“Milk or Dark Chocolate?”

Any email that has that as the subject line is bound to make for an interesting read.

And when the mail is coming from someone working at Venchi Chocolate, that makes it that much better! When I was contacted by someone working at Venchi, who is also a reader of my blog (grazie mille, Sabrina!), I was excited as it’s a brand I know well living in the north of Italy since they are from Piedmont. You may have also seen them in the major airports of Italy, but I enjoy their little store just steps from the Duomo in Milan.

I tasted Venchi on my first trip to Torino in 2005, several months before they had the Winter Olympics there.

At the time we were newlyweds, and I lived in Pavia, a small town about 30 minutes south of Milan. Looking back, the time we spent there was very happy but a true test to any couple, especially a new one. We had no personal transportation other than bicycles, and we lived far from the city center. Each morning I rode my bicycle (uphill, naturally) to the train station, so I could make the commute to the opposite part of Milan in the north. My commute sometimes would take 3-3.5 hours per day, and when I arrived back in Pavia in the evening usually the entire city was already shut down.

We therefore looked to the train system to take us on a little excursion when we could get away, and one of our first was Torino, Turin.

So when we arrived in Turin and saw all the construction that was being done for the 2006 Olympics, we were disappointed but still glad not to be in Pavia for the moment. We consoled ourselves by escaping the cold and getting cioccolata calda, hot chocolate and eating all the gianduja, hazelnut chocolate we could find. Turin, being in Piedmont has a ton of chocolatiers there – and I found Venchi everywhere.

Now I can find Venchi closer to home – I sometimes buy their Caramel “Unico” bars when I need a caramel fix (most Italian chocolate doesn’t really feature caramel), and I like their no-sugar added line (especially the cremini) for some sugar-sensitive relatives.

So when I received my little care package, I documented it carefully, smelled everything, and immediately thought of sharing the experience with you.

In my package there were some things new to me, like:

• Chocaviar – what I thought would be pieces of cacao nibs covered in chocolate, is actually much better and smoother – 90% pure chocolate covered in extra dark chocolate. I prefer this to the crunchy nibs, and it was hands-down my favorite thing in the basket. I can see this being a bit of an addiction. I mean, really – someone come get the rest of this container from me.
• Cremacacao spread – hazelnut chocolate spread – their version of Nutella which I liked but found a bit difficult to spread because it’s so cold here, so I had to go with a spoon!
• Cuba – in the shape of a cigar, naturally, when unwrapped it reveals a long chocolate “cigar” that has a solid center of hazelnut chocolate and is covered in dark chocolate. Its size means it’s to share!
• some little packaged chocolates and some bars of extra dark chocolate that I have earmarked for some baking experiments for the new year.

Want Venchi for yourself?

A small selection of Venchi chocolate is available on Amazon.com – nothing on Amazon.it yet. A quick search finds some of it on Chocolate.com, too. Or you can buy directly on the website Venchi.it – it looks like they ship worldwide, but I haven’t experimented with it myself.

Wait, you didn’t think that was all, did you? Of course I’m going to share Venchi with you!!

Venchi Italian chocolates selection for one reader

I hand-picked your selection and it’s a little different from mine, and I headed to the Venchi store near the Duomo in Milan to pick it up this weekend. Yes, it was snowing. While I was there, there were boxes everywhere as the staff worked furiously to ready shipments just in time for Christmas.

This won’t get there in time for Christmas, but just the same, you’ll get some great stuff for the new year. Here’s what’s included (no gift-wrapped box like I received, sorry):

• A decorative, re-usable Cioccolato Venchi tin with 50g of extra dark and milk chocolate squares inside
• Chocaviar – Chocolate caviar (40g) – bits of 90% chocolate covered in extra dark chocolate (75%)
• Three (3) 45g chocolate bars – Extra dark chocolate 75% with hot pepper (peperoncino) – gluten free, Extra dark chocolate 85%, and Extra milk chocolate (gluten free)

To win, leave a comment here on this post, answering this question:

What’s your favorite article you’ve read on Ms. Adventures in Italy, and why?

Did you like the how-to on aperitivo? My travel photos from India? My chocolate dessert recipes or my behind-the scenes looks into Italian food? Tell me in the comments!

The details: One comment per person – the email address associated with your comment must be valid. You do not need to leave your email address in the comment body itself.

I’ll pick a winner on December 25th from the comments using a random number generator, and I’ll make arrangements to send the winner the package the first week of January – this way you’ll have something to look forward to in the new year!

I’ll ship this worldwide, but please get informed yourself if your country has duty or customs problems with chocolate – any taxes or customs will be your responsibility. If the reader does not reply to my winner email in 5 days from being contacted, I will select another winner.

Comment away!

Are you a fan of Ms. Adventures in Italy on Facebook?

Disclosure: I received the gift package from Venchi with no strings attached – they did not ask me to blog about it, nor am I being compensated for this post. The products in the giveaway were purchased with my own money.

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If it’s summertime, that means loads of wonderful sagre, festivals, in Italy. Many sagre are food-related celebrations and festivals, but not all. But when it is food-related, you know that you’re going to eat well! Even the tiniest cities can have excellent sagre.

Case in point is the Sagra delle Fragole I went to in Fosseno, a little frazione of the city of Nebbiuno, high above Lago Maggiore in the Piedmont region. This sagra is not the only of its kind – there are many many strawberry festivals around Italy.

Keep reading…

Every sagra has a special menu, and I love it when they are handwritten (they often are). Prices are bound to be lower and that means that you can indulge a bit more. In my case I got the risotto alle fragole, strawberry risotto and the fresh gelato and cut strawberries for after.

After ordering, we sat down and waited for our food to be delivered.

