Farm experiences

Pasta with buffalo speck is served with Brunello

Hand made speck by Gaetano Mastrantoni with little tomatoes from Corbara and a pasta dish for those who need a gluten free diet, all becomes a dish for a king, and then of course there is the Brunello [caption id="attachment_6999" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Speck-buffalo-Corbarì-gluten-free pasta"][/caption] The Gaetano Mastrantoni butchery in Triverno Latina specializes in buffalo meat: speck, coppiette, bresaola, carpaccio, cold cuts. Al is very hand made and nursed with care. The pomodorini di Corbara are the best in the world. They come from the Lattari mounts near the Napoli gulf and the only water they get is from the morning dew, so they...

Samantha Cristoforetti the Prima Donna – First Lady of Brunello and of the stars

Samantha Cristoforetti will be the first Italian woman to go into space , she was the First Prize winner of  Premio Casato Prime Donne in 2010 in the land of Brunello.

 

When you see her up close she is a beautiful, intelligent, lively and cheerful woman …. we are talking about Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman to go into space. The mission is scheduled for November 2014 and aboard the Soyuz she will carry out several experiments in scientific, medical and pharmaceutical fields. She stayed at the Fattoria del Colle for a week together with a French colleague who coordinates the European ESA astronauts.

Italian recipe: pasta carbonara with zucchini and buffalo speck

This is a summer pasta carbonara, quick and so tasty that you can do without the cheese. Apt for celiac and for those who are intolerant to milk like Donatella Cinelli Colombini [caption id="attachment_6965" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Carbonara-with-zucchini-buffalo speck"][/caption] The occasion for inventing something new comes with the arrival of buffalo speck from the Gaetano Mastrantoni butchery in Latina. This is a laboratory with excellent buffalo meats: coppiette, bresaola, carpaccio and cold cuts. All top quality. Especially the speck, which is wonderful and gives us the idea of reinventing a famous recipe such as Carbonara adapting it to the summer months and to...

The Green land of Siena and tourism become environmentalists

A tower with battlements containing verbena flowers will be the symbol of "good" tourism in Siena [caption id="attachment_6938" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="SanQuiricoD'Orcia-Bucci-Berni-Agnorelli-Rappuoli"][/caption] Carbon-free Siena is a sustainable development project - awarded to Seul by the UN - which aims to maintain a balance of the human CO2 emissions with the carbon dioxide absorbed by plants. Its title the ‘Green lands of Siena’ suggests the involvement of tourism and agriculture in this great project. It will be difficult but not impossible. To reach this goal the 3 county commissioners involved (Berni, Scarpelli and Betti) have organized a number of meetings to involve citizens and...

The “pastorella senese” cake is waiting for you at Fattoria del Colle

The patisseur at Fattoria del Colle, Patrizia Cenni, has created a delicious new cake and is waiting for you to come and taste it [caption id="attachment_6948" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Fattoria Del Colle-Osteria-Patrizia Cenni"][/caption] On a shortbread disk one spreads a mixture made of custard and ricotta together with some grated orange rind. On top Patrizia crumbles some ricciarelli that she has just made. The visual effect is similar to a mimosa cake but the taste is exclusively Sienese, as all of the ingredients and most of all the Ricciarelli are from our territory. The preview of this dish was given to the teachers and students...

A mouth of truth in Tuscany like in Rome

At the Fattoria del Colle, a working farm and hotel situated in Tuscany overlooking the Val d’Orcia, there is an Enchanted Wood with specially named and themed trees, the one named the Truth tree also has a mouth [caption id="attachment_6925" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The mouth of the Tree of Truth – Fattoria del Colle"][/caption] Right in front of the sixteenth century villa of the Fattoria del Colle, there is a path which leads to a magical forest where very special trees grow. The Ringing Tree which rings bells by pulling their strings, the Tree of Fear with fearsome chains, blood and pumpkins at...

Ready-made dishes or lessons on traditional Tuscan cuisine ?

While the value of the average weekly shopping decreases 86% of the Italian population consumes already made meal every 11 days and frequently chooses the more elaborate In our country where the amount of singles and elderly is increasing and where dirtying the kitchen every day is liked less and less, ready-made meals increase their sales quite on the contrary to the trend of less food consumption. It’s mostly frozen foods that are being bought (50%) to b consumed mostly on working days where time is short. It is in fact the timesaving factor which induces consumption of ready-made dishes, but there...

Would you like a love nest for after your bath?

