. . Slow Food for your fast life

A few last minute reminders…

The tasting room and shop at Oliva Bella is open today (Tuesday, December 22) and tomorrow from 10 am to 6 pm.

Today we have robusto sauce, olio umbro, our artisan breads, our “world famous” Cuban coffee by the bottle, and pomodori agrodolci. Tomorrow we will take in our final shipment of Benedetto Cavalieri pasta, you may want to stock up since we’ll be closed from Christmas Eve through end January!

For those of you hooked on the bottled Cuban Coffee, once we’re closed you can pick up your quarts at Wines on Vine located at 400 Old Vine Street.

We at abbondanza wish you and yours a very warm and peaceful holiday, we’d also like to take the opportunity to say Grazie (thank you) for your business this year.

Buon Natale…see you in Feb.

Ralph is carting case after case of bottled oil from the kitchen to the sales room, we’re “slinging” Cuban coffees, we’re (they’re…) chopping and stirring and simmering our last few batches of sauces to make sure we have everything  you need as we drill down to the final few days before Christmas.

We are even filling and selling the SHOPPING BASKETS! (wrapped beautifully of course so that you don’t have to).

By Saturday evening the shop is going to look like little Cindy Loo Hoo’s house after the Grinch made his plunder!   But, we’ll be back for two more days next week for those of us who prefer last minute shopping as well as for folks picking up robusto sauce and pasta for their own quick and satisfying dinner.

The quart jars of Cuban Coffee arrived Wednesday and are flying out the door!  One customer told me “she didn’t really care for coffee”… she tasted ours, bought 4 bottles, came back 10 minutes later and bought 5 more for hostess gifts.  Most customers have been gifting themSELVES with the coffee!

The Persian Gems are back in from our truffle makers (they sold out in minutes last week and for good reason, they are off the charts delicious!). 

Saturday, Marianne (one of the truffle makers) will also have traditional Christmas cookies from her native Germany (we’re global man).

Note:  there is a ball game in town on Saturday but not until 4pm, just for your planning.

Holiday hours - there aren’t many left.  We will be open Friday of this week, 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday from 9 am to 4 pm.  Next week we open Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 am to 6 pm.  We are closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And, please note, as usual we will be closed for the month of January.  We will reopen, refreshed, replenished and restocked the first week of February.  We’ll send out a note with details the week before just to stir your memory (and palate!).

We will leave you with a photo of one of our youngest guests (and obviously future customer) from our party last week.   Ava Underwood (with her Mom Lennie) used our biscotti as a teething biscuit! 

It may be colder than the North Pole outside but, it’s warm, delicious and smelly  (in a GOOD way!) inside at Oliva Bella!  

In the kitchen, there are sauces bubbling on the stove and in the oven, onions and peppers roasting, and fat bulbs of garlic slowly poaching in olive oil. 

The pot of white beans, garlic and Italian sausage slowly warming on the stove, Andreas (Boccelli) singing, the staccato of knives chopping in the kitchen…how can one NOT be in a festive mood?!

Out front, orange slices simmer in a pot with cinnamon sticks filling the tasting room with an aroma that would make most Italian grandmothers proud!

We’re gearing up for our fifth annual Customer Appreciation Party here at Oliva Bella.  It’s here at the shop, tomorrow from noon to four pm.  We invite you to come by to enjoy a glass of warm mulled wine or cider, some great Italian food, and biscotti made by Stacey our extern; but, most of all, to help us celebrate our great customer base, toast one another and wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday.

CUBAN COFFEE BY THE QUART BACK NEXT WEEK FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

Back by popular demand and just in time for holiday entertaining, or chugging it by yourself, we will have a new batch of Cuban Coffee by the bottle for sale here at the shop beginning next Wednesday.  Come by or call to reserve your bottles!

This is all we have time for this week, it’s back to the kitchen.

We hope to see you here tomorrow.

Salut!

LOTS GOING ON!

