It is one of the most important holidays in the Italian year, a day when families come together from wherever they are to feast, enjoy a cake made in the shape of a heart and look after their mothers. It’s a tradition – everyone in the family, no matter where they live or what else they’re doing, is expected to be there.

Although an American invention, Mother’s Day in Italy can be traced back to ancient Roman culture when an entire weekend of celebrations were held in May commemorating the goddess Juno.

The name Juno means ‘vital force’ (a great description of Italian mothers everywhere!). She was the Roman goddess of marriage and motherhood.

Traditionally in ancient Rome, weddings were held in June (Juno’s month) – to ensure a good marriage and fertility, and the tradition holds good even today.

With the passing of time and the coming of Christianity, this tradition evolved into a religious festival when the ‘mother’ referred to ‘mother church’. It became important for families in Italy to return to their home villages and visit their ‘mother’ church – the church in which they were baptized.

For many Italian mothers, going to church on Mother’s Day morning is still an important part of the tradition. The worship of the Madonna, mother of God and seen as the perfect example of motherhood, is very strong even today.

Continue the tradition with an Italian celebration of your Mother – our Mother’s Day Buffet, served 11:00am – 3:00pm View our Mother’s Day Buffet Menu

Dinner 5:00pm featuring our regular Dinner Menu

The Mediterranean diet includes:

• Getting plenty of exercise
• Eating primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts
• Replacing butter with healthy fats such as olive oil
• Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods
• Limiting red meat to no more than a few times a month
• Eating fish and poultry at least twice a week
• Drinking red wine in moderation (optional)
• Enjoying meals with family and friends

The Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, and seeds.  These foods provide thousands of micronutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that can help protect against cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, among other conditions, and provide health benefits that cannot be replaced by a supplement.

Monounsaturated fats, found in avocado, fish and olive oils, are anti-inflammatory and fight disease at the cellular level, including type 2 diabetes. Olive oil has gotten lots of attention, however, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2003, it may be the synergy between all the foods that leads to the health benefits.

Sound a little clinical – perhaps a few tasty examples will help.  Here are a few of our menu items that are great examples:

• Summer Salad
• Torre di Pisa
• Tomato Caprese
• Carmelo Salad
• Radicchio e Pere
• Pasta di Mais
• Eggplant Parmigiana
• Pesce Spada al Pomodoro
• Asparaci

All of Carmelo’s dishes are prepared with olive oil and we can grill, broil or poach chicken and fish very simply with olive oil and lemon juice…just ask your server!

If you haven’t heard the term, it’s likely you will.  Debated since the 1800′s when Auguste Escoffier (the chef in Paris at the time) began creating a taste that tasted like no combination of the “existing” flavors.

At nearly the same time in far away Japan, Kikunaie Ikeda was certain there was another unidentified taste in dashi (classic Japanese seaweed soup).  Being a chemist, he decided to find out what it was.  He identified the savory taste as glutamic acid (or glutamate) which he later renamed to “umami” (“delicious” or “yummy” in Japanese).

Fast forward nearly 100 years (in 2002) and a new generation of scientists studied the human tongue a little closer and determined that we do indeed have a fifth taste, naming it “umami” in Ikeda’s honor.

Glutamate* has a long history in cooking. Even earlier than Escoffier, fermented fish sauces (garum), rich in glutamate, were used in ancient Rome.

Umami is a savory flavor that has a mild aftertaste which is difficult to describe. It causes salivation, a furry sensation on the tongue, stimulates the throat, the roof and the back of the mouth – and can be detected by all of the taste buds in the mouth, regardless of their location.

Experience umami at Carmelo’s in Pomodori Caprese, Cesare Salad, and Pesce Spada al Pomodoro.  We also use grated Parmigiano Reggiano (an example of umami) on pasta dishes and in some of our other menu items.

*Glutamate is produced naturally during the cooking process and should not be confused with monosodium glutamate (MSG) – a chemical compound that produces a similar taste experience to umami.  Carmelo’s Ristorante does not use monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Learn more about umami:  www.umamiinfo.com

The area has a rich ethnic mixture that includes German roots as well as a strong Venetian or Lombardian influence and over the years, residents have created a unique blend of German and Italian cuisines. Goulash is served with cornmeal polenta. Pizza and pasta is as likely to be on the menu as sauerkraut.

Polenta is staple food and may contain potatoes or buckwheat instead of or in addition to cornmeal. It can be made into a cake known as smacafamor or trisa, a hot soup of cornmeal and wheat flour cooked with butter and milk.

Trentino-Alto Adige cuisine features strangolapreti (a spinach and cheese flavored potato and flour gnocchi) which literally translates to “priest stranglers”. Traditionally served on Fridays, this dish was created (1545-1563) for times when religious restrictions forbade the consumption of meat. The legend says that priests and other clergy members enjoyed this dish so much that they would eat it until they choked, hence the name strangolapreti, or priest stranglers.

