Category — Events

Red, White and Green Lasagne, Mortadella and Truffle Stuffed Pork, Slow Cooker Cheesecake and Struffoli plus 4 of Charles’ favorite Italian wines are on the menu for this Thursday’s class at De Gustibus at Macy’s starting at 5:30. Join us for a delicious evening of cooking, eating, drinking and fun.  Hope to see you there!  For more information, go to www.degustibusnyc.com.

On Thursday, December 3 at 5:30, I will be teaching at De Gustibus Cooking School at Macy’s.  We’ll make a variety of Italian dishes that you can use for all of your holiday entertaining.  I am working on the menu now, but you can be sure there will be something old — it’s not Christmas without struffoli – and something new, a creamy ricotta  cheesecake you can make in a slow cooker!  All the dishes have one thing in common:  they can be made ahead so you can relax and enjoy being with your guests.  Have a special request?  Let me know and I will try to include it.  Charles is lining up some great wines to match the menu.

To find out more about the class, please go to:  http://www.degustibusnyc.com/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=45&func=details&did=185

Hope you can join us!

The New York Times yesterday published this item about Charles’ upcoming classes at the Enoteca on Court Street. Don’t miss it

Vino Culture —  Wine classes conducted by Charles Scicolone, the consultant at Enoteca on Court, 347 Court Street (Union Street), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, will be held July 28 at 7 p.m., covering how to pair wine with food, $75, and on Aug. 4 at 7 p.m. on Italian wines for summer, $40: (718) 243-1000.

Last week, my friends at Family Circle Magazine asked me to stop by and give them a lesson on making struffoli.  These little balls of fried dough dipped in honey are essential for many Southern Italians at Christmas time.  When I was a child, my mom and I used to make them assembly-line fashion, with me doing the cutting and rolling while she did the initial mixing and then the frying.  After frying, they were coated with warm honey that she would buy from a beekeeper on  Staten Island.  The finished struffoli would be piled onto shallow plates and decorated with colored sprinkles and maybe some candied fruits.  They would last for quite a while and we would serve them to guests and bring some to relatives we visited throughout the holiday season.  They were perfect for nibbling with a cup of coffee and we would all sit around the table and pick them off the pile with our fingers.  They were messy to eat and many people claimed not to like them, but somehow they would all disappear.  I always thought my mom’s were the best because they were light and airy, not hard and dense like some others I have tasted.

I will post the recipe struffoli at Christmastime, but if you just can’t wait, you can find it in my book 1,000 Italian Recipes

To see more photos of the struffoli class at Family Circle, see http://www.fcinnercircle.com/fc_inner_circle/food/

Did you know that about 95% of organic milk sold in this country has been “ultra-pasteurized”,
a technique that heats it to a very high temperature and destroys many of the nutrients?
It is perfectly legal and prevents the milk from spoiling too soon so that it can be shipped further and have a longer shelf-life.

This was one of the issues under discussion yesterday at a conference I attended on organic foods in the US and Europe. It was co-sponsored by the NYU Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, Casa Italiana, the Italian Culinary Academy, and Alce Nero, an Italian organization that distributes organic products.

There were several presenters who spoke about a variety of topics including organic certification, food distribution and consumer perceptions. All of the speakers had a lot to say, but the most interesting speaker to me was Mark Dunau, a farmer in New York State who told us about his reasons for dropping out of the US government’s organic certification program. He chooses instead to be involved with a group called the Farmers’ Pledge, whose members advocate stricter regulations than the government and advocate local products, and fair labor practices, which is not part of the government’s program. He also voiced his concerns about big food marketing chains getting involved in organic foods, and how their involvement has impacted the organic food movement, and products such as organic milk.

Other speakers discussed the consumer’s dilemma of finding fresh organic food, and eating seasonally and locally, which even with all of the choices we now have, is not always so easy.

What’s a cook to do? I decided that I would try to learn and participate more in these issues. In the meanwhile, I will follow Chef Cesare Casella (of Salumeria Rosi) who advised us all to
“Choose food that smiles at you in the market.”