Gold Ridge Apple Cider Balsamic is so wonderful, you will even want to drink it — in a shrub or cocktail.
Sebastopol’s Gold Ridge Organic Farms grows impeccable apples — more than 75 varieties, with many of them heirloom ones — available at its farm shop and area markets such as Whole Foods.
So, it’s no surprise that any products made from such primo apples are also stellar.
Recently, I had a chance to sample two new releases: Apple Cider Balsamic and Apple Cider Vinegar.
One taste of the Gold Ridge Apple Cider Balsamic will instantly make you go “Wow!”
Extra-virgin olive oil from trees growing on the estate made famous in the best-selling “Under the Tuscan Sun.”
If you fell under the romantic spell of the memoir, “Under the Tuscan Sun” you’re sure to appreciate a chance to enjoy your very own taste of sorts of that escape-to-Italy life that author Frances Mayes wrote so lovingly about.
The book chronicled Mayes’ fraught escapades in restoring a Tuscan countryside home known as Bramasole that had been abandoned for 30 years.
In addition to renovating the house to new glory, she and her husband Edward Mayes also brought back to health the property’s olive trees.
Each October, the olives from these centuries’ old trees are pressed for olio nuovo, new oil with the freshest taste that’s meant to be used immediately.
Cherry spumoni — a celebration of almonds, chocolate, and glace cherries.
It’s been ages since I last dined at an old-school Italian restaurant, the kind that sets down a brimming relish platter almost before you’ve ordered, and ends the meal sweetly with a frosty goblet of spumoni.
Thought to have originated in Naples, this fanciful creamy dessert can’t help but feel festively nostalgic with its cherry, pistachio, and chocolate or vanilla ice creams all mingling together in one scoop, often with crunchy nuts, bits of dark chocolate, and chewy candied fruit. Talk about an entire party busting out in one spoonful.
So, when I received some samples recently of red candied cherries, otherwise known as glace cherries, from Paradise Fruit Co., I couldn’t help but grow wistful for that classic treat, especially as the holidays approach.
Paradise Fruit Co. candied red cherries.
Rather than going to all the trouble of making three different flavors of ice cream, I zeroed in on this New York Times recipe for “Cherry Spumoni.”
A winning combination of ingredients make up this incredibly simple sandwich.
This inspired sandwich recipe may come from the cookbook, “Noon.”
But it’s so dead-simple and utterly delicious that you might just want to eat it morning, noon, and night.
“Ciabatta with Balsamic Blackberries, Coppa di Parma, and Mustard” is from that cookbook (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy.
It’s from the talented, James Beard Award-winning cookbook writer, Meike Peters, who lives in Berlin.
She has a natural knack for combining a few ingredients in novel ways to come up with dishes you can’t help but crave.
This book is all about relishing and re-imagining the noon-day meal. As Peters so rightly notes in her book, “Lunchtime can easily be as exciting as dinner; we just need to keep pour recipe choices realistic.”
Summer plums and homemade pistachio frangipane are front and center in this delightful galette.
There’s no question that this dessert is absolutely, positively plum good.
After all, it’s loaded with summer’s juicy, sweet plums.
And they rest on a layer of homemade, creamy, rich pistachio frangipane.
“Plum Pistachio Galette” is from “Sheet Pan Sweets” (Union Square & Co., 2022), of which I received a review copy.
It’s by Seattle’s Molly Gilbert, a cooking instructor and former recipe tester for Saveur magazine, who has become an authority on sheet-pan recipes, with this her third book on the topic.