Canederli (a bread dumpling) is also a famous regional dish offered with meat, in soup or even filled with fruit for dessert.

Filling soups are popular here and include minestra di trippa, a bread thickened soup with tomato sauce, vegetables and tripe. Saursuppe, another tripe soup, is flavored with herbs, onion, nutmeg and white wine. Barley soup, known as orzetto or Gerstensuppe, is made with vegetables, onion, garlic and a local smoked pork called speck (which can also be served as an appetizer or snack with rye bread or crackers).

Beef may be marinated in brine with juniper berries, herbs and pepper for carne salata. Or sautéed in butter, where it is served with polenta or beans. Rindsgulasch (beef goulash) is a hearty beef stew. Sauerbraten is a stewed beef roast flavored with onions, vinegar and wine.

Trentino-Alto Adige is well known for their flavorful apple desserts. Apfelküchel is a cake full of pieces of apple. A sweet variation of smacafam is also made with nuts, raisins and aniseed flavoring. A Christmas specialty is zelten, a rye cake with provincial variations similar to fruit cake.

Pane e vino fanno un bel bambino or “bread and wine make a beautiful baby” is a saying that tells a great deal about the importance given to wine in this region. There is a widespread belief that bread and wine are fundamental sources of nourishment and growth, both physically and emotionally. Even so, Trentino-Alto Adige produces less than 1% of the national wine production and about 10% of grappa production.

Wine labels have been around for centuries. Common belief is that wine was introduced in Greece around 4000 BC and artifacts point to it being a part of even earlier civilizations. And to the ancient Greeks, many of whom worshiped Dionysus, the god of wine, it was considered to be a gift from the gods.

In the tomb of King Tutankhamen (d.1352 BC.) wine jars were found that had wine labels with enough details to meet some present day existing wine label laws.

The oldest hand written wine label on record was from French monk Pierre Perignon. His wine label was made of parchment and tied to the neck of a bottle with a piece of string.

With the introduction of glass bottles in the 1700′s and production of multiple varieties of wine, there was a need to identify wines for origin and quality – the best explanation of the birth of the modern wine label.

The first crude method of label construction involved designing the wine label on a stone then passing an ink roller over it to produce the label.

1798 was the year it all really began.  Czechoslovakian Alois Senefelder invented lithography which allowed for printing wine labels in mass quantities. With the introduction of lithography most wine producers preferred wine labels in a rectangular shape that allowed room for increased information about the wine.

The first paper wine labels made in Germany around the 19th century were fairly generic – printed on white paper rectangles in either Gothic or Bodoni font and listing only the kind of wine. Sometimes the vintner would list the name of the wine and the vintage year. Around that same time in France, Champagne labels with gold, silver, bronze, blue and other colors were made by the great Champagne houses.

It was in Italy where wine labels began to take on new attributes. A label from 1820 preserved in the historical archives of Santa Vittoria d’Alba dated 1852, carried the description “Francesco Cinzano Confettiere e Liquoriere Fornitore della Real Casa.” – more detail than previous labels.

The Italian wine labels of the 19th and 20th centuries revealed clues of daily life, with labels that displayed coats of arms, landscapes, portraits, or medals from the individual wine families. This continued until 1950 in Italy, when governmental law imposed wine label requirements.

Looking through their fabulous wine list, Carmelo came across Il Vino della Pace – translated “the wine of peace”. As educated as he is on wine, he had never heard of it, nor the winery. Inquisitively he called the Maitre d’ over who was incredibly enthusiastic about the wine – which is made with a total of 830 grape varietals!!!

They ordered an 8 course tasting menu and a bottle of the wine which the maitre d’ assured them would pair very well with all the courses. It did. Incredibly well. Carmelo asked if he could give them the label, and he did much more, presenting them with a booklet nearly half an inch thick on the wine!

Every year, three artists are commissioned to design the labels of Vino della Pace – they make three labels each year for the same wine. Every year a box of these three bottles is sent to every head of state, including the Pope! (Carmelo and Hilary think this is one of the most amazing stories in regard to attempting to promote world peace).

They couldn’t wait to get home to find the wine and add it to their wine list.

Cormons Winery is in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy.

The cuisine of Friuli Venezia Giulia is influenced by the Slavic, central European and Venetian cultures and relies on simple recipes and genuine ingredients including meat, dairy, sausages and legumes.

Dishes typical of the area include polenta, “porcina” (a dish made with boiled pork meat and sausages served with sauerkrauts and mustard), and several soups rich in vegetables and legumes.

The most important product of the area is the Prosciutto of San Daniele, followed by Montasio cheese and Sauris smoked ham, and musèt con la brovada, (cotechino pork sausage served with turnips soured with marc).

