are the reasons why Aromataste carefully selected this brand to proudly collaborate with, in order to promulgate the Canary Islands culinary culture in UK.

Summer is almost over and temperature is dropping down.

This year the trend is to renew classical cocktail to enhance their flavour with exotic spices.

I found some interesting recipes to turn a traditional gin tonic, a classic cuba libre or a simple vodka soda in something new with an exotic taste!

Spice & the city

Ingredients:

A pinch of smoked paprika A few leaves of mint or pennyroyal 5 juniper berries 50ml gin 200ml tonic water 2 cherries

Add a pinch of smoked paprika to the glass, and then chill the glass with ice. Strain out any water from the ice. Add the 2 cherries and the juniper berries; squeeze them slightly to release all of their aroma and taste. Add first the gin and then the tonic water. Decorate with the mint leaves

Tropicana

Ingredients:

A piece of cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon of orange marmalade 1 strip of lemon peel Gold or aged rum Cola

Dissolve the teaspoon of orange marmalade in the glass with the rum. Top up with ice. Add in the orange peel and the piece of cinnamon stick. Finish off with Cola.

Moskva

Ingredients:

A thin orange slice 2 pineapple chunks 2 allspice berries Vodka (50ml – 70ml) Soda water (200ml)