Step 1In a medium skillet over medium-low heat, heat oil. Add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly golden, 2 to 4 minutes. Let cool.
Step 2Meanwhile, set a large strainer or colander over a bowl. Add tomatoes and toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Step 3Let sit 5 minutes. Transfer tomatoes to a large bowl. Add basil, vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, and 1/2 tsp. salt and toss to combine. Add garlic and oil from skillet and toss again to combine. Let marinate at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days
BREAD & ASSEMBLY
Step 1Preheat oven to 400°. Brush bread on both sides with oil and arrange on large baking sheet.
Step 2Toast bread, turning halfway through, until dried and golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes, then rub one side of bread with halved garlic cloves.
Step 3Arrange bread on a platter, spoon tomatoes on garlic-rubbed side of bread just before serving .
BRUSCHETTA
BRUSCHETTA al CAPRESE
1. To make Bruschetta al Caprese, just get some good fresh Mozzarella, and cut it into 1/4" cubes. Mak the above recipe.
2. Just before serving, add the diced Mozzarella to the Tomato mixture and gently mix.
Top the toasted bread with Tomato, Basil, & Mozzarella, and serve.
SHRIMP & TOMATO BRUSCHETTA
Make the above recipe for Tomato Basil Bruschetta.
Cook a 1/2 pound of cleaned shrimp, either by poaching, grilling or sauteing.
After cooking the Shrimp, cut in half down the middle.
Follow all the steps of the Tomato Bruschetta recipe. Once you have place the
Tomatoes on top of the Toasted Bread, add 1 or two pieces of Shrimp to each
There has long been a debate, fights, and Mud-Slinging in regards to Italian and Italian-American
food served in restaurants in New York and the rest of the U.S.. Culinary Snobs, people who "Think" they know what they are talking about and what not. I can set the record straight, being an
Italian-American who has been eating Italian and Italian-American food for more than forty years, who has been professional Chef and someone who has eaten all over Italy on some 15 trips to the great peninsular. In addition to studying Italian Food in Italy for some 25 years, I am constantly reading all sorts of articles , cookbooks, and historical facts on this subject, in addition to being one of the countries foremost authorities on Italian Wine.
Anyway, let me tell you. I myself was once a uninformed Food Snob who badmouthed and was slightly disdainful of unauthentic Italian food being served in restaurants all over the city. That's just in restaurants. Of course I Loved eating Sunday Sauce, Eggplant Parmigiano, and Meatballs that my aunts made at our frequent family get together s. And on the occasions that we weren't at one of the family's homes but in an Italian restaurant in Lodi or Garfield, I usually ordered Chicken or Veal Parmigiano. Yes I loved it, but these dishes, for me at the time (1985-1993) had their place, and it was not in the kitchen or on the plates of any serious Italian Restaurant in Manhattan.
Eventually as I learned more of the history of food in New York, Italy, and the World, I realized that there was actually a real true Italian-American Cuisine and that it was completely valid.
Do you realize that if you think there is not a true valid Italian-American Cuisine, then you also must concede that there is No True French Cuisine, because the origins of what we now know as French food and Cuisine is really Italian. Yes, I said Italian. For the food and cuisine of French was quite primitive and did not begin to form into what we now know as French Food and French Cuisine until Caterina Medici of the Noble Florentine Family of the Medici married the King of France and brought her Florentine Chefs with her to the French Court way back in the 15th Century. So there. Many dishes which most people think of as French in origin, like Duck ala Orange, Bechamel, and others, are really Italian. "So there!"
Anyway, back to Italian-American food. Food and cuisines are constantly changing and evolving. This is how Florentine Chefs of Italy, went to France with the newly crowned French Queen who was of the Italian Peninsular in one Katherine Medici and taught the French how to cook. Thus Italians immigrating to the United States in the early 20th Century brought their ingredients and techniques from Mother Italy to cook the dishes from their homeland, with some modifications do to financial issues (being poor) and the unavailability of certain ingredients and started forming what would one day be known as Italian-American food (Cuisine).
Excerpted from Sunday Sauce by Daniel Bellino Zwicke
Discovery of the most famous areas around Epernay, Capital of the Champagne vineyard : The "Côte des Blancs" known as the kingdom of Chardonnay Grand cru and the Marne Valley renowned for its historic hillsides producing Pinot Noir where Champagne was born.
Visit 2 families of independent producers/growers with explanations on the Champagne making process, visit of presses, wineries and cellars.
Taste 6 different Champagnes Grand Cru/Premier Cru including natural Champagnes (without dosage), extra brut, old vines, vintages, aged in oak barrels, etc.
