Enoteca 100 was a blast. You can read more detailed description at The Iron Chevsky Blog, but it was worth going even without the wine just based on the porchetta. Delicious!

Then, the FoodBuzz event, where I ate, drank and mingled with other food bloggers- many way more successful than myself! I particularly like this picture of me with Marc of No Recipes, where we were just plainly joking about the “celebrity blogger” status…

A lot of great bloggers have already written more than their share about the event, with better imaginery and a lot of details- please take a look at The Leftover Queen (LOVE the picture of me an Jenn together!), Taste Tests, Foodhoe’s Foraging, and Food Wishes- wonderful summaries of the events! I personally loved our Outstanding in the Field setting (sorry guys, did not love the food!)…

Now, the best part about this: register for the event using the discount code “italyinsf” and get 10% off the registration fee! Time to go and try some fabulous Italian wines, don’t you think?

Enoteca 100

Featuring 100+ fine Italian wines paired with bites from Chef Donato Scotti’s menu to sip, savor and sample

WHAT: Donato Enoteca will be the stage upon which dozens of artisan Italian wine importers will offer tastes of their finest wines at the “Enoteca 100” event on November 7, 2009. Featuring more than 100 wines from all over Italy, including beloved Barolo, Barbaresco and Brunello di Montalcino, “Enoteca 100” will be the biggest and best wine event on the Peninsula. Several of the wines featured also hold the prestigious “Tre Bicchieri” (three glasses) distinction of excellence for Italian wines. Regions represented at the event include Valle d’Aosta, Piemonte, Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli, Toscana, Sicilia and Sardegna. Guests will also enjoy hors d’oeuvres from Executive Chef and owner Donato Scotti’s menu with specialties to complement the wines such as imported prosciuttos, speck, Grana Padano and Asiago cheeses, along with house-made dishes such as the Wild Boar Bruschetta; House-made Sausage; Risotto Nero with fresh seafood; Porchetta (whole roasted pig); Grilled Wild Prawns; Agnolotti del plin; and Milk Braised Baccala.

WHEN: Saturday, November 7, 1-4 p.m.
VIP Preview: 12-1 p.m.

WHERE: Donato Enoteca
1041 Middlefield Road
Redwood City, CA 94063
650-701-1000
Note: Caltrain Redwood City stop is across the street from the restaurant.

COST: VIP Preview – $70
General Admission – $55
Early Bird General Admission – $50 (limited)

TICKETS: To purchase a ticket, visit www.donatoenoteca.com. (Don’t forget to use the discount code “italyinsf” for your 10% discount!

You can start recognizing a few recurring brands: Mulino Bianco, Balocco, Pavesi, Kinder Ferrero…

Do I need to say more? Isn’t this fabulous? Look at the variety, black and white truffles, and how big they are!

The most amazing usage of truffle has been on the tajarin, Piedmont’s name for tagliolini. Instead of being smothered in butter and served with shaved truffle, Giuseppe and his kitchen at Locanda Dell’Arco cooked the tajarin in a chicken stock, drained and sauteed with nothing other than the natural remains of the stock, and then plated it. Truffle was shaved at the table- in abundance. October in Piedmont is an amazing season!

• Pesto alla Genovese- pesto is possibly the most famous export from Liguria. Just a handful of ingredients, and still delicious and fascinating to all sort of different cultures! Americans put it on pizza, French put it on meat, Germans put it on everything- but Ligurian mostly only put it over trofie, a handmade simple pasta. Legend has it that the small leaves of basil found in Liguria give the original pesto the unique flavor you taste only here- you can’t miss pesto here!
• Focaccia di Recco- I have talked about focaccia di Recco because it’ possibly the most delicious thing I have eaten in Liguria- and I didn’t even know about it till recently! Another legend of invasions and hardship, another dish with a long history and a tradition behind it. Focaccia bread cooked with a layer of cheese inside, crispy, and fabulous! Just the sheer fact that is pretty much only available in the town of Recco- doesn’t it make you curious?
• Farinata- this flatbread is similar to the piadina in Romagna, but in Liguria this traditional street food, rarely eaten at home, is made with chickpea flour and lot of extra-virgin olive oil!

