It would be hard to think of Italy without coffee. After all it is the national breakfast and the home of coffee drinks that have taken the rest of the world by storm. Without Italy, Starbucks would not exist and without coffee, Italy would simply grind to a halt. No, coffee was not invented in Italy but coffee culture as we all know it did originate in Italy. Today, Italy is a country of coffee aficionados who will not tolerate much less visit an establishment that has bad coffee. Many of my friends in fact will skip coffee at a restaurant after dinner just to visit their favorite coffee bar. For the next few posts I am going to discuss a bit of coffee history and share my philosophy on Beans, Roasting, Brewing at Home, and will mention a few of my favorite Espresso Machines! Sharing coffee with a someone is a wonderful experience I enjoy every day - I look forward to sharing that experience with you. Have a wonderful day! - Rita

I am always searching for the perfect market to compliment my regular shopping and I have discovered this company and do recommend them. Ironically they are located here in South Florida. Wholesale Italian Food has become a reliable supplier for many prestigious restaurants and grocery chains with our food products. Wholesale Italian Food offers home and restaurant delivery for many fresh imported Italian foods. WholesaleItalianFood.com is an e-commerce website operated by a privately-owned importer and distributor headquartered in South Florida.

In business for nearly 30 years as an importer and distributor of food products in the food service industry, our company in combination with our suppliers have become a reliable source for several large restaurant chains nationwide. Our products are supplied from some of the largest manufacturers in Italy bringing the highest quality items from some of the most traditional regions of this country.

With our experience and expertise, Wholesale Italian Food has created a strong relationship with our suppliers that has allowed us to be always capable of supplying a variety of products at the best prices. Combined with these great prices and our astonishingly low freight rates, Wholesale Italian Food believes that it has created a recipe for success for your restaurant or home kitchen!

I love mushrooms just about any way you can cook them but one of my favorite preparations has to be to stuff them. This stuffed mushroom is a little lighter than many of the other versions you will come across as the primary ingredient in the stuffing is creamy ricotta cheese. Now you can add or subtract any number of ingredients in this filling to change the flavor, but this version is the one I make most often. Other ingredients you could include would be olives, capers, or anchovies. You could also replace some of the ricotta cheese with goat cheese. Porcini or portobello mushrooms work really well in this recipe as their meaty flavor is complimented by the light, creamy filling but large cultivated button mushrooms can also be used. Serves 6 by Deborah Mele.

6 Large Mushrooms (See Notes Above)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Tablespoons Finely Minced Onion
3 Garlic Cloves, Peeled & Minced
3 Tablespoons Fresh Chopped Parsley
1 Red Hot Chile Pepper, Minced (Optional)
3 Oil Packed Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Finely Chopped
1 Cup Full Fat Ricotta Cheese
Salt & Pepper
5 Tablespoons Freshly Grated Pecorino (or Parmesan) Cheese
Olive Oil For Brushing

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the stems of the mushrooms and chop them finely. In a heavy frying pan heat the olive oil and then add the mushrooms and onion. Cook until softened. Add the garlic and chile pepper and cook another minute or two. Allow the mixture to cool and then add the parsley, tomatoes, and ricotta cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Lightly oil a baking sheet and place mushroom caps cut side up. Brush the caps lightly with olive oil and then spoon the filling in. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and then bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender when pierced with a knife and the tops are lightly browned. Serve immediately.

If you cannot imagine how mere cornmeal can be turned into a tasty meal, then undoubtedly you have never eaten polenta prepared in an Italian kitchen. Once considered peasant food, polenta is now appearing in even the most elegant restaurants. Earlier in this century, polenta was a staple food eaten out of necessity, sometimes two or three times a day. Some families would dump a big mound of polenta onto a board, and everyone would sit around sharing it. It would be flavored with broth, a little sauce, vegetables or sausages. Polenta is still a staple in many homes in northern Italy today, particularly in the regions of Veneto, Piedmont, and Tuscany, although generally considered "home cooking" and not served for company.

Polenta has had a reputation for lengthy and extremely laborious cooking that originates in its Italian roots. Throughout history polenta was cooked over a wood fire in a central hearth or on a wood stove in a traditional curved bottom copper pot with a long handle called a paiolo. Copper was preferred as it conducts heat evenly, and the curved bottom of the pot exposed a greater portion of the cornmeal to the heat which insured there was no corners for the polenta to get stuck in and allowed for even cooking. The long handle of the pot kept the cook a comfortable distance from both the fire as well as the sputtering cornmeal. Constant stirring with a long-handled paddle, stick, or spoon was necessary to keep the polenta from burning. Today, there are very few of us that still cook over a wood fire, and our heavy bottomed cookware and modern stoves that have burners we can maintain at a constant low heat, allow us to let the polenta simmer away on its own with just occasional stirring to prevent lumps.