Towels and bath towels with a honeycomb weaving, hemstitched, resembling those our grandmothers had, but instead are the novelty at Toscana Lovers, the handicraft boutique

Today the bath towels and towels in cotton with the bees nest weaving are synonymous of a super luxury hotel, in other words they are present on refined places where one is comforted with accessories which are able to give pleasure. And in fact, cotton woven with this design is the cloth which best dries you after a bath, softly enveloping your body. The waving is in three dimensions, a surface relief grating in the deep recesses of the holes. Suitable for towels and bathrobes because of its ability to absorb water.
“Toscana lovers” the boutique where one can finds the best Tuscan handicraft in the heart of Siena (Piazza Indipendenza just round the corner from Piazza del Campo where the Palio race is run) has decided to propose these towels in white with a hemstitch finish.

The Casato Prime Donne award half way between real and virtual

Fourteenth edition with greater attention for the web, the award that from Montalcino emphasises women and the Brunello territory Very few copies of the rules printed, but many emails with the rules for the award for articles and television and radio programmes regarding Montalcino and its wines, to be sent to the secretariat before July 1st. The web becomes the protagonist in the photographic section where the 5 finalist images, portraying the countryside where the Brunello and Orcia wine are born, can be voted from home. One single vote from every email address. Everybody will be able to express an opinion, from anywhere...

Behind the scenes at a wedding in the Fattoria del Colle

Green and white – the colours of a perfect wedding for a young Belgian couple at the Fattoria del Colle, romantic, elegant, and individual, it matched their personal needs and was precise in every detail.

How many important elements are there to organise and decide upon to ensure the transformation of a marriage ceremony into an event that none of the participants will never forget.

An awful lot!!

It takes more than just a lot of money to create an unforgettable occasion, it takes imagination and good taste. Everyone knows how important the choice of wedding dresses, invitations, menus, venues, flowers and music are for the wedding ceremony. Putting these to one side, there are many other details which need impeccable organising to ensure a perfect wedding reception.

Cantine aperte 2012 chronicle of a party among the barrels

[caption id="attachment_6777" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Cantine aperte 2012-Montalcino-CasatoPrimeDonne1"][/caption] Positive result. At Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino about 300 visitors, much more than last year with more young people and more groups. For Cantine aperte 2012 very few foreign guests but many visitors form other provinces and also from other regions. The young were much more prepared [caption id="attachment_6779" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Cantine Aperte 2012-CasatoPrimeDonne 3"][/caption] and attentive than the over 50's. Fractioned sales, but with a total superior to 2011. Other than for the Brunello a lot of attention also for Cenerentola Doc Orcia 2007.   [caption id="attachment_6778" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Cantine Aperte 2012-Casato Prime Donne 2"][/caption] A higher number...

News from the cellar at Fattoria del Colle

About 2000 antique bottles of Brunello, Cenerentola Doc Orcia and IGT “Il Drago e le 8 Colombe” enrich the cellar at Fattoria del Colle

Year after year we put aside 100 bottles of our most important wines before completely finishing the vintage. A tradition which has created a small treasure in wine. Contrary to the Tuscan tradition I do not keep Vin Santo, because I do not like sweet wines and so I do not feel the need of keeping them in a sort of “historic archive”. Maybe it’s wrong but my heart beats faster for great reds.

The bottles of Brunello since 1993 are kept in the hermitage at Fattoria del Colle, a square room with vaulted ceiling which is found under the historic cellar. It resembles a bank caveau and is shut with a gate and padlock. The Casato Prime Donne award celebration bottles are kept in a small cell which was once used as a stable for the donkey.

Clara Melchiorre, born to be a photographer

Here is the story of a fashion reporter who is set to conquest of the world: Clara Melchiorre only 19 years old and incredibly talented

 

She is Pugliese from, Bari, she is 19 years old and has been living in Milan for a few months, she is currently attending the IED, the best photography school in Italy. She began her photography career by taking photos of her cousin who was dressing up in her mother’s clothes, she managed to have these first shots published in ‘Sette’ in the publication Corriere della Sera, on ‘Vogue’s’ website and in ‘Velvet’.

But for Clara, a student at the Classical High School in Bari, this was not enough. She persuaded her architect father and then totally convinced her mother (who is a therapist for autistic children), that she should not go on to study a conventional course at university but instead follow her vocation as a photographer. Bibiana and Massimiliano Melchiorre were unhappy about their separation from their daughter but they let her leave for Milan, and the obvious talents of their daughter have blown away any possible doubts as to the wisdom of this decision.