 First, there is a basketball game Saturday at 12:30.  Plenty of parking for our fine patrons and for basketball fans.  Come early to grab a Cuban coffee for the walk down to the arena.  Do some holiday shopping with us and we’ll hold your packages until after the game (when you come back in for another round of coffee!).

Today we have plenty of robusto sauce.  Saturday we will have our fresh pumpkin ravioli available.  You can try recipes made with both on Saturday at the  shop.

Vibernum Valley (our chocolatiers) will be featuring a new cherry cordial truffle on Saturday at the shop as well as “Persian Gems” made with pistachio, almond, honey, dried apricot and dipped in their premium chocolate.

Join us next Saturday, December 12, from 12:00 to 4:00 for our fifth annual Customer Appreciation Celebration/Holiday Open House.  We’ll have mulled wine, hot cider, tons of food and music, plus plenty of folks on hand to help wrap your holiday gifts (and to help drink the mulled wine!).

Remember Beth Tillery and her grass fed beef?  She is now taking orders for her A.S.H. free (no antibiotics, no steroids, no hormones) beef.  You may remember it from when we sold her beef at the shop,  it is the best beef I have ever eaten, anywhere.  She has virtually any cut you can think of including ribs, steak, roasts and ground.  You can reach her directly at 606 493 7058 to place an order or find her at the indoor Farmers Market on Saturdays in Victoria Square.

Thank you to our extern, Stacey, from Sullivan Culinary School who worked with us the last couple of months.  Amy graduates end of December and our kitchen has never been cleaner because of her.  She has been a wealthy source of technical culinary information , she made a great lunch for us last Saturday at the shop (cassoulet with fried croutons!), and is an all around nice person.  It was a pleasure having her here.

Pick up dinner on the way home tonight!  Today’s featured recipe:  our cipollini agrodolci sauce (sweet onions simmered in balsamic), a few tablespoons of cream cheese (full fat, low fat or fat free, your choice), roasted mushrooms, melted into a pot of hot pasta.  Delicious with a piece of pork, chicken or just on its own!  We are here until 6 pm tonight for your shopping pleasure.

10 shopping days left at Oliva Bella!  Give us a call to ship your orders, go to our website, or come and visit and shop.  We look forward to visiting with you.

I know we are all getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday but, when you are tired of turkey and everything that goes with it, and yet you still want something soothing and satisfying… it’s a big pot of bubbling robusto sauce, pasta, and just a whisper of grated pecorino cheese.

We’ve just finished a big vat of robusto sauce and are in the process of making tons more, you’ve GOT to come in and taste this!

Author: aliciamilan / Published: November 23, 2009 at 7:28 am

I for one and so many others have spent the last five years with this family. We have watched them grow up and they have become part of our lives. From the twins, Maddie and Cara, to the sextuplets, Hannah, Alexis, Leah, Aaden, Collin and Joel, and even their endlessly bickering parents, Jon and Kate, we have gotten to know them all. We have laughed and cried and rolled our eyes through five seasons, and now it is coming to an end.

Reality TV fame has reared its ugly head and taken a huge toll on this family. As everyone knows, ad nauseum, Jon and Kate are in the process of finalizing their divorce. No matter what the haters say, how mean Kate was to him, or how useless Jon was to her, they were a married couple and an intact family. That as well is coming to an end.

So, for those who will miss their Jon and Kate + adorable eight fix each week, this may be your last chance to see and enjoy them. Until reruns, that isI am making ragu with the robusto sauce (chuck roast that has been browned and then simmered in the sauce until it falls apart), then adding meatballs (made with beef and pork, fresh basil, fresh garlic and pecorino cheese in the meatball) to simmer as well as Italian sausages!  Big fat wide noodles (if Ralph wouldn’t leave so early for his Thanksgiving trip, he could make me some…) would be the perfect foil for the chunky and rich and hearty and delicious feast.   My second choice of enjoying would be with just a spoon and a big bibb!

A few pieces of information for the shop:

1.  Our Thanksgiving Holiday schedule is simple this year, we will only be open on Saturday, November 28.  We are giving our folks and ourselves a much needed break and are closing Thursday and Friday, November 26 and 27.

