Italian Wine Country - Insider's Take From Piedmont, Italy

Guest Writer: Anna Savino
from Saluzzo, Piedmont, Italy--- it's been almost six years in Italy...never thought I'd get married to a Piemontese but I am so happy to share my culinary, geographical and cultural discoveries of this beautiful Italian landscape!

Growing up, I always felt Italian. Proudly raised in an Italian American family and hearing about my parent's one year adventure in Rome was just the start of my serious relationship with Italy. I guess I can call myself lucky that I grew up in Napa Valley surrounded by beautiful vine covered hills, some of the best restaurants in the USA and embracing a standard of refined food and wine from a young age.

This made my transition to Piemonte, Italy, a bit easier. I already knew the proper pronunciation of words like Sangiovese and gnocchi and the differences between pecorino romano e parmigiano reggiano.

I remember when I first got to THIS new wine valley without any knowledge of Piemontese wines I was frustrated, wanting to learn in a hurry. I tried to visit enoteca regionali in towns like Barolo and Barbaresco, and read 500 page books on Italian wine. Nevertheless, I had to let time take its course and truly experience the wines to learn about them.

After 6 years of living in Piemonte, names like Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Barbera seem like old familiar friends. While I am no expert in wines (when I left home I was barely of drinking age!), I am passionate about them.

One noteworthy Piemontese wine deserves the spotlight: Barbera (bar-bear-ah). Even in Italy, it has suffered scandals in its past, and was taken advantage of for its yielding capabilities. Barbera traveled across the ocean to the New World as so many of our ancestors did, making its way into the American wine world. Initially, it was only partly accepted, used for blends and mass produced wines. As an American expat like myself is starting to fit in here, Barbera is finding its place in America. It is finally being appreciated for what it is, has developed finer wine making techniques and has turned into a “superior” red wine!

What better way to experience and learn about this wine than take part in an event presenting 5 Italian Barberas and 5 American ones. The anxiously awaited #barbera2 event will take place right here on Barbera's originating land of Nizza Monferrato Asti. Where winemakers, wine lovers, journalists and artists can solidify century old bonds through passion and wine. Likewise, on the other side of the ocean, there will be the #barberafestival where you can learn more about this versatile and vivacious red wine in California! Salute with un buon bicchiere di barbera!

Anna blogs from Italy:

http://www.annainsaluzzo.blogspot.com/ Tweet

Cast of Jersey Shore Heading to Italy..???

I put a place holder on this conversation.......

I will reveal my thoughts on this topic shortly..... in the mean time.. what do you think?

Great conversations on Facebook: Come join us there and add your two cents... or more

http://www.facebook.com/ItalianAmericanGrl

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Italy's Most Recognized & Famous Butcher, Dario Cecchini Coming To New York & Boston

At a time when culinary arts are heavily watched on such mainstream shows and networks like Top Chef, and Food Network, there is one thing constant and missing from each of these shows, although the contestants are cooking and claim to be culinary experts, do they know the basics of traditional food preparation, production and growth? Famous Italian butcher, Dario Cecchini is that man who has maintained an old world tradition or shall I say an art form of a lost culinary tradition of butchery. His skills prove to be next to none and has cultivated his craft where now it must be shared with those who lack this education.

One thing I learned from my early childhood trips to Italy was the value of such traditions and arts. My aunt and uncle owned a butcher shop in our local town, and quite frankly as some things were gruesome to see the way in which you learn the food process is raw. The way an animal is fed reflects the end result of the quality of meat. Granted, I'm not so much of a meat eater, but I struggle everyday with eating meat here in the United States, because I want to know where my meat is coming from.. which is impossible to know. In Italy, you may have that privilege of knowing where your local butcher grows his livestock. I mean its a direct hit on knowing what you're eating. Unfortunately, here in America we have no education on food and where and what the process of producing food is, this is the major difference in food education.

