Offerings for Valentine’s Day
Happy new year! 2022 has arrived, we’ve toasted to new beginnings, and we’re here to keep the celebratory mood going as much as possible. Here’s to a year filled with good food, health, peace, and love. Speaking of love, whether you go all out for Valentine’s Day or shun the holiday and just enjoy good eating, our selection of treats both sweet and savory will have you feeling the love in no time. Let us provide you a delicious bite of something that will carry you from the doldrums of winter and into the light. Here are our suggestions:
Biscotti di Nocciola + Miticrema + Strawberry Balsamic Compote Casa Forcello®
To craft a perfect bite that’s at once crunchy, luscious, and absolutely delicious, pair these three ingredients together. Our new Biscotti di Nocciola stands as the crunchy base with a flavor that captures the true essence of hazelnut. Add a smear of Miticrema® sheep’s milk cheese for some richness, and finish it off with a touch of Strawberry Balsamic Compote Casa Forcello® to give it a hint of acidity. This formula would work equally well by substituting 1889 Butter Cookies, Sbrisolona, or Amarena Cherry Compote. We’re in love.
Cacao Sampaka Chocolate Bars
Chocolate enthusiasts will find lots to love with our bars from Cacao Sampaka, an artisanal chocolate maker based in Catalunya, Spain. Their chocolate bars are a work of art inside and out. You will not believe how a light sprinkling of Ibiza Flor de Sal will transform dark chocolate until you’ve tried it. We offer Ibiza Flor de Sal Dark Chocolate, Pistachio Dark Chocolate, Pumpkin Seed Dark Chocolate, 70% Dark Chocolate, and Arabica Coffee Dark Chocolate, along with a variety of special preorders.
Panforte Mitica®
We’re here to proclaim that you don’t have to eat panforte solely around the holidays. In fact, with their gorgeous packaging, our two styles of panforte make absolutely lovely Valentine’s Day gifts. If they love chocolate, go for the Panforte al Cioccolato, a chocolate glazed beauty filled with dried cherries, citrus, almonds, and hazelnuts. The Panforte Margherita is fit for a queen like its namesake, Queen Margherita of Savoy, to whom it was presented as a gift during her visit to Siena in 1879. With citrus, almonds and extravagant flavor from spices and honey, these are unique, all natural, edible gifts that won’t soon be forgotten.
Ubriaco Pinot Rosé
This cheese has become a Valentine’s Day classic, due to its time spent soaking in sparkling rosé wine and the gorgeous dried rose petals topping the rind. It’s one of Sergio Moro’s Ubriaco cheeses that are soaked in various wines and beer from the Veneto, Italy. Fruity, semi-firm, and lightly crumbly, it retains the flavors of the wine without that sharp winey bite that some alcohol-soaked cheeses pick up. Nothing says “I adore you” like a big wedge of beautiful cheese.
A trio of treats: Piedras Rojas, Moka Pecans, and Quicos de Chocolate® minitubs
A trio of treats: Piedras Rojas
Our newest minitubs, packaged in the perfect snackable size, are all on the sweet side. Piedras Rojas are a twist on our Piedras de Luna® (chocolate-dipped, cocoa-dusted, salted cashews) with a dusting of cinnamon. Moka Pecans prove that the combination of caramelized pecan, chocolate, and coffee is what we’ve been waiting for our whole lives. Quicos de Chocolate® are chocolate-covered and cocoa-dusted Quicos®, our popular fried giant corn kernels. Fans of salty and sweet snacks like chocolate-covered potato chips or kettle corn will be enraptured.
Robiola di Bosco + Truffle Honey Mitica®
Robiola di Bosco, a rich and meaty washed cow’s milk cheese, is the perfect size for sharing, coming in at 1 pound. Make sure you leave it out at room temperature for at least an hour so it gets particularly oozy and creamy inside. Then break open a jar of Truffle Honey Mitica®, with shavings of black truffle drowned in golden Acacia honey, and drizzle it over the cheese. Dinner doesn’t get more luxurious than this.
Dinner Plans: Calasparra Rice Mitica® + Casa Pareja Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
If you want to put in a bit more effort, stay in and make a meal together. Paella is a great choice and can be adapted for seafood lovers, meat eaters, and vegetarians. The rice is the most important part of the dish, so use the gold standard: Calasparra, harvested in Murcia, has a round, hard grain that dries out considerably during its growth. This allows it to absorb more liquid (read: flavor) during cooking without losing its structure. The risk of overcooking is very low, so you can manage this! Don’t forget an exquisite Spanish olive oil – Casa Pareja, which is organic, biodynamic and like the rice, also comes from Murcia. Here’s a seafood paella recipe to get you started.
There are at least 10 churches in Europe that claim to have the skeletal remains of St. Valentine, including Rome’s Basilica di Santa Marina in Cosmedin, which houses his skull, Madrid’s Iglesia de San Antón, which also has a skull and various other bones, and the Basilica of Saints Paul and Peter in Prague, which claims a shoulder blade. However, because there was more than one saint with the name of Valentine, and their stories of martyrdom have become entwined over time, it is unclear which is actually the patron of lovers and where parts of his body now lay to rest. Still, if you visited the churches related to any or all of the St. Valentines, it would make a pretty interesting tour across Europe, to say the least.