You better “hit” us tomorrow to stock up for the week!

2.  Basketball game on Saturday November 21 at 1:00 pm  We will keep plenty of spaces open for customers tomorrow during the game and someone will be in the lot to help you park.  If you are going to the game, stop in early to try some products out front, grab a Cuban coffee before heading down.  If you shop, we’ll even hold your purchases for you until you return.

I’m heading back to the kitchen to stir robusto sauce and chop onions, we hope to see you soon!

Hand made pumpkin ravioli drizzled with sage-infused olive oil (see below for how to’s), served with a few slices of silken prosciutto, a handful of crushed  walnuts.

Hand made pumpkin ravioli with roasted onions and roasted rosemary mushrooms (see below for how to’s).  Who needs meat with this?

A bowl of Salsa robusto, a spoon, and a chunk of toasted ciabatta (toast thin slices and you can chuck the spoon!)…A good movie or trashy tv, your “buffet” pants and red wine.  A chocolate truffle to finish off the wine.

Big burgers slathered with cipolini agridolci and melted blue cheese on toasted ciabatta. Add a handful of fresh spinach or arugula and call it healthy! 

Peppery Bucatini Pasta Carbonara with Poached Egg (”lifted” from Gourmet magazine but they’re gone so what can they do?)…recipe below, hint, THERE IS BACON! 

If you are lucky enough to be invited to dinner, what’s the perfect hostess gift?  Nope, not wine (unless of course you are coming to MY house.)  A bottle of oil, a loaf of rustic bread wrapped in old World fashion, or a box of truffles (a lesson I’ve learned on my own:  buy 2 extra for yourself, it’s never cool to give a box with one or two spaces EMPTY!).

Vibernum Valley Artisan chocolatiers are not just about chocolate. 

Elaine and Marianne are still making their amazing truffles (my name is Lea Ann Vessels and I may be a chocoholic! because of them) but they are also offering much more.  Last week there were miniature cupcakes filled with authentic French Buttercream (great butter mixed with egg yolks) that were as beautiful as they were delicious (or so I “heard”…). 

Saturday they will have French Apple cakes and Belgian Kisses (meringues), you can’t say we aren’t global here at Oliva Bella.

It’s getting colder, it’s already darker, EVERYbody’s busy, stop by on your way home from work and we’ll put dinner together for you.  Call ahead and we’ll bring it out to your car.

Eat well, love the folks around you, and be good to your belly.                                     Thank you for letting us serve you.

(how to’s below….)

1.  sage infused olive oil:  simmer fresh sage leaves in olive oil (ours) over low heat

2.  roasted onions and rosemary mushrooms:  quarter sweet onions, halve the mushrooms, place in oven proof dish, drizzle olive oil (ours), sea salt and plenty of black pepper.  roast in a 450 degree onion for up to 45 minutes, check every 10 minutes and shake the dish.  snip a sprig or two of fresh rosemary leaves over the dish the last 10 minutes of cooking

3.  pasta carbonara for one:

2 bacon slices cut into 1 inch pieces, 1/4 lb bucatini pasta(ours), 1/2 tabspoon butter, 1/3 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese, 2 tabspoon chopped tarragon or parsley, 1 large egg (free range if possible).

cook bacon over med heat in nonstick skillet until crisp, drain on paper towels.

boil bucatini in saucepan of salted boiling water until al dente (still alittle chewy), reserve 1/3 cup of the cooking water in the pan and keep it simmering.  with tongs, add the bucatini to a small bowl.

pour off all but 2 tsp of the bacon fat from the skillet, then whisk the butter into the fat in the skillet over medium heat.  add pasta, reserved water, cheese and a healthy shake of black pepper.  cook stirring until sauce is thickened, 2 to 3 minutes..

add bacon and 2 tabspoon tarragon and toss.  season with salt and pepper.

break egg into a small cup and gently slide into a pan of water.  poach at a bare simmer 2 to 3 minutes (this will produce a firm white with runny yolk.). 

serve pasta topped with egg, sprinkle with remaining tarragon.

