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Bill’s Bucatini with Rabbit and Spring Vegetables

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Here at Via Umbria, we really live and breathe our products, as we believe in the producers and farmers that make them. This means that our everyday choices are guided by the integrity of the products we sell; we really are rooted and knowledgeable about what we are selling and use and eat those products every day.

Last week, our very own Bill Menard whipped up some bucatini with rabbit, and sautéed spring peas, fava beans, and artichokes with mint. Made wearing the top line of chefware from Italy (quite stylish if we do say so ourselves) and plated on a Geribi handpainted ceramic, this meal is a seasonal Umbrian classic that he made with pride.

The Bucantini with rabbit recipe you can find the The Geometry of Pasta, but for the rest you’ll have to consult our Pinterest.

Buon appetito!

–Via Umbria

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An Umbrian Classic Read more

  Here at Via Umbria, we really live and breathe our products, as we believe in the producers and farmers that make them. ...

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Recipe: Fennel Meatballs from Vickie Reh

Last week this time, we were sitting down to a four course meal to celebrate Liu Pambufetti of Scacciadiavoli Vineyards. As the heat of the day sifted off, we enjoyed typical Umbrian fare under the stars.

While the mood outside was lively, the feeling of relaxation and perfect conversation prevailed at the dinner table. But, as usual, in the kitchen it was a different story! The timing of the lamb was especially imperative, but with the assistance of our friend, chef, and sommelier Vickie Reh, we were able to pull off the dinner without a hitch.

After the last drops of the passito were had, and the guests wandered home, content and with full bellies, we sat down around the fire pit.

Vickie reminisced about sitting outside in the summer to celebrate Suzy’s birthday, which she also helped cook for. We were able to track down the recipe for the classic fennel meatballs she made for the occasion, which we are sharing with you here!

IMG_8259IMG_8302 The third course: lamb, roasted potatoes and asparagus, paired with Scacciadiavoli Sagrantino 2006. IMG_8366The women who helped plan and execute the event!

Do these photos make you drool? We have plenty of opportunities for you to experience the food and wine of Umbria. Check out our upcoming events to find something for every price point.

Ci Vediamo!

 

— Via Umbria

One of our all time favorites! Read more

Last week this time, we were sitting down to a four course meal to celebrate Liu Pambufetti of Scacciadiavoli Vineyards. As the ...

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Simone’s Spring Bucatini

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Our dear friend and chef Simone gave us his recipe for the perfect spring pasta, which we paired with the Montefalco Rosso from Scacciadiavoli last Thursday night. We needed a simple yet impressive dish to serve for a party of 30, and this pasta was perfetto. Fava beans are in season, both in Umbria and the US, and serve as the protein for this vegetarian dish, which can easily be altered to be vegan and/or gluten-free for guests with dietary restrictions. Ready in under 30 minutes and packed with the vibrant flavors of spring, it was a huge hit.

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Ingredients:

1 package all-natural Bucatini
1 bunch green onions
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 cup fava beans peeled
aged pecorino cheese
olive oil

 

Toss cherry tomatoes with olive oil and salt and put on a foil lined baking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until tomatoes are soft and lightly browned.  Peel fava beans (both layers) and steam just until soft and still bright green. Remove from heat immediately.

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Boil pasta until al dente and drain.  Mix pasta and tomatoes in a large pasta bowl adding olive oil as necessary.  Toss in fava beans and green onions.  Season with salt and pepper to taste (you can add a pinch of chili pepper if you like).  Top with grated pecorino and serve!

 

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Our dear friend and chef Simone will be returning to Washington DC for a few days at the end of May.

 

He has two evenings still available for private dinners in your home Friday, May 29 or Sunday May 31, where you can host up to 10 guests for $1,250. Or, you can book a seat at the table at the Menard’s where Simone will be working his magic for $125 a plate.

 

Contact Suzy at suzy@viaumbria.com or 202.957-3811 to book or for more details.

Taste the flavors of spring Read more

Our dear friend and chef Simone gave us his recipe for the perfect spring pasta, which we paired with the Montefalco Rosso from Scacciadiavoli last ...

