Still looking for gifts for the Italophiles in your life? Wondering what to get the Roman foodie in your life? We’ve got a few suggestions that might tickle their tastebuds:
1) If the foodie in your life has a green thumb or is on a budget, stuff their stocking with arugula seeds. They’ll be savoring one of the quintessential tastes of Rome for months and won’t have to buy that expensive supermarket arugula!
2) If, however, your foodie is a movie buff with a sense of humor, you’d better go for the Godfather Spaghetti Measuring Device. It’s hard to imagine a pasta lover who wouldn’t want want of these! Designed by David-Louis and shaped like a knuckleduster, the Godfather S.M.D. has holes to measure child-sized portions, adult portions and dinner party portions of spaghetti.
3) If you and your foodie love the Italian custom of stopping in a bar for a quick panino and wish you could replicate the experience at home, then Tiffany Collins’ 200 Best Panini Recipes is the cookbook for you. And if you’re feeling like a big spender, you might want to throw in #9 as well–the panino grill.
4) Does your foodie disdain that pre-grated Parmesean Cheese that comes in a green can? (Who could blame them?) Then nothing will win them over like iGourmet’s three Parm collection. They’ll smile and say cheese as they nibble on three varieties of parmiginao, noting how both age and the uniqueness of individual farms alter the cheese flavor.
5) It’s the ultimate Italian junkfood and we’ve discovered that even people who purport to hate the stuff secretly dip their fingers in the jar when they think that no one’s looking. So, if your Italian foodie is in need of a chocolate-hazelnut fix (or you want to test their willpower) order up a 5 pack of 13oz jars of Nutella. If you have Amazon prime, the shipping’s free. Woohoo!
6) Your foodie’s a reader too? Then they’re probably dying to get their hands on Marcella Hazan’s new memoir, Amarcord: Marcella Remembers. Hazan wrote and published The Classic Italian Cookbook in 1973 and her memoir is a terrific history of the expansive, postwar period when Americans were still learning the difference between linguine and Lambrusco, and an engaging chronicle of professional perseverance, chance and culinary destiny.
7) Looking for something really unique? Nudo, an olive grove in Italy’s Le Marche region, allows you the unique opportunity to adopt an olive tree for a year and thereby to enjoy the fruits of the Italian harvest while supporting small scale farming. By means of the Nudo website, would-be adopters pay a virtual visit to each of the 7 olive groves on the estate, deciding which one suits their fancy, and then paying to support the needs of a tree for a year. And, when you adopt a tree in the name of someone you love (that could include yourself) you’ll enjoy the fruits of the harvest as Nudo will send you olive oil and other olive-related products.
8) Your favorite foodie can’t decide whether to dine in Rome, Venice, Florence or Milan? We had the same dilemma until we discovered these Italian Dinner Map Placemats. Now you can eat in (or at least on) all four cities. Comes as a book of fifty (50) paper placemats or as we like to call them placemaps. Now you can explore Italy without having to leave your dining table
9) Already picked up the Panino cookbook shown in #2. Go ahead and spring for the DeLonghi Retro Panini Grill. Then tell your beloved foodie to stufff two slices of of rustic Italian bread with mozzarella, prosciutto, fresh basil, roasted red peppers, and whatever else takes their fancy, brush with olive oil, then press between the hot plates of this grill for the best panini outside Italy!
10) A little music to go with the holiday prosecco? Pick up a copy of Prosecco Party, a two-disc compilation, if you want to seem ultra mod.
11) You’ll be on their good side forever if you arrive at the Christmas party with a whole prosciutto under your arm. Volpi prosciutto is the product of a long, unhurried drying process lasting a minimum of 210 days. Each ham is carefully inspected and hand-trimmed by a master Salumiere. It is then carefully rubbed and salted to ensure an air-dried, even cure. The result is a soft, sweet flavor.
12) You and your foodie are planning a little trip to Rome? And you’d like to learn a bit about wine while you’re here. Sign up for a guided wine tasting with superstar sommelier Hande Leimer. Read an interview with Hande here or visit her website.
