As we continue
into February with our Italian Food, Wine & Travel group
(#ItalianFWT) we remain in southern Italy today exploring the
region of Calabria.
Calabria
is situated at the front tip of the boot closely situated to Sicily
right off the coast, connected via the Strait of Messina. Also,
surrounded by the seas of the Ionian and Tyrrhenian it faced many
invasions. Definitely not the top of the tourism list for many
traveling to Italy, one of it's most attractive features is it
coastline, beaches and seaside villages. Plus, with it's close
proximity to Sicily it makes it an easy jaunt to experience the
culture of another region. For the outdoorsy lover there are also
national parks in its mountainous center for exploring.
Copyright of Federdoc |
Food of Calabria
A lot of the food of southern Italy is known as peasant food, cucina
povera. It's considered simple food produced with plenty of
flavor. As you can imagine being surrounded by water there is never
a shortage of fresh seafood, especially sardines being a highlight.
Frseh fruit and vegetables are in abundance with eggplant, bergamot
organes, licorice and the red onions of Tropea being some of the
highlights. As with many regions within Italy they have their own
particular cheeses favorited that include caciocavallo, sciungata and
butirro. When we all think of olive oil as well we probably think of
Tuscany, but Calabria is a very popular region for olive oil with
production at least half of the overall production within Italy.
There is a also a focus on spice within the cusine so you'll find it
as well in many of the dishes.
Wines of Calabria
Greeks, like most
of southern Italy, were the first to grow vines in Calabria.
Devastated like the rest of Europe by the phylloxera disease in the
late 19th century Calabria has struggled to rebuild itself
as a wine growing region in comparison to others. Another region
with no DOCG classifications it does produce one of the oldest wines
in the world and most known from this region. Those wines are Ciro,
mostly made from the gaglioppo grapes. Gaglioppo is one of the
primary red grapes along with some greco nero and whites including
trebbiano and greco bianco.
Join us!
Our ItalianFWT
group will feature a variety of articles sharing with you some of our
experiences with the region of Calabria. Here is a preview of more
to come:
Vino
Travels - Reinvigorating the Almost Extinct, Native Grapes of Calabria
Culinary
Adventure with Camilla – Ciambotta, A Delicious Calabrese Mess
Rockin
Red Blog – Calabria: A Rustic Food and Wine Pairing
Cooking Chat - Italian Wine for an Easy Indian Feast
Confessions of a Culinary Diva - Exploring Gaglioppo & Aglianico
Enofylz Wine Blog - Calabrian Gaglioppo Paired with Lamb Chops Calabria Style
Food Wine Click - Swordfish and Ciro from the Land of Scylla and Charybdis
The Wining Hour - Calabria: Sun, Sea and Ciro Bianco
Join our online live chat on Twitter this Saturday at 11am EST at #ItalianFWT. We can't wait to hear from you all!
Confessions of a Culinary Diva - Exploring Gaglioppo & Aglianico
Enofylz Wine Blog - Calabrian Gaglioppo Paired with Lamb Chops Calabria Style
Food Wine Click - Swordfish and Ciro from the Land of Scylla and Charybdis
The Wining Hour - Calabria: Sun, Sea and Ciro Bianco
Join our online live chat on Twitter this Saturday at 11am EST at #ItalianFWT. We can't wait to hear from you all!
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