Blurry pics taken on Bloggerphone.

So, like what’s the big deal, it’s just Coke….right? Yes and no.

Personally, I don’t enjoy good ole’ USofA Coke. It’s far too sweet, cloying and heavy for me. However, Mexican Coca-Cola, much like Italian Coca-Cola, is less sweet and is more enjoyable….and is a better match for a good pizza pie.

Mexican Coca-Cola is available at Costco in Glen Burnie (map). Has anyone seen it at other Costco locations?

Update: Costco in Glen Burnie no longer stocks San Pellegrino Limonata and Aranciata, but last time I was in Coscto in White Marsh (map) they still carried it.

A Winning Combination

The Creative Alliance has paired Joe Edwardsen, the man behind the pies at Joe Squared, with Basignani Vineyards for what should be an awesome day.

My parents are coming over tomorrow for the first real tasting of my Sicilian style and Papa Blogger just called me. The first words I heard through the phone were, “I’m holding six bottles of Gragnano in my hand”.

What?! Where did you get it?!

A frothy, smoky, tasty glass of Gragnano

“The Italian Store in Arlington, Virginia. It’s Grotto del Sole Gragnano imported by Michael R Downey Selections Inc. in Lorton, Virginia”. 

And speaking of spot on, according to the proprietor at the Italian Store, the Grotto del Sole Gragnano is the house wine at 2Amys in Washington, DC. Talk about matching the right pizza wine with their pizzas! If you live in DC, make sure to order the house wine next time you are in 2Amys and try it with a pizze Margherita for the perfect pairing.

And here I am going to New York City to obtain Gragnano. However, the Gragnano being sold in New York City is most often produced by Cantine Federiciane Monteleone, which is the first Gragnano I was introduced to during a pizza tasting at Paulie Gee’s house. So it will be interesting to be able to compare the two Gragnano.

Now, if only we can get some pizzerias and wine shops to stock some Gragnano here in Baltimore (I’m on it), we’ll be in pizza heaven! I can see some trips to Arlington in the near future. Pictures of the Gragnano and my latest Sicilian after the tasting tomorrow……

Picture taken from the web from Susannah Gold’s food blog Avvinare

Big Price Drop

I was at the Glen Burnie location of Costco yesterday and needed another mixed case of San Pellegrino Limonata and Aranciata and was happy to see a sizeable price drop in the cost of the mixed case (12 limonata and 12 aranciata). The case price is usually $13.99, but a temporary manufacturers instant rebate of $3.00 lowered the price to $10.99 at the counter, or about $0.46 per can.

The manufacturers instant rebate of $3.00 is set to end on 9/9/09, so make sure to stock up on these pizza friendly and all around awesome beverages soon!

13.5% will feature 30 wines by the glass, over 200 bottle selections and a beer selection including eight on tap, dozens of bottled beers and seasonal offerings as well. The website looks very nice, so check it out!

The pizzablogger cannot make it tonight, so comment here and let us all know how it is. Get yourself to Hampden tonight for the opening!

Well boys and girls, after tinkering with some experimental test batches of home made limoncello, as mentioned in my post here, I have dialed in my recipe and am very pleased with the results. I brought my latest batch to opening night of the Little Italy Open Air Film Festival and it was received very well by the people sitting around me and by the keyboard player delivering the pre-movie music to the crowd. He dubbed me “Mr. Limoncello” in his noticeable Italian accent and mentioned it was “very good” when I bumped into him after the movie. So, with that endorsement, here is the Pizzablogger’s home made limoncello recipe (note: I use a digital scale in order to help ensure accuracy, but I have included more standard measures as well. Standard measures are level, not heaping, measurements):

one 750 ml Bottle of Everclear grain alcohol
10 Organic Lemons
827 grams (about 3 3/4 cups + another 1/16 cup) organic cane sugar
750 grams (750ml or 3/4 of a Litre) spring water

Pizzablogger's Home Made Limoncello, "Ghetto Bucket Basil" and spiral shells from Costa Rica.

Step One: Prepare the Infusion
Give the lemons a quick rinse to get any dirt off of them and then carefully peel/zest the rinds off of 10 organic lemons. I heartily recommend using organic lemons, as the rinds are where the most pesticide residue would be, and you don’t want that in your limoncello! When zesting, be careful to get as little of the white pithe as possible. I prefer to use a small, serrated pairing knife and while it is difficult not to have some pithe, I am able to peel the rinds with a minimal amount of pithe attached.

Add the peeled/zested lemon rinds to the grain alcohol in a sealable jar (a wide mouthed one quart canning jar just holds everything), put in a cool, dark location and allow the lemon rinds and alcohol to infuse for two and a half weeks.

Step Two: Simple Syrup and Finishing
After the two and a half week infusion, you’re ready to complete the process. Pour the spring water into a pot, put it onto the stove and add heat. Add in the sugar as the water is heating and stir often until completely dissolved in the water. The water should be clear once the sugar is adequately dissolved. You do not need to bring the water to a boil in order to dissolve the sugar and I don’t recommend boiling.

A jar of my limoncello at the 2009 Pieman's Craft event in NYC. Pic by Adam Kuban of Slice. Click on the pic to view Adam's slideshow of the Pieman's Craft 2009.

Once the sugar has been completely dissolved, turn off the heat and let cool for about 5 or 10 minutes. To expedite the cooling, it helps to make the simple syrup in a pot that is smaller in diameter than another pot/vessel in your kitchen. Once the sugar has been completely dissolved, take the pot off of the stove and place it into the larger pot/vessel. Fill the larger vessel with a lot of ice and water. Then stir the simple syrup. As you continue to stir, some of the heat from the simple syrup mixture will be transferred through the wall of the pot and into the cooler ice bath surrounding it. *Keep in mind this will cause the ice in the larger pot to melt. If you initially fill the larger pot with too much ice and water, it will overflow. The recent blizzard in Maryland helped out. I just took the simple syrup off the stove, put the pot in the snow so it came up the side of the pot (making sure no snow got in the pot) and stirred the mixture to help cool it down a bit. A video of my process is coming soon.

Pour the alcohol/lemon infusion through a strainer/screen into the simple syrup so you do not have any of the lemon peel in the finished drink.

Stir the strained infusion into the simple syrup and mix thoroughly. Pour the completed mixture into sealable jars or bottles and put them in the freezer. I prefer quart canning jars for the home made look of them, but grommeted, ceramic swing top Grolsch type beer bottles will work as well. Get creative and use whatever type of sealable bottle you want to personalize your own limoncello!

Chill the limoncello in the freezer until very cold. The jars and the limoncello will get cloudy.

Step Three: Salute!
Limoncello is an excellent aperitif or digestif. Pour the chilled limoncello straight out of the freezer into small shot sized glasses and drink. The farther south you go in Italy, the more likely you are to have limoncello offered after dinner as a celebratory shot, or multiple shots. Enjoy!

This recipe will yield about two and a third one-quart canning jars of limoncello, or a little more than two 750ml wine bottle sized containers of limoncello for a little less than the cost of one bottle in a store, and it tastes just as good. Not a bad deal at all! The lemon tartness is the key player in this recipe, balanced deftly by the slight, clean sting of alcohol in the aftertaste….a very adult limoncello. This may slightly push towards being too acute, but there is just enought sugar to keep everything in check without being too sweet, which is just what I was looking for in my experiments. The lemon tartness of this limoncello is allowed to express its fullness of summer flavors and is an excellent smelling and tasting treat. Cheers!

Next up is my ongoing “Limoncellojito” experiments with adding a fresh mint note to the finished product. More later, but for now try making limoncello at home and serving it at your next get togeter with fiends and family.