  

• Orata alla Ligure- in many dishes in Liguria you will find the same base ingredients rearranged around a different protein. You can always count on olives, pine nuts, walnuts, basil and sometimes tomatoes to make it into the end result. Orata (seabass) is often served like this with the addition of potatoes, and so is coniglio (rabbit). In either dish, you have to try this preparation!
• Buridda di Seppie- with such a long coastline, it’s impossible to avoid fish dishes, and some of the smaller, cheaper and more flavorful sea critters are incredibly delicious. I would not pass the chance to try seppie (the tiny squids typical of this stretch of the Mediterranean coast) prepared in the flavorful tomato sauce with the addition of the ever-present pine nuts and anchovies… yum!

  

• Brasato al Barolo- possibly the one dish that toys with my imagination- and my taste buds!- the most. With an abundance of beef and barolo wine, it is only natural that someone put two and two together! Luscious, tender, and overall delicious this hearty beef dish is particularly appropriate for Fall trips to Piedmont. Thinking about it, is there any other season to go and visit Piedmont? remember, Fall is also season for… 
• TRUFFLES! Do I need say more? You can’t go to Piedmont without gorging on white truffles, and there is no other time to eat truffles than Fall. Hence, you must visit Piedmont in the Fall. Easy, isn’t it?
• Bagna Caoda, or bagna cauda, is a typical sauce made of garlic slowly cooked in milk, olive oil and butter with the addition of anchovies. Served boiling hot is a dish similar to a fondue pot, it is a sauce to put over raw vegetables like cauliflowers, carrots, sunchokes and bell peppers… and it is delicious! Yet another cold weather dish…
• Bollito Misto alla Piemontese- literally it means “boiled meats”, and it traditionally includes a wide range of beef cuts including tongue, oxtail and brisket, as well as chicken and pork meat. Each cut is boiled individually, since each has a different time in the pot, and then they are served with a variety of sauces, among which the most famous is bagnetto verde- a parsley, garlic and olive oil sauce that marries wonderfully with the boiled meats. There is a restaurant in Carru’ dedicated to boiled meats, as well as the preservation of the breed of Piedmont cattle typical of the area that provides for such fatty and delicious meats!
• Agnolotti al Plin- yet another variation of the ever-present ravioli all over Italy, these delicacies are stuffed with three types of meat (veal, pork and rabbit originally) and then closed with a pinch (a plin) and served with a very simple sauce, like butter and sage or the roast juices of arrosto. They are not to be missed!

Being from Romagna means being spoiled beyond belief in terms of food. This small region nestled between the Apennines mountains and the Adriatic Sea delivers some of the most amazing flavors found around Italy. That, of course, needs to be filtered by the knowledge that if you ask an Italian where is the best food of the country, they will ALWAYS reply “In my region”! This time I will stay close to the sea, while featuring some of the region-wide amazing flavors. This land is a place of handmade pasta, either filled or in taglaitelle form, topped with delicious ragu’ or served in chicken stock… Don’t miss these!

1. Piadina. Haven’t I talked enough about piadina? Among the staple foods of romagna, piadina is the “staplest”- a flatbread cooked over a stone or iron griddle, prepared to order steaming hot, and filled with prosciutto. Piadina kiosks are the quintessential street food venues- they are all over the place, making fresh piadina from scratch under your eyes. Anyone interested in creating a piadina taco truck, ping me!
2. Squacquerone cheese. A cheese like you’ve never had before: freshly made, similar to crescenza somehow but creamier, more reminiscent of milk, and incredibly quick to spoil. It must be consumed within two days of production, so it can’t be exported nor tasted outside Romagna. Stop at a piadina kiosk and order one with squacquerone and arugula, and bask in the perfection of street food vending…
3. Lasagne. Don’t be fooled by the imitations: the original lasagne (plural, not lasagna!) come from Romagna! Lasagne are a Sunday food- it’s a celebration to have them on the table, and the long preparation makes of it a special occasion dish. Hand rolled and boiled, the sheets of lasagna adhere perfectly to the bechamel sauce and ragu’ making for a delicious pile of what seems like endless flavors… 
4. Cannocchie. In English, I finally figured out they’re called gray mantis shrimps. These tasty crustaceans are typical of sandy bottoms, and basically unavailable outside the Mediterranean and very few other regions around the world. When cooked, they take on a pleasant pink shade, and they are incredibly flavorful! Enjoy them grilled, or boiled and served cold, or in any pasta dish- you will not be disappointed!
5. Handmade pasta. Here it’s almost impossible to pick just one. You must have cappelletti, possibly in brodo, cooked in a chicken stock and served as a soup. You can’t possibly think of missing tagliatelle al ragu’, a staple of Romagna, and tagliolini with seafood are a must. Of course you can also have gnocchi, ravioli are delicious with a cheese and spinach filling, and you can’t really skip strozzapreti… That two days plan? Scratch that!