Lexington Loves our Pumpkin Ravioli!

One of our long time customers came “running” into the shop last week to buy the pumpkin ravioli. He said his wife was in China on business, received our email about the ravioli, called him FROM China to get him into the shop to buy….quick!

How’s that for globalization?

She made a smart call because we sold out of ravioli again on Saturday, but…Ralph will be down at the shop early this week to start all over (Thanks Ralph.).

The holiday rush has started.

Looking at the stacks of oil cans in the back Saturday morning, some of us joked that maybe WE should go ahead and buy oil “just in case”. By Saturday

afternoon, after looking at the number of oil bottles that had moved, a few of us DID go ahead and purchase a case….”just in case”.

Go Big Blue! Park at Oliva Bella.

This season, as you cruise downtown looking for a parking spot for the basketball games, remember us at Oliva Bella. We are parking our lot during each game as well as the lot next door to us. If it’s cold out, we’ll have shots of Cuban

Coffee to help you make it down to Rupp Arena. If it’s on a Saturday and we’re open, park, come early to check out our samples and shop! Parking slots are $8 but if you’re spending in the shop we will certainly make you a deal even Calipari would approve and say Grazie to (he’s Italian, man!).

Back by Popular Demand…
Marta Miranda will be at the shop this Saturday from 11 am to 1 pm slinging Cuban Coffee and words of wisdom. She’d love to see her

“peeps” (people)!

Thank you and Best Wishes! And finally…Most of you know our Manager, Diane Crossfield. She has been with abbondanza since nearly the beginning, first as a customer, then joining the Oliva Bella team (like many of our great people on staff). Diane is moving on to bigger and better things. And since she has made alot of friends over the years with our customers, we’d like to invite you to join us this Thursday at the shop from 4 pm to 0pm as we toast Diane and say Thank you for all your hard work and support (and editing most of my blogs…) as well as wishing her the very best in her future endeavors. (click on the photos to enlarge and see a CLOSEUP of Diane!)

It’s a party on Thursday!

And if you have your thinking cap on, you’ll reserve some ravioli!

Stay warm, be good to your belly, we’ll see you soon.

Don’t be surprised to see the lights on late Friday night at the shop.  This season’s last shipment of olive oil will arrive sometime late from Chicago and we’ve got bottling to do! 

A lot of you have asked in regards to the status of our other two oils.  With the harvest season beginning very late this year, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to bring in those oils before the holiday season. But, we chose the olio umbro due to its very low acidity (.12 compared to typically .22 or even .30), it was “off the charts” in terms of quality and flavor…and also due to the lower acidity, a higher amount of antioxidants (…not to mention its absolute deliciousness!).So while we think we ordered plenty – you know our reputation – when this is gone, it’s gone.  Please take this into account when planning for your holiday gift giving as well as stashing away your own supply.

At the shop on Friday and Saturday: We introduced our housemade pumpkin ravioli last week and promptly sold out.  We are making THREE times the amount this week, but….fair warning, even with 3 times the quantity, we will sell everything we have,  so come or call early.These ravioli are sweet, savory, stuffed pillows of JOY!…I mean pumpkin!  Grate a bit of lemon or orange zest over the top to increase the savory, grate a bit of cinnamon to enhance the sweet, drizzle a pool of olio umbro and a grate of black pepper and enjoy.You should be able to pick fresh up by 2 or 3pm today…it will be available and frozen the Friday morning. We’ll also have sweet onion and chevre crostini, artisan chocolates from Vibernum Valley Farm, more cheese from Bluegrass Chevre, and cups of Cuban coffee to savor while you shop!If you see Ralph on Saturday, ask him about his dog’s preference for oliva bella olive oil over the supermarket brands!Be good to your bellies and bring them down to see us this week! 