Gubana, a shell of pastry stuffed with dried fruit is one of the local dessert favorites. Strudels and fruit cakes are delicious as well.

The traditional dishes of the area are accompanied by a number of high-quality red and white wines, such as Refosco, Terrano, Malvasia, Tocai and Rebula. Friuli Venezia Giulia is also renowned for its traditional and flavored grappas.

Our news wines from the Cormons Winery come from this region in Italy.  See Happenings for our upcoming Vintner Dinner.  Menu

In Italy and Britain, people strongly believed that the first man an unmarried girl saw on Valentine’s Day, (or someone who looks like him) would marry her  within a year. This made girls wake up early on Valentine’s Day to stand by their window and watch a man pass.

The origins of Saint Valentine’s Day go back to the time of the Roman Empire.

Romans celebrated Lupercus and Fauno – the gods protecting the harvest and the cattle, as well as prosperity and fertility on February 15th.  On the evening before this feast all the girls of marriageable age would put a card with their name inside a jar. Every young man would draw out a name of a woman he would pair with  for dancing and singing for the entire celebration. Many fell in love and married.

Pope Gelasio cancelled this pagan rite in 496 A.D. replacing it with a day commemorating Saint Valentine. Valentine had been a bishop who married young couples even if they did not have permission from the Emperor.

Valentino was born in Terni at the end of the second century and martyred on the 14th of February 273 during the Christian persecution under the Emperor
Aurelian. He was buried on a hill outside the city walls of Terni where now stands the Basilica of St. Valentine.

The name Valentine comes from the latin ‘valere’ which means ‘feel good’ and the Saint was famous among his contemporaries for his faith healing powers.
Many anecdotes explain why he was chosen by the Church as the patron protector of lovers.

One story says that Valentine heard two lovers arguing next to his garden. Valentine went up to them and gave them a rose asking them to hold it together without a sting from the thorns. The two lovers made peace and were so happy that they asked Valentine to celebrate their marriage.

After them, many other couples went to St. Valentines to intercede for their love and he dedicated the 14th of every month to receive pairs in love.

Join us for an Italian Valentine’s celebration of your own.

Venice canalRisi, or rice, is a mainstay on the Venetian menu, and is served differently than in most other areas of Italy. Here rice is never eaten by itself – it is always cooked and served with other ingredients, such as lamb, sausages, chicken livers, tripe, beans, and raisins, as well as with fish and shellfish. The most famous Venetian rice dishes are risi e bisi (rice and fresh peas) and risi e figadini (rice with chicken livers).  Venetian cuisine is simple and tasty, and much is fish-based. Baccala’, dried, salted cod fish is another specialty of the area.  Polenta (a modest dish made from cornmeal) is more popular here than in any other region of Italy and Pasticcio di polenta (layers of fried polenta and stew of wood pigeon with mushrooms baked in pie crusts) is a local favorite.   A fresh pasta called bigoli originates here, and gets its name from the traditional kitchen implement that’s used to make it, called a bigolaro, a four-inch-wide bronze tube. Bigoli in salsa is a dish which tosses the bigoli with a delicious sauce of anchovies, olive oil, and cooked onions. Or you may favor bigoli co l’anara: “spaghetti” with sauce of duck liver and innards with vegetables and herbs.

The best wines come from the district of Verona; Amarone, complex with great depth and flavor concentration, Valpolicella and Bardolino, rose’ or red, perfumed and slightly sparkling, and Soave, which is white and strong as well as Grappa.

Lombardy’s food is just as diverse as its population. Rice grows remarkably well here, so risotto dishes find their way onto almost every table. The cattle industry is booming, and provides veal shanks for ossobuco.  Stews, soups, heavily-sauced polentas, hearty filled raviolis and slow-braised meat dishes are all-around favorites as well. Dairy is profuse, so butter and cream are used much more liberally than the traditional olive oil base for sauces. Agri di Valtorta, Bagoss, Bitto, Branzi, Gorgonzola, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Provolone Valpadana are just a few of the excellent cheeses crafted here. Lombardy is definitely a cheese-lover’s paradise.

Lombardy is the home of panettone (a rich bread made with candied fruits, citrus and raisins), the Christmas favorite.

Although Lombardy is primarily considered the industrial and commercial capital of Italy, you will find some of the most artisan, small production wines made here. The top wines here are red, and include Bonarda (also known as Croatina), Buttafuoco, a blend of Barbera, Bonarda, Uva Rara and other red grapes, and Sangue di Giuda, a similar blend somewhat like Lambrusco. Franciacorta, on the shores of Lake Iseo, is known almost entirely for its sparkling wines made by the traditional Champagne method of individual fermentation in the bottle, using the traditional Champagne grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Nero.