PREGO!
My folks just returned from Italy where they were visiting my sister who is an artist based in Rome. During their travels and between Slow Food Meals (which are apparently the rage) they looked for Italian culinary tools. At one point when my mother second-guessed getting a "Nudeltester," because it wasn't Italian the saleswoman store said, "Why not, we use it!"
They returned bearing the culinary gifts below of which I am the grateful recipient. I haven't had the opportunity to test them all out yet but I've noted them below. A few of them are pretty curious items. On several of them I think I get a pass on Alton Brown's rule of kitchen tools that one-function items are not allowed, considereing they were gifts.
Does your wall look like a Jackson Pollock painting of spaghetti strands? Trouble with pasta strands slipping off your fork or flipping off your wooden stirrring spoon? Well, no more burned fingers, no tossing piping hot pasta from palm to palm before testing-- from a company called Kuchenprofi, here's the Nudeltester "AL PUNTO", a pasta tester! Dip the long metal strand into a boiling pot of water and catch a strand of pasta in the slot at the tip or poke hard-to-reach bowtie pastas which refuse to cook.
Paderno's mystery tool. I'm not sure exactly what this is for. Perhaps this tool could be used to spike an apple or a potato while you peel it but I'm not sure that wouldn't be more trouble than it's worth.
Yet unused, but perhaps my new favorite toy, Deos Marcato's " Macchina Per Biscotti", comes with 20 aluminum discs for different shaped biscuits. The accompanying pamphlet includes a recipe for biscuit dough:
500g flour, 250g sugar, 250g butter, pinch of salt, 2-3 oz. milk, 2 teaspoons cocoa, 3 egg yolks
I'm not sure what Affettatartufi means but Sanelli Ambrogio's "Rape a truffles," will take care of all truffle slicing needs. It's not surprising that an ingredient as storied and expensive as the truffle has spawned it's own wide array of tools but I'm going to have to do some scrimping and research on truffles before I use this for anything but white cap mushrooms. Aside from slicing truffles at different widths, the slicer can also be used to slice parmesan, mushrooms, and vegetables.
The most mysterious tool was "Il Sapone D'Acciaio," the steel soap. It appears that the tool is meant to help remove the smell of fish from your hands. It was after school at home after the first few weeks of culinary school when I wasresting my head in my hands while lying on the floor watching television that I really understood I'd truly begun my transition into the food world-- I got a good whiff of garlic from hands that I'd washed several times already. The sites I read explained that all one has to do is to rub the steel soap under cold water for a few seconds to eliminate any smelly oils from the fish. Can it really be that I can use this teardrop-shaped piece of metal to remove the smell of fish from my hands? Tune in for my next cooking fish at home episode to find out!
These tools inspired me to see what else is available from the companies who created these items. I'm intrigued by Paderno's honey-dripper, their strawberry-huller, and their mushroom brush as well as Kuchenprofi's, Kochlöffelständer, Einhand-Wiegemesser, einschneidig, Kompaktseife deluxe, and Knoblauchpresse.
While I was amused by Kuchenprofi's Tea-Boy (right) it was while looking for my "Macchina per biscotti," on Marcato's site that I came across my personal favorites: naked Egyptian women making early pizza, Marcato's Paean to healthy eating (“We don’t sit at the table to eat, we sit at the table to eat together”) and above all the advertisement for their pasta maker:
I mean really, who else can quote Plutrarch and then make limp noodles and Western fringe sexy?
They returned bearing the culinary gifts below of which I am the grateful recipient. I haven't had the opportunity to test them all out yet but I've noted them below. A few of them are pretty curious items. On several of them I think I get a pass on Alton Brown's rule of kitchen tools that one-function items are not allowed, considereing they were gifts.
Does your wall look like a Jackson Pollock painting of spaghetti strands? Trouble with pasta strands slipping off your fork or flipping off your wooden stirrring spoon? Well, no more burned fingers, no tossing piping hot pasta from palm to palm before testing-- from a company called Kuchenprofi, here's the Nudeltester "AL PUNTO", a pasta tester! Dip the long metal strand into a boiling pot of water and catch a strand of pasta in the slot at the tip or poke hard-to-reach bowtie pastas which refuse to cook.
Paderno's mystery tool. I'm not sure exactly what this is for. Perhaps this tool could be used to spike an apple or a potato while you peel it but I'm not sure that wouldn't be more trouble than it's worth.
Yet unused, but perhaps my new favorite toy, Deos Marcato's " Macchina Per Biscotti", comes with 20 aluminum discs for different shaped biscuits. The accompanying pamphlet includes a recipe for biscuit dough:500g flour, 250g sugar, 250g butter, pinch of salt, 2-3 oz. milk, 2 teaspoons cocoa, 3 egg yolks
I'm not sure what Affettatartufi means but Sanelli Ambrogio's "Rape a truffles," will take care of all truffle slicing needs. It's not surprising that an ingredient as storied and expensive as the truffle has spawned it's own wide array of tools but I'm going to have to do some scrimping and research on truffles before I use this for anything but white cap mushrooms. Aside from slicing truffles at different widths, the slicer can also be used to slice parmesan, mushrooms, and vegetables.
The most mysterious tool was "Il Sapone D'Acciaio," the steel soap. It appears that the tool is meant to help remove the smell of fish from your hands. It was after school at home after the first few weeks of culinary school when I wasresting my head in my hands while lying on the floor watching television that I really understood I'd truly begun my transition into the food world-- I got a good whiff of garlic from hands that I'd washed several times already. The sites I read explained that all one has to do is to rub the steel soap under cold water for a few seconds to eliminate any smelly oils from the fish. Can it really be that I can use this teardrop-shaped piece of metal to remove the smell of fish from my hands? Tune in for my next cooking fish at home episode to find out!
These tools inspired me to see what else is available from the companies who created these items. I'm intrigued by Paderno's honey-dripper, their strawberry-huller, and their mushroom brush as well as Kuchenprofi's, Kochlöffelständer, Einhand-Wiegemesser, einschneidig, Kompaktseife deluxe, and Knoblauchpresse.While I was amused by Kuchenprofi's Tea-Boy (right) it was while looking for my "Macchina per biscotti," on Marcato's site that I came across my personal favorites: naked Egyptian women making early pizza, Marcato's Paean to healthy eating (“We don’t sit at the table to eat, we sit at the table to eat together”) and above all the advertisement for their pasta maker:
I mean really, who else can quote Plutrarch and then make limp noodles and Western fringe sexy?
posted by Turo at 2:53 PM
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