I will spare you the embarrassing (self) introduction to my new BFF (Best Friend Forever) Bobby Flay, however; he did tell me it was his pleasure to use our oils in his show because they are “absolutely delicious”!

 You can see our booth in the photo above and you may notice it looks suspiciously like our olive oil shop on Broadway.   “Our” Ralph built a replica of the shop for the Food Show last weekend, complete down to the same paint for the walls, we even hung the same photos,  but we (he) added a “copper” roof to jazz it up a bit.  I was so proud! 

You can see Ralph and his lovely wife Jill (who also works with us part time) posing in front of his handiwork.

Lexington Farmers Market Report.   Nothing to report since we missed it, but we had a terrific turnout at the food show (did I mention I met Bobby Flay?).  And, alas, we are bugging out (foregoing) of the Saturday market again this week and may be finished for the Season.   We will let you know IF we decide to set up one last weekend at the market and when.

However, that does NOT mean the party is over…the party is ONLY beginning! 

Can’t get to the market?  We bring it to you!  Susan Miller of Bluegrass Chevre is now with us for the Winter on Saturdays, so are Marianne and Elaine of Vibernum Valley Farm (translation, the chocolate and truffle women!).

This Saturday you can try our bruschetta with our own pomodori agrodolci  atop Susan’s rich and luscious goat cheese.  You could also fold them both by the sinfully-rich (yet healthy) spoonfuls into a bowl of hot pasta.  Either will be perfect for the colder weather they are forecasting for Saturday.

Along the same line, in regards to cold weather fare,  we’ll also be sharing the recipe as well as samples of the meaty ragu we made a couple weeks ago with our Robusto Sauce. 

“I dolci”, or the sweets you’ll find at the shop on Saturday are:  Champagne truffles, Bourbon truffles, Chevre truffles and Plain Chocolate truffles (buh-leeve me…there is nothing PLAIN about these chocolate truffles!).  And if the truffle menu doesn’t jangle your chain, Marianne is also bringing lemon lime tarts.

Do NOT eat lunch before you come visit on Saturday.

Finally, and I cannot believe it’s “that time again”, but we’ve already begun receiving holiday orders for oil.  So make your list, count it twice, and bring it to us.  We can put together great gift packages, any size, any cost, that will delight any-body on your list…and then you’ll start seeing THEM on Saturdays too down at the shop to shop.

The final photo?  The bucket of bucatini that was my dinner after the food show Sunday night!  Squawking about me and Bobby (Flay) is hungry work!

Be good to your bellies and keep them warm with ragu!

Three reminders actually:

1.  We are open Tuesday through Saturday this week at the shop.

2.  You can find us in booth 313 at the Incredible Food Show this Saturday and Sunday at the downtown convention center.  Plus, Marta Miranda and I will be hosting a seminar at 5:30 titled “olive oil 101″.  Come experience the combination of my stage fright and her love of an audience!

3.  We will NOT be at the farmers market this Saturday but will have the shop wide open.

Below are a number of photos from last Saturday at the shop.  We had Susan Miller and her artisanal goat cheese products, the women that form Vibernum Valley Farm and their vast array of desserts, and of course all of our products on display and out for tasting.

We’ve invited both Susan and Vibernum Valley to join us on Saturdays for the Winter once the market slows, we’re hoping they will join us as we build our community of products.  You can sample their cheeses and chocolates (they are ALL very generous.), talk food and learn new recipes from them.

The weather outside was frightening, but it was warm and lovely and delicious inside!

Here is your new recipe of the week:  a typical Italian ragu. 

You can substitute any meat for the beef, you can use the sauce for pasta, it’s wonderful over polenta, particularly delectable over wide noodles, and you can also just eat it out of a bowl with a big hunk of rustic bread.

On Saturday we used a piece of chuck roast, browned it first on all sides in a bit of olive oil, then covered it in our own robusto sauce, put a lid on the pan and simmered it on low for 3 to 4 hours (2 hours would probably work) until the meat had fallen apart.  It’s so simple and so good and so satisfying.

Have a great week and come visit.

Ciao!