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Dinner, Food & Drink, Lunch, Recipes
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15 minute lunch – Zucchini Bruschetta

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Summertime, and the cooking is easy. This simple lunch came to us direct from the garden, with a little help from Umbria.

Grab the zucchini, which is flowing out of every produce stand this time of year. Get the pesto you made (or bought)  a few days ago out of the fridge.

Slice up that zucchini, and throw it it a bowl with some good Umbrian olive oil, sea salt and bruschetta seasoning. These three embellishments really make or break the recipe when working with such paired down ingredients!

Zucchini Bruschetta

 

Italian Umbria Zucchini

 

 

 

Bruschetta seasoning Pesto zucchini toast IMG_1093

Spred the pesto on a good piece of bread, and top with the tossed zucchini. This is an excellent super fast lunch, or a pleasant bite to enjoy before dinner with a cocktail.

 

Enjoy summer’s bounty while it lasts!

— Via Umbria

Zucchini Pesto

Summertime, and the cooking is easy. This simple lunch came to us direct from the garden, with a little help from Umbria. Grab ...

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Recipe – Make Your Own Pesto

There comes a time in the summer when we begin eyeing our beautiful, flourishing, tall basil plants. We want to obliterate them into a pulp.

We want to make pesto.

The word pesto is derivative of the Italian, pestare or ‘pound, crush.’ A pesto can really be any sauce that is crushed, traditionally a circular motion of the pestle in the mortar.

The first mention of recipe for pesto as it is known today is from the book La Cuciniera Genovese written in 1863 by Giovanni Battista Ratto.

Then, 1944, The New York Times mentioned an imported canned pesto paste. In 1946, Sunset magazine published a pesto recipe by Angelo Pellegrini. But pesto did not become popular in America until the 1980s and 1990s.

Our favorite fast meal to make with pesto is the classic trofiette recipe, which we made last week, and comes straight out of Genova!

Here are the steps to make the perfect home -made pesto:

1. Gather your basil during the midsummer.

Basil

 

Picking Basil

 

Pestle Basil

2. Give them a basic pounding, then add some olive oil. Mancino Evoo

Homemade Pesto

3. Once crushed into a paste, add your nut of choice. This time around, we chose walnuts. Walnut Pesto

4. Add your parmesan cheese…Parmesan

5. Smash it all together, and serve! Excellent in pasta, as a spread in sandwiches, or even as a dip.

Pesto

Feeling lazy? We got you covered, with our authentic pestos from Italy:

Anfosso Red Pesto 

Anfosso Basil Pesto DOP 

Seggiano Vegan Pesto 

Pistachio Pesto 

Seggiano Red Pesto 

 

Shop on Emporio now, and let us know what you make with your pesto!

 

Ci Vediamo!

Via Umbria

There comes a time in the summer when we begin eyeing our beautiful, flourishing, tall basil plants. We want to obliterate them ...

Dinner, Food & Drink, Recipes
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15 minute recipe – Trofiette with Pesto

Pesto-alla-Genovese

 

Towards the end of the summer, when the basil plants are in full swing, Italians make trofietti with pesto as a primi.

Something about stabbing all the tiny twisted pastas and opening one’s mouth very wide so as not to get one up your nostril, makes eating this pasta pure fun.

The trofiette also make a great gift for those who remember it from their travels to Italy. Very difficult to locate in the USA, it brings back the sentiment of an Italian summer.

The natural pairing for this pasta has always been pesto, as the twisted shape of this whimsical pasta allows the pesto to squeeze into all of the cracks.

Trofiette Mancino

Anfosso Pesto

Though we would love to make homemade pesto, our smallish plants will not yield a full portion. When you buy pesto, be sure to go the DOP route. Pesto that is not from Genova does not have the same sensory effect. On our minds is the pesto from Anfosso, which we tasted two weeks ago at the Sagra (and are still dreaming about). Authentic, classic, and delicious, it is our choice to use for this dish. Pairing this authentic sauce with the hand-made pasta creates a pasta otherwise hard to replicate outside Italy.

Trofiette with Pesto

 

Simply boil your pasta to taste (about 10 minutes), while you carefully toast some pine nuts. Toss the pasta with the pesto, garnish with fresh basil, parmesan, pine nuts, and serve!

 

Shop Emporio now to gather your ingredients, download your recipe card here: (Trofiette with Pesto) and buon appetito!

 

— Via Umbria

 

 

 

  Towards the end of the summer, when the basil plants are in full swing, Italians make trofietti with pesto as a primi. Something ...

Dinner, Entertain, Food & Drink, On the Table, Recipes
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Simone Proietti-Pesci’s Arugula Pesto with Roasted Tomatoes

On January 13th we will have the opportunity to host a few weeks of food events with our favorite chef Simone. Here is one of his classic Italian recipes; simple, easy, and thoroughly delightful. In the past he has cooked us Osso Buco, lentil soup, Crescionda Spoletina, and eggplant.  We keep on coming back for more.

We are lucky enough to have Simone joining us for free pasta making classes in-store the next two Wednesdays from now. Join us at Via Umbria from 5-6 and learn from the our friend and master chef. The fresh pasta will take this recipe to gourmet status! RSVP here.

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Cook time: 30 minutes (with pre-made pasta)

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

500g pasta

5 cups arugula

2 cups cherry tomatoes

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/8 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan

1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

Thyme and basil, to taste and chopped

Food IMG_2569 ©2014 Eric van den Brulle

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Bring water to boil for pasta.

Toss tomatoes with olive oil and bake in the oven at 300F until soft and wrinkly.

Let cool slightly and toss with salt, basil, and thyme.

Add arugula to boiling water for 1 minute. Remove and immediately put in a bowl of ice to cool.

Add pasta to boiling water and cool to al dente.

Add drained arugula to blender and blend with salt, pepper, olive oil, walnuts, and parmigiana until smooth.

Drain pasta and mix with tomatoes in a large bowl.

Stir in arugula pesto, mixing well. Shave some more parmigiana on top and serve!

 

Food IMG_2560 ©2014 Eric van den Brulle

Buon appetito!

— Via Umbria

On January 13th we will have the opportunity to host a few weeks of food events with our favorite chef Simone. Here ...