17.4.11

The best italian wine in 2010

100 things to taste in Le Marche

Azienda Oasi degli Angeli-Cupra Marittima-Le Marche
http://www.kurni.it/

96 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate "The 2007 Kurni is simply fabulous. This rich, deeply-textured wine bursts onto the palate with masses of chocolate, mocha, blueberry and blackberry jam, spices, licorice and French oak. Totally seamless and opulent, the Kurni dazzles for its exceptional balance and phenomenal length."

The Marche has been ignored by generations of wine lovers as a region that only produces a simple white wine, in a fish-shaped bottled, called Verdicchio. Like so many forgotten Italian wine regions, however, the Marche is making a strong comeback, with many small producers emerging to make some excellent wines, both red and white.

Reds are leading the way with fine examples of montepulciano and sangiovese blends being produced in Rosso Conero and Rosso Piceno. In Rosso Piceno, Saladini Pilastri is producing some of the best values in Italy with single vineyard wines, Piediprato and Monteprandone, which are dominated by montepulciano. Sangiovese in Marche can be thin and sharp, but in blends dominated by the powerful montepulciano the tart Marche sangiovese brings a refreshing liveliness. Even in the much-maligned Verdicchio there are producers like Villa Bucci making extraordinary wines.

Oasi degli Angeli, located just outside of Cupra Marittima, is an estate that dates back three generations when the great-grandfather of Eleonora created a small farm in the Marche dedicated to the growing of grapes, olives, fruits trees, and vegetables. In the middle of the 1990's Eleonora and Marco, her companion in life and a winemaker, decided to dedicate the farm to the cultivation of wine grapes and to make an agriturismo (a small guest-house in the countryside) out of the family estate. They chose to call their wine Kurni, nickname of the family of Eleonora.
Kurni is produced from 100% montepulciano with the vines averaging over 35 years of age, grown at an altitude of 80 to 100 meters above sea level, with a sun-bathed southern exposure. The soils here are calcareous with clay and sand. Marco has cut yields to brutally low levels and as a result these vines yield grapes with concentrated and powerful flavors unrivaled in Marche or in any other montepulciano

Even Robert Parker comparing the Marche region with the great Amarone Veneto, says "If Romano Dal Forno was producing wine in the Marche, it would probably resemble this one."

14.4.11

casa olivi and the chocolate factory

MIV cioccolaterie-Casine di Ostra-Ancona
This chocolate factory is born from the passion for chocolate of two friends: Ivan Spadoni and Michele Pacinetti. Their outstanding peculiarity is the desire to offer their customers a strong taste, witness of a distinguished gastronomy such as that one of chocolate, which has been linked with the typical products of the region Le Marche, especially those belonging to their grandparents' tradition. Their purpose is to discover and reappraise those kind of combinations, leading you, through the pages of their catalogue, in a voyage rich in delightful and amusing surprises. That collection of deliciousness, which is fragrant with the scent of history and tradition, is the result of a strictly hand-crafted manufacturing process. After a careful selection of the raw materials and, of course, thanks to the creativity of those men who really love chocolate, the package of the products is made paying attention to all details. Those chocolates are for people who are able to appreciate those values, offering them original specialities, worthing of a new "veneration for the table".




Easter in Treia-The restaurant l'Enoteca Le Case 15mn from casa olivi

1 star michelin guide
Beside Francesca Giosue’, the owner, and Michele Biagiola, the chef, the staff - mainly made of young and highly professional people – seek to prepare the fish caught in the nearby Adriatic sea in combination with other ingredients, by maintaining and highlighting at the same time its original taste and flavours. Meat is the main dish of delicious and succulent menus, in which the chef likes to alternate different cooking methods and to explore unknown tastes. Besides, the menu based upon the fish caught in the lake and in the nearby Adriatic sea, the vegetarian menu and many other dishes prepared with home-grown ingredients offer new flavours for every palate and further opportunities to taste the local produce.

