Introduction To Italian Food
Seeing Sicily
Italy produces some of the world's best wines and foods. As a child under the age of ten I travelled half-price on P & O cruise ships and we landed in Sicily to visit Taormina and the Roman ruins.
Then as a student in the Sixties I went with our car on a small plane to Italy, visiting Rome, and Pisa, enjoying the myriad types of pasta.
Sardinia
Later I visited Sardinia, with its turquoise clear sea on sandy beaches.
Best Prosecco
My first favourite Italian wines were the lower alcohol sweet and/or sparkling wines such as Asti Spumante. Now I am a protagonist for Prosecco.
At the Real Italian Wine & Food show I shall be looking for the prosecco which has been awarded the title of best Prosecco ten years running, from the company Azienda Agricola Biasiotto.
Two masterclasses introduce speciality wines.
1:30pm – Calabria on the radar – indigenous whites and reds
4:30pm – Sicily’s indigenous varieties
Our favourite lunch time meal every Saturday back in the sugar-laden Sixties was at the Italian restaurant Dino's in Edgware station where we had canneloni. We knew nothing about healthy food and had no idea that pasta was fattening as well as filling, nor that chicken was more fattening in a sea of white sauce. It did not occur to us that a three course meal, starting with pasta, continuing with a main course containing cream sauces, ending with ice cream, might contain more calories than a one course meal. Dino's food was delicious.
Later I learned to like more sophisticated Italian food and drink which had exotic names. Tiramisu, was trifle. Now almost everybody of any age is familiar with long lists of Italian coffee names such as cappucino. For the aficionada (enthusiast with affection) for ice cream, with coffee, or other flavours, poured on top, affogato.
The Real Italian Wine & Food
But there are still more Italian treats and specialities to discover. The Real Italian Wine & Food show is at the Royal Horticultural Halls near Victoria station on Tuesday 29th of April, an annual event, last year's fondly remembered, the next year's eagerly anticipated. It is a trade show, with producers and sellers keen to find new buyers, wholesalers and retailers in the UK, shops and supermarkets in Britain, restaurants, importers, hotel bars.
I downloaded their list of those attending with descriptions of their products. The event is only for one day. Some of which may be taken up by the two masterclasses on wines, from the Cantabrian region.
By checking the list in advance, I had the chance to check out who I must not miss. Also I was able to spot and translate any mystery words. I have been learning Italian on Duolingo. Even so, speciality food names are not immediately recognizable.
From the show's catalogue I was able to find some interesting names.
Bottarga - what is that!
Bottarga is not something I have noticed in Lidl, or even Waitrose.
Bottargo is tuna roe or more expensive and exotic mullet roe, pressed into a large roll which resembles salami. You slice off pieces of the compressed, aromatic, tasty product, or grate it over - whatever, anything and everything.
I vaguely remember trying mystery large roes at other trade shows and thinking that regular little pots of orange roe at a cheaper price were more to my taste. But I had not liked roe as a teenager. It took several tastings for me to get used to the texture and flavour and now I love it. So I look forward to adding Bottarga to my repertoire in years to come. Meanwhile, I already feel mightly pleased and proud that this year, if I attend the show and get offered a sample, I shall know what it is, and be able to listen comfortably and nod knowledgeably on hearing of its virtues from the supplier.
Kosher Food - a Find!
What really surprised me was seeing that a company had kosher accreditation. That's pretty rare. I had a real problem when invited to a seder meal for Passover in 2025. If you don't keep kosher, but are invited to somewhere with kosher keeping guests, it is hard to find anything to take to a home where the hostess keeps kosher all the time, or for a particular event, unless you are in a kosher food shop. We ended up taking 'kosher for Passover' wine. Now I have something to talk about or recommend to anybody I meet who is interested in buying, selling or eating kosher food or just learning about it.
Rocca La Botarga is looking for an importer to the UK.
www.roccalabottarga.com
Truffles
I shall also be looking for the invitingly named Tasting Truffles. I translated La Cerqua Tartufi which means the truffle circle, who offer traffle butter and truffle honey. I must admit that truffle seems to enhance butter or truffle cheese, which we bought in England from La Fromagerie. At a truffle supplier in Umbria we were treated to truffle scrambled eggs and truffle chocolates, both diet defying.
Pasta
Past comes in all shapes and sizes. I have charts on my kitchen wall, cut from advertisements and leaflets.
Pastificio makes coloured pasta. Green, white and rose-hued, reminiscent of the Italian flag, in three colours called the tricolore. You can buy a pack of one colour pasta and and flavour. Most amusing and amazing to me last year was the packet of mixed colours. Cuttlefish ink pasta. Pasta flavored with basil, tomato, chili pepper, spinach, wine, lemon, mushrooms, truffle.The flavour is very subtle. I found the colour more memorable and impressive than the flavour.
Chocolate
At the show, chocolate comes with limoncello and other flavours.
Olives
Olives are a great snack to go with wines.
Olive oil is good for dressings, sauces, salad dressing. 'Not so great for frying,' says my family chef. Even so, spray-on olive oil is interesting. That eliminates wastage, and drips. 'Good for grilling tomatoes when you want to stick on herbs, instead of using a brush. Virgin olive is famously the best.'
For cake to do with coffee at Christmas time, there's a supplier looking for distribution for next Christmas if you want something new. The aptly named Cristian, of Cristian Marzo, has panettone and torrone (nougat, a confectionary slab made from egg whites, sugar, honey, with nuts such as almonds). Pasticcere means pastry chef, and is part of his website name which translates as Marzo the pastry chef.
If you are in the trade, try to get an invitation to the show. If not, take a look at their list or read my blog posts about their food. I shall write more tomorrow and later this week.
Useful Websites
For the show details and the catalogue to download
https://www.realitalianwinefood.co.uk/
For wines
For Bottargo (Roe of tuna and mullet)
For truffles
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