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Recipe – Lara’s Red Pesto Chicken

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Wanting to try something different from the standard pasta + sauce combination, I decided to put Seggiano’s Red Pesto sauce to a more creative use. I had previously tried the all-natural sauce on the Mancino’s whole wheat Orecchiette and loved its flavorful combination of basil, tomato, and creamy nut base, so I decided to use it to add a burst of flavor to some chicken thighs.

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I like to keep my recipes simple ( and mostly paleo and gluten-free for my boyfriend), and this quick dish only required a few steps:

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  • Lightly oil, salt, and pepper raw chicken pieces. Add a coat of Seggiano’s Red Pesto sauce to soak in while in oven
  • Place seasoned chicken on baking pan and leave in oven for 30 minutes (15 minutes on each side)
  • Heat Seggiano’s Red Pesto sauce on a stovetop for about 5 minutes on medium-high heat
  • Remove chicken from the oven, and glaze a second coat of Seggiano’s Red Pesto sauce while it cools

The chicken can pair nicely with many things, and I prepared it alongside a kale salad with raisins, tomatoes, and almonds as well as roasted portabella mushroom slices.

 

Simple and delicious, buon appetito !

 

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Lara enjoys simple, quality, home-cooked meals. Although she does not consider herself to be a cook, she knows to appreciate all kinds of cuisine and has tasted unbelievable dishes from her travels around the world. Fairly new to the DC area after living in France and Tunisia, Lara is discovering all that the city has to offer, including the specialty foods at Via Umbria!

 

A twist to the traditional pesto Read more

Wanting to try something different from the standard pasta + sauce combination, I decided to put Seggiano's Red Pesto sauce to a more creative ...

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Chef Simone’s Spinach Risotto

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I recently had a dinner party, and reached out to our favorite Chef Simone for a quality risotto recipe. Risotto is wonderful for serving a crowd because of its long simmer time. After you throw the first ingredients in, it just takes a small stir every few minutes while you prep the other courses and make drinks. When my guest arrived 20 minutes late, it was no issue, as I just turned the rice to low and let it simmer for a little while why we waited.

This simple recipe was a huge hit, perfect for a cozy winter night in with some friends and a bottle of wine.

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INGREDIENTS:

one large shallot

one cup white wine

vegetable or chicken stock

butter

1/2 cup parmigiano cheese

two cups Gli Airioni rice

zest of one lemon

three cups spinach

 

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INSTRUCTIONS:

In a large saucepan, cook the diced shallot in two tablespoons butter over medium-low heat, stirring until softened, for about 5 minutes.

Add the rice and stirring constantly add the white wine, until it is absorbed.

Continue adding stock, stirring constantly and letting each batch be absorbed before adding the rest.

Reduce the heat to moderate, if necessary, to keep the risotto at a simmer.

Continue adding the stock in the same manner until the rice is tender and creamy looking but still al dente, about 20 minutes.

Reduce the heat to low, add the parmigiano. Mix well. Add the spinach and the lemon zeste and continue mixing. Serve with some more parmesan on top!

 

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You'll want to have it everyday Read more

I recently had a dinner party, and reached out to our favorite Chef Simone for a quality risotto recipe. Risotto is wonderful ...

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Simone’s Orecchiette with Broccoli

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Chef Simone has done it again! His tasty Orecchiette with Broccoli recipe was a big hit at Via Umbria this past Wednesday.

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Curious customers of all ages were able to watch the cooking process and enjoy the delicious end result!

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In case you missed out, here is the recipe so that you can try it at home!

Orecchiette with Broccoli

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of broccoli
  • Anchovies filet
  • 2-4 cloves of Garlic
  • Chili pepper
  • ¼ cup of olive 0il
  • Salt

 

Instructions:

  • Boil broccoli in salt water for 3 minutes
  • Sauté garlic, chili pepper, and anchovies filet in olive oil
  • Add broccoli and cook for 10 minutes
  • Using water, boil orecchiette for 10 minutes
  • Drain and serve with a sprinkle of parmigiano

 Buon appetito!