Let’s take a look at those strawberries! This one is almost ready to eat – as soon as it loses the slightly-white tip, it’s perfect. But you might sneak one or two even now, and they’d still taste great.

Risotto alle fragole, strawberry risotto. It’s not sweet aside from the taste of the strawberries. Not something I’d like to eat every day, but some people were going crazy for it. If you like subtle flavors, definitely try this. On the placemat, you can see the advertisement for the Sagra della Polenta in September in that area.

After the risotto, I got the fresh gelato, which was so fresh and creamy it was almost like fresh whipping cream but even better. This didn’t last very long.

After all that eating, you need a rest while you wait for more strawberries.

Something you’ll see in small towns everywhere: everyone works!

The sagra menu is a bit of distraction from the main event: buying crates and crates of strawberries to take home. Each crate was 15 euro, which is a decent price if you consider in Milan one of the 8 baskets in the crate would cost 3.50euro.

There aren’t only strawberries at the sagra – often there are booths selling other local-made goods or other products. Yum for salami!

More about Italian sagre:

• What’s a sagra? on About.com
• Rowena from Rubbah Slippers in Italy has been to 48 sagre so far (left-hand column nav)
• Sagre in Italia – the Italian sagre portal (in Italian) has a great search by region and type of festival
• The sagra of the Nodino – Mozzarella knot festival on my blog
• Sagre from Episode 4 on the Eye on Italy podcast w/ Leif Pettersen

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• 2010 Year Review in Pictures
• Festival of the Mozzarella Nodino – Knot and Bruschetta
• Fresh Strawberry Semifreddo with Coconut and Mascarpone

At least on a sunny day.

On a less than stellar day, you’ll see how the wine Nebbiolo (deriving from the Italian word for fog, nebbia) gets its name.

This Easter the weather was definitely less than stellar, and though we planned an outing for later in the day, we decided to enjoy a nice lunch at our hotel and not risk a meal somewhere, somehow on Easter Sunday. Luckily we already knew it would be good.

And what a meal it was. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much when it wasn’t a wedding. Here’s what we ate:

We started with a trio of appetizers for Easter lunch – roasted peperone with bagna cauda, a typical Piemontese sauce to eat with fresh or roasted vegetables. Sometimes it’s presented as a dip, kept warm while it’s consumed, or it’s ladled directly onto the vegetables as you see here. Bagna cauda is made with garlic, anchovies, olive oil, and butter, so it’s full of umami.

The torta di Pasqua, Easter cake, made with cheese and honey is there in the top right. It had the consistency of a very fluffy quiche or soufflé.

Here’s a close-up of the other antipasto, a savory Torta di Pasqua, or rustica, is a torte with spinach, ricotta, and eggs, and a very flaky, buttery crust.

The first primo, pasta dish of the meal: Ravioli alla Piemontese, which were my highlight of the meal. I had cheated, though, and had them the day before, so I knew what I was in for. These lovely ravioli were made with a lighter non-egg pasta, and were hand-rolled and filled in the kitchen while we waited. They were drizzled lightly with a little tomato and that dark sauce is from a brasato, pot roast, and that little drizzle added so much flavor to the  dish.

Our second primo, gnocchi in fonduta, melted cheese, were obviously hand formed as well and covered in a savory cheese sauce.

Many Italians eat lamb, agnello, or goat, capretta, at Easter. We were in the goat camp for that day, and I was quite glad as sometimes the flavor of lamb meat can be a little too strong for me. The roasted vegetables with the meat were trying hard to keep their form before melting in your mouth. I especially loved the borettane roasted onions. (I’m kind of addicted to them)

For the second “secondo” or meat entree, was another Piemontese specialty, Cima alla Piemontese, or sometimes called Saccocchia. Various meat products (head, brain, tongue) are mixed with chicken meat and ground out to form a log. This one surrounded with veal, baked and then sliced and garnished with artichoke hearts.

We were in a medieval building, dating back to 1000 (AD). Yes, no missing centuries from that number. I loved some of the little touches like this candle holder turned electric light.

As for dessert, by then I was just trying to stay seated at the table and as our individual tiramisu arrived, we took those heavy silver spoons and dipped, and dipped, and dipped.

Until it was all gone.

La Loggia ristorante
http://www.osso.it/
Acqui Terme, Piemonte, Italy

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• Warm Fuzzies and Chocolate Easter Eggs

This year I was able to go to the 7th edition of the Salone del Gusto, organized by the Slow Food Organization and the Piedmont Regional Authority. This year it took place at Lingotto, just feet away from Eataly, so we made a stop there, too.

Click through to see more pictures from Salone del Gusto in Torino after the jump.

Hand-rolling cigars

Fichi d’India / Cactus pears similar to the ones I love and enjoy in Puglia – so colorful!

Who can identify this animal? Leave your guess in the comments!

Rolling out pasta continuously!

Getting approval from her co-pasta roller – thumbs up! (Ok, not really: in Italy they use the thumb to start counting, so she’s probably indicating 1 of something in a story, but I liked my version better)

Of course, it wouldn’t be a food convention without a little gelato. This was from the Gelato dei Presidi di Slow Food. It won’t have its own stop on the Tour del Gelato, but the Pistachio from Bronte gelato was excellent!

There were a lot of interesting, small producers like the makers of this pecorino cheese wrapped in walnut tree leaves and aged. It was almost as good as their cheese aged with wine cultures.

Lots of tasting, lots of samples (though some were more abundant than others). Sometimes you needed to find a quiet moment to reflect and plan the next path (and samples) you’d be following.

Corks decorate the ceiling, a view you might have been entranced by after a few tastings. Like me.

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