Polenta can be creamy, served soft with a scoop of sauce, or firm served as a side dish to grilled or roasted meats, or stirred into soups and stews to thicken and add flavor. Whatever way you choose to eat polenta, the basic principles of preparation remain the same. Although you now can buy instant polenta that can be prepared in under 5 minutes, or even precooked polenta ready to be sliced and fried or grilled, I find the effort it takes to prepare polenta the old fashioned way to be the best.

Basic Polenta Recipe
6 Cups Cold Water
1 Tablespoon Salt
1 Cup Cornmeal
3 Tablespoons Butter
2 Ounces Grated Parmesan Cheese

Bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the salt and reduce the heat to medium low. As soon as the water begins to simmer, start pouring in the cornmeal in a thin stream, very slowly while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent lumps. Once all the cornmeal has been added, keep the water at a simmer, and stir frequently. It should take between 25-30 minutes to fully cook the polenta. Once cooked, the polenta should pull away from the sides of the pot easily. Just before it has completely cooked, stir in the butter and the cheese.

Valentine's Day today has become a very large, commercial affair, but it remains a time for us to tell those we love how important they are to us. Every year, as February 14th approaches, candy, flowers, gifts, and cards are exchanged between loved ones, but where did this holiday actually originate?

Quite obviously, one would first assume that there was in fact a man named St. Valentine, who somehow was responsible for creating this day of romance. In fact, it is said that the Roman Catholic church recognizes at least three saints named Valentine, or Valentinus, all who were martyred.

As we continue my comments on Italian Style - a friend of mine sent me an e-mail with a few of her opinions - and trust these are only opinions, Style is of course what you make it.

Note that Italian women do not wear flip-flops while parading the streets like a model. Flip-flops, in the picturesque and magnificent Italia, are viewed as only footwear for only the beach, a nail shop for getting your toenails done and for the health spa. So, only wear them to spas, beaches and nail shops.

Do not wear gym sneakers. They are considered to be a fashion passe in the world of France fashion and etiquette. No Italian woman nor man would ever wear this kind of shoe, under any circumstances. The women wear brands like Converse or Diesel which are more of a pluralistic street sneaker with different colors, designs, and fabrics.

Avoid the short, short clothes. Miniskirts, micro-miniskirts, short shorts are a no-no. Italian women do not wear that as in old times and of today, that shows distaste and symbols prostitution. You can still wear shorts, but only to the beach and spa.

Do not put the hair up. Italian women do not wear their hair in a ponytail. It is viewed as a fashion faux pas because rarely an Italian women has her hair up. And women, according to Italian men and tourists, are more wolf-whistled and cat-called when their hair is down and about.

Maybe it is because it is cold here in Miami and I have torn through my entire closet in the past few days to prepare and manage the cooler temperatures, none the less, I am going to share some of my favorite Italian Dressing styles with you this week. All of my closet clothes hunting tactics of the past few weeks has inspired me!

In a country where police uniforms are designed by Armani, it isn't surprising that the women take dressing very seriously. If you are planning a trip to Italy soon, and don't want to be pegged as a tourist, there is one important thing to remember. The objective of Italian dressing is NOT to blend in. Italian women take great pride in putting themselves together - "la bella figura". To show off your best features is the idea, so to blend in you must strive to stand out. So, where do you begin to acquire that special Italian flavor? In short, this week I will share a few of the key ingredients. We begin with Step One: Shoes! And I just love shoes!

Shoes: Nothing makes or breaks a look like footwear. Leave the tennis shoes for tennis and the walking shoes for the gym and park. Spice comes from style not comfort. The hottest designs incorporate pointed toes and high heels in the same shoe for maximum style and some discomfort.

More tips and tricks over the next few days! Stay tuned! - Rita

Italian is a Romance language, which means that Italian, just like Spanish, French, and Portuguese, is a child of Latin. Latin was once the official language in a large part of Europe because the Romans ruled so much of the area. Before the Romans came, people spoke their own languages, and the mixture of these original tongues with Latin produced many of the languages and dialects that are still in use today.

If you know one of the Romance languages, you can often understand bits of another. Just as members of the same family can look similar but have totally different characters. You find the same contradictions in the dialects (regional or local language differences) in Italy and in other countries.

If you visit Italy, you’ll hear various accents and dialects as you travel the country. Despite the number of dialects, you may be surprised to discover that everybody understands your Italian and you understand theirs. (Italians don’t normally speak in their dialect with foreigners.

What with all this interest in tall buildings and the world’s highest skyscrapers, I thought it would be interesting to discover how Italy measures up on the tall buildings front. It turns out that Italy has quite a way to go to compete with the Dubai Tower. Quite a long way, actually. If you’d like to find out what the tallest building in Italy is, and where it can be found, then read on, curious reader.

