Archives: Newsletter

In the food world, January gives us a chance to catch our breath, to recover from the bacchanalian revelry of the holiday season. You may find your palate yearning to reject the richness of December, and replace it with foods of humbler origin. Bitter greens, legumes, farro, roasted root vegetables, and homemade stocks, soups andContinue Reading

This has been a super popular cheese this season.  We just ordered more to satisfy supply.  This cheese is only around for a few months, so get it while you can. Inspired by the Swiss Vacherin d’Or, this cheese is made from autumnal raw cow’s milk and aged for just 60 days. Each 12-oz. wheelContinue Reading

To finish the triptych on truffles, I will relay what I learned from Luigi about ripeness.  As I said last week, the shape of a truffle has little to do with the maturity or the ripeness.  A truffle will realize its full size in 2-3 days, but the ripening process can take anywhere from 2-4Continue Reading

As Luigi explained to me, with great enthusiasm, mushrooms are amazing!  There are three types of mushroom: the pathonogenic, the saprophyte, and the symbiotic.  The pathonogenic, kill the host and generally are not edible.  The saprophyte mushrooms feed on decay; they digest the medium on which they grow.  These mushrooms can be farmed in manContinue Reading

There are so many things to know about finding truffles and most if the information rests with people.  It is a tradition passed along from person to person.  I remember clearly a friend, who wanted to go hunt mushrooms with me, on a specific date and at a specific time.  She was busy and sheContinue Reading

Fall is here and it is time to celebrate root vegetables, dried beans and hardy greens.  We have some great items to accent all of those buried gems and brassicas.  We have vinegars to help punctuate flavors and oils to ground them.  A special new product, coming from Stony Brook Wholehearted Foods, of Geneva, NYContinue Reading

Maybe you have heard of Steve Sando, or maybe you haven’t.  Steve started Rancho Gordo in 2001 and has since skyrocketed to success.  As the story goes, he was selling his beans at a farmers market in Napa when one of Thomas Keller’s cooks bought his beans and brought them back to the kitchen… theContinue Reading

Most of our products are very hard to get a hold of, and some days it is like a three ring circus here at Great Ciao.  The good thing is that we are juggling very tasting hams, cheeses and chocolates.  Many of the producers we work with are small and so our supply chain isContinue Reading

Salame (s) or salami (p), like cheese, is a product that requires a select few ingredients.  Traditionally salami depended on the simple combination of: protein, fat, salt and fermentation.  Salami producers used wines, vinegars or the natural yeasts, to ferment their salami.  These are still common ingredients, but the introduction of starter cultures, dextrose, nitritesContinue Reading

Folks have been calling for truffles and they are available, summer truffle season is just finishing, while winter and white truffles are just starting.  Pricing is determined Sunday morning each week to provide estimates for the following week, click here for the order form. The intense aroma and flavor of the truffle captivate the palate; itsContinue Reading