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— Via Umbria

Via Umbria's new hit Read more

Chef Simone has done it again! His tasty Orecchiette with Broccoli recipe was a big hit at Via Umbria this past Wednesday. Curious ...

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Simone’s Butternut Squash & Sage Tortelloni

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We were lucky enough to have Simone in the store with us on Wednesday, to teach us how to make delightful fresh pasta with butternut squash filling. See our previous tutorial on how to make the fresh pasta here.

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INGREDIENTS

• 1 egg per person • Extravirgin olive oil

• 100g 00 flour

INSTRUCTIONS

• Weigh the flour and place on a wooden board in a pile

making a well in the middle.

• Break the egg into the well and stir into the flour slowly

using a fork.

• Add a drizzle of extravirgin olive oil.

• Mix the dough into a ball.

• Knead the dough using the ball of your hand until it is

smooth, soft (not sticky) and springy.

• Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit for 15-30 minutes

before rolling.

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FILLING  FOR TORTELLONI

INGREDIENTS

Butter

Sage

Parmigiano

Nutmeg

White pepper

One whole butternut squash

INSTRUCTIONS

Peel the squash and cut into cubes.  Sauté in oil until lightly roasted.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add water, lower heat and cover.  Cook until very soft.

Purée squash with 1 egg yolk and grated parmigiano. Season with nutmeg to taste.

Once tortelloni is made, garnish with sage and serve!

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For the real treat, join Simone on his home turf for a cooking tour with Via Umbria. Cucinapalooza will be happening April 18 – 24, 2015.

Or for an experience close-to-home, join Simone next week on Wednesday as he makes oricchiette with broccolini, from 5-6 at Via Umbria. See you next week!

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— Via Umbria

Chef Simone has done it again! Read more

We were lucky enough to have Simone in the store with us on Wednesday, to teach us how to make delightful fresh ...

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I Came, I Sausaged, I Conquored

Sausage 007

Laws are like sausages.  It is best not to see them being made.
— Otto von Bismarck

With all due respect to the Iron Chancellor we couldn’t disagree more.  Maybe he’s correct with respect to law making, but certainly not with respect to sausage making.  It is better to make them yourself.

It is January, the beginning of the New Year, when thoughts turn to resolutions, diets and exercise.  It is also the time of year, for the past five years, that we welcome back chef Simone Proietti-Pesci for his annual US visit.  Yesterday marked the beginning of his return, a three week tour and tour de force that begins in the Napa Valley of California and will take him (and us) to Washington, DC, New York, South Florida, Boston and the Cayman Islands.  We’ll chronicle Chef Simone’s daily activities here on Dolce Vita for those of you who cannot get together with him in person.

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Our first activity, just hours after connecting with Simone at SFO (he having flown from Rome, we having taking the shorter trip from Washington) was to set up camp at our friend Pete’s in Napa Valley where Simone (and his able assistant Austin) will prepare an Umbrian dinner party this evening.  With nothing formal on the day’s schedule (other than dinner at Bouchon) Pete suggested that we organize a sausage fest, relying on our expert Umbrian sausage maker to help make Umbrian sausage and Pete’s family recipe from his Sicilian aunt.

 

Pete had prepared in advance, laying on provisions, including ground pork (for the Umbrian variety) and ground pork and veal (for the Sicilian).  He also trotted out his new toy, a LEM sausage packer that looks like a cross between Pinocchio and the Tin Woodsman.  This gadget would make Chancellor Bismarck particularly happy, packing the sausage filling seamlessly and without mess into the casings that are loaded onto the spindle.  Having watched Julietta, our local butcher in Cannara hand pack sausages at a cooking class earlier in the year, we even more appreciated the crank it and forget approach afforded by the LEM.

Much weighing of ingredients and calculations of salt percentages were made by Pete and Simone and the ingredients mixed and massaged by hand.  Help was enlisted from Pete’s parents and the rest of our assembled group and then magically, from a mass of ground meat and simple spices emerged from the LEM not Neil Armstrong, but an unending array of dirigible shaped delicousness.