Technically, the tallest building in Italy today can be found in Naples - and it is the Torre Telecom Italia which is 129 meters (423 feet) in height. This 33 floor structure, however, is about to be beaten by a building in Milan, which is already being listed as Italy’s tallest building on Wikipedia. The successor to the Italy’s Tallest Building title will be 161 meters (528 feet) high with 39 floors, and it will house Lombardy regional authority personnel . However, at a measly 161 metres, it’s not much of a threat to the record breaking 818 meters of the Dubai Tower.

Other tall buildings are on Italy’s horizon though, twenty seven of them, including one which will snatch the Italy’s tallest building title from the Lombardy council skyscraper – I Dritto – the Straight (or maybe ‘upstanding’ would be a better translation).

As I ponder what to write about today, I can not help but think about the change and renew a brand new year brings. It is a chance to start fresh, reset our mindset and push for better things. Personally I have been doing a lot of goal setting, some for business and a lot for family. 2009 was a tough year for many, and most certainly my business. We made a lot of progress and faced some serious challenges - all amidst a changing economy and a changing America. Since I am from Italy, and now live in the USA I have noticed a great deal of change. I think above all, we now live in a Global economy and a world where cultures will continue to collide, develop, share and eventually thrive together. I wish everyone a great new year, and I wish us all peace harmony and growth, both in our professional lives, home life as a people.

What are you goals for 2009?

Guests of private or public parties are sometimes entertained with a game called "Tombola", similar to Bingo. The New Year is also celebrated with spumante or prosecco, Italian sparkling wine. New Years parties, whether public or private, will often last until sunrise in order to watch the first sunrise of the newborn year. An old custom that is still followed in some places, especially in the south, is throwing your old things out the window to symbolize your readiness to accept the New Year. So, keep an eye out for falling objects if you're walking around near midnight!

Oh, one more thing, don't forget to wear your red underwear to ring in the new year! They say it'll bring you luck in the coming year.

Cookies have always played an important part in Italian cuisine, whether they are consumed for breakfast with a cappuccino, or nibbled with a quick shot of espresso at a mid-morning or afternoon break. It is at holiday time however, particularly Christmas, when cookies truly shine. In almost any Italian home, whether it be in Italy, or here in North America, most families prepare specific traditional cookies each Christmas, and often those recipes have been handed down through their families for generations.

In Italy, the generic term biscotti, pretty well covers all types of cookies, although biscotti literally translates as twice baked. Here in the US, we know biscotti to be the hard, crescent shaped cookies that have become so popular recently. It is not unusual in Italy, to find the same cookie in many different regions, given a different name in each. Many cookies are given names from folklore, or fairy tales, such as brutti ma buoni, which means ugly but good, or baci di dama, or lady's kisses. Most Italian cookies are either made from nut paste or are butter based, and are in general not overly sweet. Visit any Italian household throughout the holidays, and you can almost be assured of being offered a tasty treat from the cookie tray.

If you are interested in preparing your own Italian cookie tray this year, you might be interested in the following tips for baking cookies, as well as my favorite Christmas cookie recipes that follow.

Cookie Baking Tips:

• Always preheat the oven for even baking.
• Place cookies on cold baking sheets.
• Place the baking sheets at least two inches from the wall of the oven for even baking.
• If baking two trays at one time, switch the top and bottom tray mid way through the baking period.
• Don't depend on the suggested baking time. There are many factors that can affect how long your cookies will bake. Check your cookies a couple of minutes before the recommended time.
• Once cookies are fully baked, remove them from the hot baking sheets to wire racks to cool, because the cookies will continue to cook on the hot trays.
• Do not store cookies until they have thoroughly cooled. Store in an air-tight container.

I am often amazed at technology - it actually inspires me. If you would have asked me 10 years ago if I would have an online business I would have said - "what"? Today, technology and the Internet makes it possible for me to share my favorite things with other people. It is much like a dream come true. I don't use computers to do my design work, but I do use computers to share my work with the world. Today while trying to decide what to blog about, I began looking through pictures from my travels around home (Italy) - and I suppose I am a little bit homesick at the moment also. I use google for a lot of things, my e-mail, my blog and the list goes on here, but my point is that I came across the Picasa picture program and I downloaded it - it took all the pictures from my files and organized them, (WOW!), and it also has a lot of very neat tools as well. It took a while for the program to scan all my files, but once it was complete I ended up playing around with the program for a while. I was able to create a collage of pictures from Rome and I even scanned some new designs I have been working on - just rough drafts but it put them into a new perspective which helped me feel more creative. Anyway, check it out if you get a chance - it is free and has some great features. In fact, I came up with a great idea for a Christmas gift for a good friend. After all a picture is worth a thousand words! Click here to get to the program!