Video #22 - Manzo al modo del Macellaio / Beef as the Butcher likes it

Cooking with Alberto - Manzo al modo del Macellaio / Beef as the butcher likes it from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.

Video #21 - Cooking with Alberto again - Ribollita

I don't know how to explain to you how happy I am to be able to post these videos from Alberto's kitchen. I'm so proud of what an excellent cook he is and anyone taking this tour will testify to it.

This video is a little long (25 minutes) - I'm so sorry - I will try and make them shorter in the future.
In this video Alberto shows us how to make the best Ribollita soup ever. It's an old Tuscan dish, a hearty soup that you should absolutely try to make!
If you need a list of the ingredients, just let me know...


A Hearty Soup - Tuscan Ribollita from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.

Video #20 - A Mastertaster judges Tuscan wine and more...

The season has finally started. It's not necessarily the weather that gives us the indication. The first signs are always the big tour busses out on the highways and the school groups that invade the Italian art cities just around Easter.

We all wake up from our winter daze and start working again. It's a wonderful sensation but also very tiring the first couple of weeks - and of course spare time is limited. For this reason the frequency of new videos will be reduced during the summer - but I'll try and get a few out to you once in a while.

In the meanwhile, I would love for people to comment on the videos. And remember that you can download them on your Ipod by going into Itunes and typing in "Tuscany" as a search word on the top right - you'll find mine called "Rebecca in Tuscany" (there are two - one with just audio and one with the videos).

And now we come to today's video which is not very serious but very special to me as it stars my daughter Louise. Since she was born she has watched me wine taste and she's learned quite a bit. Her smelling and tasting curiosity has definitely develloped a lot. Enjoy!


Mastertaster Louise from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.

Video #19 - A cooking lesson in Tuscany "Crostini with Salsiccia" - 3

In this video Alberto shows us how to make his delicious Sausage Crostini.
These are the ingredients:
Rosemary
Garlic
Chili peppers
Olive Oil
Sausages
Wine
Tomato


Antipasto - Crostini with Salsiccia from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.

Video #18 - Another Tuscan cooking lesson with Alberto - "Tagliatelle con Capocollo" - 2

This is a fairly simple recipe - the ingredients should all be rather easy to find.
In this episode Alberto prepares the pasta sauce and Marzia takes us through the steps of making fresh pasta.
Name of the dish would be tagliatelle con capocollo and here in Italy it is considered a "primo piatto". This is seriously one of my favourite pasta dishes.


Pasta tagliatelle with capocollo from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.

Video #17 - Tuscan Cooking Lesson "Stufato di maiale" - 1

Time for a little break from all the wine videos I have put up recently. I convinced my good friends Alberto & Marzia to host some cooking lessons, so you can expect more delicious recepies up in the next few days.
This recipe is absolutely delicious - stufato di maiale - pork casserole - which is considered a secondo - so a second course. Enjoy!


Stufato di Maiale / Roman port stew from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.

Video #16 - My Umbrian Wine Tour

Whichever most beautiful place you live in, it's always refreshing to see another area. So I decided to head out to the neighbouring region of Umbria early Friday morning. My friend Brenda had planned the perfect day touring the wine region of SAGRANTINO DI MONTEFALCO choosing mostly small "garage" wineries.
I met Brenda and her lovely friend Doreen by the town that they live in, Spello. Brenda and Doreen are two expats that after having moved to Italy have found a love for wine just like myself. Their town Spello is a little gem close to the notorious town of Assisi and just North of the wine region that gives birth to the authoctone grape varietal, the Sagrantino.
When I arrived and teamed up with the girls, I felt like I couldn't have been in better hands for the perfect Umbrian wine tour!
These are the wineries that we went to:
- Ruggeri
- Antano
- Paolo Bea (will be available for purchase on http://www.tuscany-in-a-bottle.com/)
- Arnaldo Caprai


Umbrian wine tour - Sagrantino di Montefalco from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.
PS. If my video has made you more interested in Sagrantino wines, I recommend you watch Gary Vaynerchuck's tasting episode of 3 Sagrantinos. Here's the link: http://tv.winelibrary.com/2008/01/25/sagrantino-di-montefalco-and-heart-to-heart-episode-394/

Video #15 - Benvenuto Brunello 2008, video 4

This is the last video, alas!
And the question in this video requires a little explanation.
Basically, since I started attending the Benvenuto Brunello festival years ago I always wondered why some of the most "famous" wineries wouldn't attend the event. It slightly irritated me partly because I had hoped to try some wines that otherwise weren't easy to get a hold of and secondly because I thought that the whole idea behind producing a wine with a unique name, so in this case Brunello di Montalcino, and by being members of the Brunello Consorzio should imply taking part of the important initiatives that the latter has to promote the area and the name of the wine.
Apparently this is not the case. Very respectable wineries such as Soldera, Biondi-Santi, Salvioni, Cerbaiona, Salicutti, etc (and from this year Casanova dei Neri & Poggio di Sotto) are some of the wineries that were no where to find on the list of the Benvenuto Brunello wineries. Only 153 out of a total of over 204 (approx) showed up.

SO, my question to some of the wineries that actually were at the Benvenuto Brunello event (you might already have detected that some of the people I interviewed are part of the famous wineries - but who did turn up) was:
"What do you think about the wineries that have chosen not to participate in the Benvenuto Brunello wine event?"
I felt it was a sore question that nevertheless needed to be addressed.
So here are the answers to that:


Benvenuto Brunello Wine Festival February 2008, part 4 from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.

Video #14 - Benvenuto Brunello 2008, video 3

And so here's the fun question that I just had to ask the producers to see their reaction ;)
What do the Brunello wine producers think about Sangiovese grown in California?
Here's the answer!


Benvenuto Brunello wine festival February 2008, part 3 from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.

Video #13 - Benvenuto Brunello 2008, video 2

My second question to the wine producers has to do with the star-system used in Italy (1 star being pretty bad and 5 stars being extraordinary). It seems to me that especially for Montalcino the stars have a huge say on how the market goes for a specific vintage. The 2002 vintage was rated only to stars, but there were wineries who could produce Brunello and wineries that couldn't. And then again there were the ones who decided not to produce Brunello because a lowly rated year would be hard to sell.
The most recent harvest - the '07 has just been rated - 4 yrs before the '07 vintage will actually come on the market. It was rated 5 stars which is the max.
So, my question to the winery owners was:
Do you think that the stars given to the different vintages are fair?


Benvenuto Brunello festival in Montalcino 2008, part II from Rebecca Christophersen on Vimeo.