Meet your local guide in front of Reims Centre train station, next to the office of tourism.
Drive in the Champagne countryside to a typical Champagne House, Le Clos Corbier, where your electric mountain bike will be ready for you to ride. After a little warm-up to get comfortable with your e-bike, leave for some adventures !
Your bike will take you though the Champagne vineyards and hillsides where you will get to learn about the champagne region and terroir.
Cycle back to Le Clos Corbier down the Marne canal. Visit the cellars and taste different champagnes from the family domaine. You will discover and learn about the champagne making process.
After this memorable afternoon, your guide will drop you off at 07:00PM in front of Reims Centre train station.
Champagne became associated with royalty in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The leading manufacturers made efforts to associate their Champagnes with nobility and royalty through advertising and packaging, which led to its popularity among the emerging middle class.
Still wines from the Champagne region were known before medieval times. The Romans were the first to plant vineyards in this area of northeast France, with the region being tentatively cultivated by the 5th century. Cultivation was initially slow due to the unpopular edict by Emperor Domitian that all colonial vines must be uprooted. When Emperor Probus, the son of a gardener, rescinded the edict, a temple to Bacchus was erected, and the region started to produce a light, fruity, red wine that contrasted with heavier Italian brews often fortified with resin and herbs.[3] Later, church owned vineyards, and monks produced wine for use in the sacrament of the Eucharist. French kings were traditionally anointed in Reims, and champagne was served as part of coronation festivities. The Champenois were envious of the reputation of the wines made by their Burgundian neighbours to the south and sought to produce wines of equal acclaim. However, the northern climate of the region gave the Champenois a unique set of challenges in making red wine. At the far extremes of sustainable viticulture, the grapes would struggle to ripen fully and often would have bracing levels of acidity and low sugar levels. The wines would be lighter bodied and thinner than the Burgundy wines they sought to outdo.
In the 19th century, champagne was noticeably sweeter than today's champagnes. The trend towards drier champagne began when Perrier-Jouët decided not to sweeten his 1846 vintage before exporting it to London. The designation Brut Champagne was created for the British in 1876.[14]
The only wines that are legally allowed to be named “Champagne” must be bottled within 100 miles of the Champagne region in France. The name is legally protected by European law and an 1891 treaty that requires true champagne to be produced in the Champagne region and made from the Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, or Chardonnay grapes grown in this region.
Most of the Champagne produced today is "Non-vintage", meaning that it is a blended product of grapes from multiple vintages. Most of the base will be from a single year vintage with producers blending anywhere from 10 to 15% (even as high as 40%) of wine from older vintages. If the conditions of a particular vintage are favorable, some producers will make a vintage wine that must be composed of 100% of the grapes from that vintage year. Under Champagne wine regulations, houses that make both vintage and non-vintage wines are allowed to use no more than 80% of the total vintage's harvest for the production of vintage Champagne. This allows at least 20% of the harvest from each vintage to be reserved for use in non-vintage Champagne. This ensures a consistent style that consumers can expect from non-vintage Champagne that does not alter too radically depending on the quality of the vintage. In less than ideal vintages, some producers will produce a wine from only that single vintage and still label it as non-vintage rather than as "vintage" since the wine will be of lesser quality and the producers have little desire to reserve the wine for future blending.
For Caroline Latrive, cellar master of Ayala, a Champagne house that pioneered drier champagnes at the end of the 19th century, dosage represents the final touch in champagne making and must be as subtle as possible to bring the right balance.
Additionally, dosage protects champagne from oxidation because it includes a small amount of SO2, and sugar also acts as a preservative. Benoît Gouez, cellar master of Moët & Chandon says that sugar helps champagne recover from the oxidative shock of disgorgement, and contributes to the wine's aging potential.
Wines labeled Brut Zero, more common among smaller producers, have no added sugar and will usually be very dry, with less than 3 grams of residual sugar per litre in the finished wine. The following terms are used to describe the sweetness of the bottled wine:
Extra Brut (less than 6 grams of sugar per litre)
Brut (less than 12 grams)
Extra Dry (between 12 and 17 grams)
Sec (between 17 and 32 grams)
Demi-sec (between 32 and 50 grams)
Doux (50 grams)
The most common style today is Brut. However, throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century Champagne was generally much sweeter than it is today. Moreover, except in Britain, Champagne was drunk as dessert wines (after the meal), rather than as table wines (with the meal).At this time, Champagne sweetness was instead referred to by destination country, roughly as:
