Tasting and Talking Italian

Chewy, tasty foccacia. Tomatoes ripened on the vine, direct from the volcanic slopes of Mt. Vesuvius. A crazy good pickled broccoli that only grows in a small area outside of Naples. Great big green olives. Last night, they were all there for the tasting. The good people at Gustiamo are offering Tuesday evening tastings of their imported products at Il Cantuccio bakery at 91 Christopher St in the West Village, NYC.

Chewy, tasty foccacia. Tomatoes ripened on the vine, direct from the volcanic slopes of Mt. Vesuvius. A crazy good pickled broccoli that only grows in a small area outside of Naples. Great big green olives.  Last night, they were all there for the tasting.

The good people at Gustiamo are offering Tuesday evening tastings of their imported products at Il Cantuccio bakery at 91 Christopher St in the West Village, NYC. And a visit to the bakery is pretty heavenly all by itself.

Beatrice Ughi, the owner of Gustiamo and I have been trading emails, blog posts and FB-ing each other for years. (Facebooking is a verb, right?) 
Finally, last night, we were able to shake hands and literally break bread together. If you are in the neighborhood, I highly recommend a pit stop on Tuesday evening (5-7pm) to see what they are serving up.

Beatrice is a woman of action, she’s the blur in the photo. I don’t think she slows down very often! Within the space of a few moments we talked about a possible collaboration, chefs who pass off truffle oil as truffles, the divine beauty of a ripe tomato, the bonding power of eating lunch together, and the fact that she will be the first in the US to have olive oil from the 2010 harvest. Brava Beatrice!

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that we already have this year’s olio novello. Of course, our oil is our own very private stash that we picked and pressed last month.  Gustiamo is importing olio novello  for sale, so we’re not in the same league. If you are a fan of fresh, young olive oil, then I suggest checking out their website to see when the oil will arrive because it due to arrive any day now.

It felt good to speak and eat Italian, right here in NYC!