A while ago, a friend of mine from California, Guy Arnone wrote a guest article here on IAG about his family business which happened to be the family restaurant. He was expressing his need and desire to learn more about food, the process, the organic ways of life. At one point on his blog he started documented his newly grown garden to show his passion for home grown produce. This is a further down generation of an Italian American trying to directly connect with his roots and he went full plunge. Shortly after several posts, Guy decided to leave the family business and headed to Italy to study under Dario Cecchini as an apprentice. He wanted to learn the basics, the ropes, the supreme way of a lost art. Guy spent some time in Italy learning all of it and came back to New York, where he is now working for EATALY in New York City. Guy will be appearing with Dario for these latest appearances in New York and Boston. If you want to learn from the best and get a glimpse into a lost culinary art form go to these appearances.

For more on this event:

http://m.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2011/01/italys-legendary-butcher-comes-to-new-york-and-boston/69428/

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Chapman University Announces Lineup for 14th Annual Author Festival: Focus on Italian Writers

Chapman University’s 14th Annual John Fowles Literary Series, the university’s acclaimed yearly festival of visiting, internationally recognized novelists, poets and playwrights -- will focus on world-renowned Italian writers this year, and will also include a special appearance by an Israeli-born novelist who is the university’s 2011 writer-in-residence.

The series is sponsored by Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Los Angeles, Associated Students of Chapman University, Citrus City Grille, and Chapman’s Department of English and Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Chapman’s John Fowles Literary Series was named in honor of the late British author of such novels as “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and “The Magus,” who was a friend of the series’ founder, Chapman English professor Mark Axelrod, and appeared in the series’ first year.

Monday, March 7 at 7 pm

DACIA MARAINI

Dacia Maraini, daughter of a Sicilian princess and famed as the longtime companion of novelist Alberto Moravia, is a world-acclaimed author and playwright. She has won many awards for her work, including the Formentor Prize for “L'età del malessere” (“The Age of Discontent,” 1963); the Premio Fregene for “Isolina” (1985); the Premio Campiello and Book of the Year Award for “La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa” (“The Silent Duchess,” 1990); and the Premio Strega for “Buio” (1999). She co-founded the Teatro del Porcospino, devoted to producing new Italian works, and established Rome’s feminist experimental theatre La Maddalena. Her play “Mary Stuart” has been performed in New York and on stages around the world, and her other plays continue to be translated and widely performed.


Monday, March 21 at 7 pm

ASSAF GAVRON – 2011 Writer-in-Residence at Chapman University

The son of English immigrants to Israel, Assaf Gavron was born in a small village near Jerusalem in 1968, and currently lives in Berlin. He is this year’s Shusterman Foundation Writer-in-Residence at Chapman University. Gavron has published four novels (“Ice,” “Moving,” “Almost Dead” and “Hydromania”), a collection of short stories (“Sex in the Cemetery”), and a non-fiction collection of Jerusalem falafel-joint reviews (“Eating Standing Up”). His English translation of “Almost Dead” was published in 2010. Among the prizes he has won are the Israeli Geffen award for the novel “Hydromania,” and the prestigious DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Fellowship in Germany.


Monday, April 4 at 7 pm

ERRI DE LUCA

Erri De Luca, recently named "writer of the decade" by the influential newspaper Corriere della Sera, was born in Naples, Italy in 1950. His first book, published in 1989, was “Non Ora, Non Qui” (“Not Now, Not Here”). Many more books have followed and have become best sellers throughout Europe and in the U.S. Self-taught in several languages, including ancient Hebrew and Yiddish, De Luca has translated several books of the Bible into Italian and explored various aspects of Judaism as a non-believer. He writes regularly for various Italian newspapers and magazines, lives in a remote cottage in the countryside outside Rome, and regularly pursues his passion for mountain climbing.

Monday, April 11 at 7 pm

PAOLO GIORDANO

Paolo Giordano, born in Turin in 1982, is a professional physicist. His first novel, “La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi” (“The Solitude of Prime Numbers”), took Italy by storm, sold more than a million copies, and won the nation’s most illustrious book award, the Premio Strega, in 2008. The book, which has been translated into English and more than 30 other languages, tells the tale of a man and woman, Mattia and Alice, both traumatized in their youth in ways which leave them unable to relate normally to the world around them. Though they are drawn to each other, timing and awkwardness keep their relationship on tenuous ground. Giordano’s spare yet beautiful prose asks whether there are those among us who, like prime numbers, are destined always to be alone and apart.

