andiamotrips - campania, italy with karen phillips

I've spent the past week looking at  photos, tasting notes, and videos that I made over the past year for the blog.  I must admit quite a few of my adventures brought back special memories of good times in the vineyards and restaurants of Campania. Here's part one of  a look back at 2013  After all...should auld aquaintices be forgot ? Let's begin in the vineyards. Let's begin in Irpinia. Back in April I shared my visit to Villa Diamante in Montefredane.  A winery known for the Fiano di Avellino and we tasted several exciting examples of their going far back as 1998. When Ida Budetta invited me to visit her winery, Az. Agricola San Giovann i in Punta Tresino last summer I was more than thrilled.  Until I got lost.  I remember, though, finally arriving and getting the opportunity and privilege to spend a few hours in her piece of paradise overlooking the sea. Then there was a visit t Vico Equense.  An area where until a few months ago was familiar to me f

There are few pasta formats that make me go madder than spaghetti.  A pasta shape that doesn't need fancy sauces, elaborate sugos.  A pasta that is happy to be tossed with simple sauces like ones made with fresh tomatoes or like this dish I tried for the first time a couple of years ago in Cetara at Al Convento .   Spaghetti con la colatura di alici di Cetara.   Coatura di alici di Cetara is a beautiful amber colored fish sauce made with the famous anchovies from Cetara. A dish, that on the surface looks plain, simple, with few ingredients.  But if you are an anchovy lover like I am, simple stops right there.  A quick inhale lets you know right away that this is something special.  And when prepared well, like they do at Al Convento , the sauce clings to the spaghetti and is enjoyed with every mouthful.  And if done really well, a delicious sauce is left behind on the plate begging to be soaked up with a thick piece of crusty Italian bread. True, we can't all go

I first met Chef  Giulio Coppola  one summer Saturday evening in the main piazza of Gragnano (Na). The chef was one of half a dozen  ish  who had prepared a pasta dish for the large crowd that filled the city for  A' Pasta  that evening.  But as (bad) luck would have it, when I got to Coppola's stand, he was  sold out . There was nothing left but Coppola's smile and a  mi dispiace,  I'm sorry. Every cloud has a silver lining.  A quick investigation and I learned that Coppola ran a restaurant on the other side of the piazza.  So I decided then and there  that the next time I visited Gragnano, I would make sure to visit Giulio Coppola at his restaurant  La Galleria. Chef Giulio Coppola The next time came a few weeks ago.  I arranged a visit to one the top  pasta factories  in town and I invited Coppola to come along with me before  lunch.  I thought he would be the perfect person to elaborate on Gragnano's  passion for pasta . He, a young chef who grew up sur

Cold and rainy.  Not yet icy.  That was the weather that  met me on the road to BianchIrpinia 2013 that late Friday afternoon.  If all went well, I'd have enough time to taste some of the latest vintages of Greco di Tufo. Yes, I was ready for a wine tasting on the run weekend where I would trade in my rubber boots which accompanied me in the vineyards for a pair of black leather ones better suited for the conference room in Mercogliano (Av), the venue chosen for Miriade & Partners BianchIrpina. Greco- una bella bestia - as journalist Paolo De Cristofaro calls it affectionately.   Certo , certainly not a wine that wishes to impress with intense flowery aromas. In fact, I wondered a few weeks later, is it a wine that wishes to impress at all?  And if it does, who?  Tasting the 2012 editions a year after the harvest is an interesting point in a young Grecos life.  I say young because Greco  a white which antsy in the vineyard more still in the cantina, desires time to expr

After 20 ish years in Italy, my pasta palate has come a long ways since the days of spaghetti alla bolognese . :-)  Spag Bol - a dish that makes   Giuseppe Di Martino cringe.   Meat sauce is too heavy for spaghetti! Giuseppe once told me... and spaghetti with clams?  Linguine is better . Yes, over the last couple of years, I've learned a lot about pasta. Thanks to Di Martino and a few dozen chefs who have shared their dishes, suggestions, and secrets with me since my blog began a few years ago.   So I was extremely excited when Di Martino accepted my request and opened his doors to his pasta factory Pastificio Dei Campi  in Gragnano one Saturday morning.  What better way, I thought to deepen my insatiable curiosity about pasta  than to see up close and personal look where it is made? Even better if I brought a few chefs along.  Chefs such as Giacomo De Simone , executive chef at Le Axidie along with Alfonso Apuzzo .  I also invited a young chef who knows Gragnano first ha

Just a few more days until my second photo exhibit. This time accompanied with the  Fiano di Avellino wines of Cantine Di Meo, including a world premiere of a special 2000 vintage plus the cuisine of Chef Gianluca D'Agostino. More info here .

It was raining that Saturday morning.  Saturday, November 16th.  A light cold chilly rain that had decided to visit the Campania region for the previous few days.  So we, Raffaele Troisi and I, decided to have quick caffe' to take the chill off at Bar Moccia , our meeting point 5 minutes from the autostrade exit, before heading to his winery in Montefredane, Avellino. Raffaele Troise, a man who I had the pleasure of meeting a few years ago at a dinner with friends  Troise, one of Campania's best known bianchisti...white wine makers with a history along and rich in tradition with their winery Vadiaperte , then most recently Az. Vinicola Traerte . I followed Troise over a railroad track, up a winding street, to his little piece of wet paradise in Montefredane.  The rain had let up temporarily, so he thought best that we get our vineyard hop on before the skies decided to change its mind. Montefredane.  Rainboots on.  Necessary for this clayey/terracotta soil that had become