4.4.11

visit a pasta factory with casa olivi


AZIENDA AGRICOLA MANCINI
There is a farm that produces pasta in the middle of a wheat field

Mancini farm makes pasta with the durum wheat sown and harvested in its own field.
The importance given to the raw material, the respect of the environment, the combination of innovation and tradition makes Mancini pasta really special.
In this brand new factory built on top of Monte San Pietrangeli hills, Massimo Mancini has developed a production process that enhances and preserves all durum wheat characteristics.

The Mancini farm has been a rural reality for more than 60 years, since the grandfather Mariano, besides cultivating wheat, was also involved in the activity of wheat threshing with the very old threshing machines which were moved by the first tractors available in the market.

At the end of the 70es,the father Giuseppe, enlarged the farm, passing from 20 to the actual 100 hectares.
For 10 years, since his degree in agriculture, Massimo, third generation, has been carrying on a selection of wheat variety as well as an improvement of cultivation technics with the aim to reach an excellent quality of the final product.

Since 2001 they have decided to transform themselves their wheat with the help of a "master pasta maker".

The whole production comes exclusively from the wheat cultivated in the farm, where Mancini follows a production disciplinary that respects the reduction parameters of environment impact. They normally cultivate two different kinds of durum wheat (Levante, San Carlo), that, once harvested, are mixed together.

The wheat is stored in a warehouse through a process of cold preservation, which allows them to stock the wheat without the need of chemical products improving both the healthiness and the taste of the final product.

The bran obtained from the grinding is then processed within very few days following the pasta making systems which respect the tradition faithfully. Bronze wire-drawing machines, that give the external surface of the pasta a very high level of porosity and roughness, are used. This allows a better sauce holding and cooking uniformity.


The recipe
Trenette al sugo di noci, Trenette with walnut sauce

Ingredienti:
350 gr di trenette Azienda Agricola Mancini
250 gr di ricotta fresca
3 cucchiai di panna (facoltativi)
60 gr di noci tritate
olio extravergine di oliva
aglio
sale
pepe

Preparazione
Fate cuocere la pasta in abbondante acqua salata, in questo caso le trenette Mancini mantengono la cottura alla perfezione e il loro sapore è inconfondibilmente ottimo. In un pentolino fate scaldare pochi cucchiai di olio con uno spicchio di aglio pestato per pochi minuti. Eliminate l'aglio e aggiungete la ricotta, che avrete fatto precedentemente sgocciolare, mescolando delicatamente. Tritate le noci e aggiungetele alla ricotta. Nel caso in cui il sughetto risultasse troppo denso aggiungete un paio di cucchiai di panna da cucina. Fate cuocere per pochi minuti, aggiustando di sale e pepe. Scolate la pasta lievemente al dente e fatela saltare velocemente in padella con il sugo. Servite ben calda con una spolverata di pepe e una tritata di noci.

1.4.11

Le Marche, Italy, itineraries, and inspirational travel ideas with www.italytraveller.com


Delicate and sunny, like its hillside and beaches. Intimate like one of Leopardi's poems, poignantly seductive like a Rossini opera, unforgettably beautiful like the art of Raphael.

Ancient stone hill villages, renaissance cities, and old fashioned seaside resorts: Italy’s Marche is a region of rich and varied landscapes where to find sandy beaches, rocky precipices, rolling hills, mysterious caves, and immense nature reserves. 
Lying between the Appenines and the Adriatic, Marche is home to cities of great architectural and artistic value, the most famous of which is the hilltop Urbino, "ideal city" and renaissance art capital created by Federico da Montefeltro. Quietly vying for tourists’ attention, Ancona, Pesaro, Ascoli Piceno and Recanati, the city of the poet Giacomo Leopardi, are all more than worthy of visit as is the university town of Macerata, which boasts a magnificent open air arena where the Sferisterio Opera Festival is held.