I grew up split between Tuscany, where my mother is from, and Romagna, where my father grew up. To me, Tuscany is synonymous  with grandmother’s cooking, and the comfort food of my mother’s side of the family. Tuscan cuisine is fiercely flavorful, but made with very poor ingredients, historically harvested or foraged in the vicinity of the family’s house. It is really hard to boil it down to only 5 dishes- actually almost impossible! I am taking the inland route of Chianti and the Apennines,  and I am picking my favorites: leaving Tuscany without having tried these dishes is a real shame!

1. Bistecca alla Fiorentina, aka Fiorentina (Florence-style Porterhouse Steak). This is the most characteristic dish of Tuscany. Tuscan butchers pride themselves in butchering the beef differently than in other regions, and the resulting cut is very characteristic! Legend says that a real Fiorentina cannot be less than 1kg (2.2lbs), will include the t-bone and and can only be cooked rare/ medium rare. Fiorentina will be shared among the table, sliced, and each will get a chance to try the different pieces. It might not be the best steak you’ll eat (hey, you’re used to US steaks, among the best in the world!), but people come from all over Italy to have a Fiorentina in Tuscany and you won’t forget the experience!
2. Crostini Neri. Tuscan bread is another staple of the local diet, and something Tuscans are really proud of: they don’t put any salt in it to prevent it from molding when kept for multiple days. A use for stale bread, and possibly the best use for it in my opinion, is with crostini neri, the dish of big occasions, prepared for Christmas lunch and the Sunday meals when all the family comes together. My Grandma Fernida made the best crostini in the world, the taste of coming together as a family! The pate’ is made with chicken livers, capers and anchovies, and spread over the Tuscan bread first grilled and then soaked in chicken stock. You will find it everywhere served as an appetizer, and you just can’t miss the wonderful flavor profile!
3. Finocchiona. This is a “fresh” salame that substitutes to the characteristic black peppercorns with fennel seeds, a very characteristic ingredient of Tuscan cuisine since it is found growing wild everywhere! Fennel gives the salame a very strong flavor, and it will be hard to find it in restaurants- but stores, little alimentari will make you an impromptu sandwich with only bread and finocchiona- a treat!
4. Pappa al Pomodoro- a bread soup with tomatoes. Another fantastic use for Tuscan stale bread is the pappa col pomodoro, a rich bread soup made with a lot of garlic, tomatoes, fresh basil and tomatoes- and dressed with extra virgin olive oil and black peppercorns. This is a soup you can eat with a fork!
5. Coniglio (rabbit), Cinghiale (wild Boar) and anything with porcini! I know this is a bit cheating, but how else to include them all?? You want to eat something hunted, something foraged and something raised at home- because these characteristics encompass the real soul of Tuscan cooking.

Have a great time in Tuscany then, and eat a lot!

For the first year of Italy in SF, let me present you my favorite spots!

San Francisco

I cannot possibly recommend La Ciccia enough. I visit them every time we are in the mood for fantastic seafood or dishes you don’t usually see on menus. I think Massimiliano and Loretta are fantastic, their hospitality is heart warming, and they run possibly the only top restaurant in the city who doesn’t employ a PR! I love La Ciccia, and their specialty dinners are not to be missed (although rarely do they make it to their mailing list, people always reserve a spot before they even know when they can do it!).

My other go-back to restaurant in the city is Perbacco. I love the hearty meats, the full flavors, and the very Piedmont-rooted cuisine of chef Steffan Terje, the only Swedish-born Italian chef I wold trust close to my dish! I find the agnolotti plate, for example, has only one fundamental flaw: at one point, it finishes. I could eat those agnolotti every day for a year and not get bored… I also like the BART-friendly location and how I can justify working lunches in the Financial District!