Monday, April 25 at 7 pm

GIUSEPPE CONTE

Italian poet, novelist and translator Giuseppe Conte published his debut book of poetry, “La Parola Innamorata” in 1978. His follow-up, 1988’s “La Stagione,” was awarded the Montale Prize. His other poetry books include “L’Ultimo Aprile Bianco” (“The Last White April”), “Dialogo del Poeta e del Messaggero” (“Dialogue Between the Poet and the Messenger”) and “Canti d’Oriente e d’Occidente (“Songs of the East and the West”). His novels include “Il Terzo Ufficiale” (“The Third Officer”) and “La Casa della Onde” (“The House of the Waves”). Conte has translated many English works into Italian, including those of Shelley, D.H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman and William Blake.

Monday, May 2 at 7 pm

GIORGIO PRESSBURGER

Born in Budapest in 1937, Giorgio Pressburger does not write in his native Hungarian but in his adoptive Italian, and has often reflected in his talks and writings upon this choice of language. He left Hungary after the Russian invasion in 1956, and settled in Italy, where he studied biology in Rome and worked in theater and film. His novel “The Law of White Spaces” won the Independent Foreign Fiction Award in 1992. His other works include the novel “Teeth and Spies” and the short story collection “Snow and Guilt.” His most recent novel, “Nel Regno Oscuro” (2008), inspired by Dante’s Inferno, describes a journey to hell which is also a meditation on the 20th century and Pressburger’s personal losses.

The author talks – all free and open to the public – will be held in the Henley Reading Room on the second floor of Chapman’s Leatherby Libraries. Book signings will follow all readings, and each author’s books will be available for sale.

For more information, the public can call 714-532-6026.

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Italian American Sunday Dinner: Making Meatballs

Sunday dinner and my mother makes the best meatballs in the United States.. sorry she does! Here are a few montage photos of her making them. The recipe is also secret.. maybe we'll get her to give it up and so we can share with the Italian American Girl audience. LoL. Enjoy! Tweet

Cooking Channel: Spaghetti all'Amatriciana By Chef Michael Chiarello

For the Full Recipe:
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/spaghetti-allamatriciana-recipe/index.html Tweet

Jersey Shore Season 3 - Is it About Being Italian American? -- Who Watched?

Yes, I watched. So apparently Season 3 of Jersey Shore was the most viewed premiere for MTV ever! Over 8 million people watched! Wow! Really. Why are they watching? What's in this show that people love so much? As I watched that night, I was on Facebook following many of my friends status updates about the show; what I found was that many have such an interest in the show because A. either it reminds them of growing up at the Jersey Shore in the summers or B. They think its such a train wreck that they find it amusing to watch bad behavior.

This led me to start thinking, what part of this show or any part of this show is symbolizing Italian American? I have to say nothing! I do believe in Season one there was more of a lure from the creators or the network to use a lot or include any footage that symbolized something Italian American, such as the garage door of the house, where a largely painted door showed the Italian flag.

If you watched and listened carefully to this week's show, you'll hear less of any Italian American reference. I guess all the backlash from the Italian American community really made an impact on the use or reference of stereotyping of Italian Americans.

Again, we have to be aware that even though many parts of the show are blown up or exaggerated, you have to realize that people like Snookie, Mike "Situation" and Pauly D. are real and many people who happen to be Italian American do flock to the Jersey Shore and do the whole shore thing. It's definitely a culture on its own in New Jersey, but we know its not 100% Italian American.

I read a recent New York Post article where they interviewed James Gandolfini and asked him what he thought about the Jersey Shore show and the kids in it..he had an interesting response.. go here to read more. http://t.co/h1ZyPfo

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