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Houston, we’ve got a sausage.
Close your eyes, Bismarck!
Close your eyes, Bismarck!
While many of the links will be consumed at Simone’s Saturday Umbrian open house in San Francisco, we did sample enough, including a generous portion added to a pizza Pete threw together, to attest that home made sausage beats store-bought any day of the week.

Including (if not especially) Wednesday, the day we started Simone’s three week US adventure.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy

Behind the Scenes of Sausage Making Read more

Laws are like sausages.  It is best not to see them being made. -- Otto von Bismarck With all due respect to the Iron ...

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Simone Proietti’s Pasta

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

Pesci's Arugula Pesto with Roasted Tomatoes Read more

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

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Lucky Lentils

Umbria scenery_MG_1804 ©2014 Eric van den Brulle

The most difficult time for a small business is typically after the holiday season. So while we don’t wan to worry, we will be angling for all the luck we can get. A delicious, Italian tradition is the eating of lentils on New Years Eve to bestow financial health and general good luck in the coming year. See this article  for a brief history on why and where these lentils are eaten, and then pop over to the Barilla Academy for another variation on the recipe. Maybe this tasty dinner will help us in the New Year?

Here at Via Umbria we hope that your New Year involves health and stability, and we wish you all the best in 2015.

 

— Via Umbria

Happy new years! Read more

The most difficult time for a small business is typically after the holiday season. So while we don’t wan to worry, we ...

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Ravishing Ravioli

There is something about ravioli that is so appealing right now: simple enough to be a weeknight meal, with endless customizations ranging from pumpkin for the holidays to truffle for those days when you need a little richness. And ravioli freeze very, very well, making them the perfect holiday meal to serve with the appearance of slaving all day in the kitchen but the delight of a 10 minute prep time.  Just dab some flour on your head to add to the “I’ve been ravioli-ing all day!” effect.

Yesterday we had the delight of making ravioli pasta in-store with Dorrie Gleason of The Silver Fig Cuisine. You can find our previous tutorial on Tagliatelle here, where we explore the basics of pasta making.

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To begin, we make our basic pasta:

Homemade Ravioli

INGREDIENTS

• 1 egg per person • Extravirgin olive oil
• 100g 00 flour
INSTRUCTIONS
• Weigh the flour and place on a wooden board in a pile
making a well in the middle.
• Break the egg into the well and stir into the flour slowly
using a fork.
• Add a drizzle of extravirgin olive oil.
• Mix the dough into a ball.
• Knead the dough using the ball of your hand until it is
smooth, soft (not sticky) and springy.
• Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit for 15-30 minutes
before rolling.
Buon appetito!
(Recipe courtesy of Dorrie Gleason – The Silver Fig Cuisine )
And now, the filling!  Dorrie used a recipe adapted from Ernesto’s restaurant in Umbria, home to many an adventurous cooking class.
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Homemade Ravioli Filling, for 12 ravioli or two people
INGREDIENTS
• 1 cup fresh ricotta • 1/2 cup grated parmigiano
• 1 apple peeled/diced • 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• Crushed walnuts
INSTRUCTIONS
• Saute apple in 1T butter with cinnamon and clove
until tender.
• In a separate bowl combine ricotta and parmigiano.
When apples are cooled, add to cheese mixture and
gently stir until blended.
• Roll out pasta dough until paper thin, add cheese
mixture and cover.
• Cook in boiling water 2-3 minutes until ravioli rises
to the top of the pot.  Serve immediately with melted
butter and crushed walnuts.
By the time we were done creating the unconventional filling the creative wheels were turning with ideas for fabulous future stuffings. Plans for a ravioli dinner party where everyone brings a different filling were formed.
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The stars were very fun to punch out, and we have snowflakes and hearts here at Via Umbria as well. How thoughtful would it be to make ravioli in the shape of hearts for someone you love?
Thank you Dorrie for teaching us the ways of the expert pasta maker, we will be coming back for seconds!
—Via Umbria

This recipe will make you lick your fingers! Read more

There is something about ravioli that is so appealing right now: simple enough to be a weeknight meal, with endless customizations ranging ...