My favorite pizza in the city is the newly-opened Pizza Nostra in Portrero. The restaurant is French-owned (*gasp*!), but they called their pizzaiolo from Salerno and installed the new-generation ovens from Reggio Emilia, and the pizza turns out quite impressive. I have been on a quest for the best pizza in town with my friend Barbara, and after trying many, many places Pizza Nostra surprised us with a top pizza performance (and ample free parking!).

South Bay

I am a South Bay dweller. I live in Palo Alto and for some reason I keep on thinking of this area as my second home. When I moved to San Jose in 2001 from Italy I was appalled by the lack of decent food options available, and look at that, now there are multiple little places to enjoy a good Italian meal!! Who would have thought???

Take La Tigelleria in Campbell, for example. First in its fully organic approach to the menu, it showcases a very unusual and regional Italian food, tigelle, small silver-dollar sized breads served piping hot, to be eaten with affettati (sliced meats) like prosciutto, salame and mortadella. Did I mention the tigelle are “all you can eat”? The servers will keep on bringing those to you till you are completely and outrageously full! And the meats, and the homemade desserts, the pasta dishes- all is delicious in a way only your grandma’s kitchen can deliver. Okay, MY grandma’s kitchen!

I am also a big fan of Donato Enoteca, in Redwood City. I find his cuisine comforting and delicious. One thing I would never, ever pass on when I eat there is his risotto: Donato is a master risotto maker, coming out always perfectly all’onda, creamy and delicious. The wine list is always impressive with hundreds of bottles of the most obscure (and great!) varietals, and dessert?? To die for!

My favorite pizza place in the South Bay (and all around the Bay Area, I have to say!) is Pizzeria in Campbell. The pizza has the same burnt quality that makes Italian pizza great, and they also make the same kind of pizza you can find in Italy (Capricciosa, Quattro Stagioni, Napoletana, etc.). When in need of a fix of original pizza, that’s the destination!.

North Bay

I am always slightly surprised at how many places we enjoy end up being within just a few miles of each other in Marin County, between Sausalito and Larkspur. My ideal North Bay food day would start with breakfast at Rulli in Larkspur, then lunch at Fish. and dinner at Il Poggio. That is paradise!

Emporio Rulli is hands down the best pasticceria (pastry store) in the Bay. I am quite attached to our own way to do pastry- and I don’t mean cannoli and sfogliatelle (which are great!), but I mean the more traditional, northern Italian pastries filled with crema and whipped cream! I have never really gotten a hold of the butter-heavy French croissants and the American fascination with buttercream: all I ever want for breakfast is either a bombolone or a cornetto, croissant-shaped pastry roll filled with custard. Not much to ask, don’t you think?? Well, I can get that at Rulli, bless their heart!

Fish. (yeah: Fish-period!) is the most unusual restaurant I will ever put in Italy in SF, mostly becasue it’s not really an Italian restaurant. At Fish., that’s all they do, really. But they cook the freshest ingredients in a very Italian-inspired way, mixing ingredients while cooking and dressing the fish with garlic, bread crumbs, olive oil and parseley. In my opinion, that’s all you need to do to create a fish-based Italian dish- and that’s why I am so fond of Fish.. I will never forget their branzino with mozzarella in carrozza, or the pasta with Monterey sardines, and I keep on going back to find out more. And I bring my coastal-living, very Italian parents there when they come visit- Fish. has never disappointed me (or them!).

Last, but certainly not least, is Poggio in Sausalito. A more recent visit sold me completely on the cuisine of Chef Peter McNee, and his wonderful approach to fresh and unusual ingredients- not to mention the freshly baked bread, the complimentary sparkling water, and a pizza to take my breath away!

East Bay

Despite having lived there, having gone to school there, and generally knowing my way around quite a bit, I am certainly not a pro when it comes to the East Bay. That said, there are two little gems I go out of my way to put on my nourishing path: Dopo in Oakland and Gelateria Almare in Berkeley. Dopo literally swept me off my feet with a masterly incarnation of an arancino I keep on dreaming about. Gelateria Almare is still the only “real” Italian gelateria I have been able to find in the Bay Area. Both are great reason to visit the East Bay if you’re not there that often!

These weeks of little new finds have broughtme back to some of my favorite places though. I think I will try a post of all the best of the Bay, Italian-Style! Stay tuned!