Croccantino

For many years I have had the amazing opportunity to be able to travel to a small town in Southern Italy near Benevento called San Marco dei Cavoti.  Steeped in history, this town captivated my heart and soul.  It happens to be the town where my Mother-in-Law was born and raised, where my husband spent his early years before coming to the US and the namesake of my son Marco. Since the day I stepped foot in San Marco, I was also captivated by the famous chocolate, hazelnut and almond confection called Croccantino.  The flavor is something in between Nutella, honey and a Heath bar.  You can eat a lot of them since they are only 2 bites, so be careful, it can be dangerous! They are beloved by everyone in the town and everyone who I bring a box back to in New York.  My Dad ate an entire box in one sitting (about 20 bars) the first time I brought them back to the US.  Of course we always bring an empty bag to ensure that we can stock up!

The first producers of Croccantino started over 150 years ago, they are mostly family run and produce in small batches. This is why it intrigued me to find out that there was someone new on the scene.

About 3 years ago, I stumbled upon Autore online.  The owner Antonio Autore grew up in San Marco dei Cavoti.  He left for a while to study and work in international business throughout Europe, but returned home to, as he says, rewrite the tradition.  He has done an amazing job balancing the tradition of Croccantino while bringing the 150 year old recipe into the 21st century.  What first caught my attention was the beautiful packaging and the multiple flavors.  With flavors like Sicilian Pistachio, Coconut, Honey & Fig and Giundia, Autore extends the idea of traditional Croccantino.  This great YouTube video highlights the production process and gives you more insight into the world of Autore.  

The brightly colored packaging is eye catching and makes a great in-store display.  After six years in business, Autore has started to ship to the US.  If you are in NYC you can find his product at Buon Italia in Chelsea Market.  He also will ship directly to customers through his website.  

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Traditional Copper Pot 

Recently, I had the opportunity to do a quick interview with Antonio, here are a few highlights from our conversation:

When did you get the idea to start Autore and what was your inspiration?

I grew up in San Marco dei Cavoti the world capital of Croccantino, this famous crunchy bar of nuts laced with sugar and covered with dark chocolate. I left after high-school for my college studies and then worked abroad for a few years but always brought with me a box of Croccantino. Well wherever I travelled everybody loved the product and the idea of starting my own production started working in my head.So six years ago I returned to San Marco started the Autore chocolate. I created a catalogue adding new chocolate recipes to classic Croccantino and I built up a range of different flavors.

How many countries are you selling your product in now?

We are selling our products in 15 countries (most of the European countries, but also Japan, US and others).

What has been your biggest challenge?

To sell a traditional product with a more dynamic and modern approach, infact our motto is "rewrite the tradition" . We use a intriguing design and innovative packaging solutions that is very much liked by consumers

What is the most popular product?

The classic Croccantino is still the best selling product, but it is followed by Croccantino honey and raisin, Croccantino honey and figs and Pistachio

What is next for Autore? (US distribution, new products/categories)

We have just released the new Winter Catalogue 2016-2017 with quite a few new products: Minuto Ribes (white chocolate and red currant), a range of four spread creams and a few new gift boxes. The spreads have crunchy bites of croccantino mixed with cream and the feedback from the market is very positive.  All our products (except for the Panettone and the chocolate beer) are gluten free. Marketwise we are putting efforts to sell more in the US market through gourmet chains .

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Freshly dipped Croccantino

Autore has a very promising future.  With Antonio’s focus on quality and tradition plus a dedicated team he has a very bright future.  Just last week, he opened an official storefront in the town of San Marco.  So, if you happen to be in Naples, plan a trip to San Marco dei Cavoti.  You will get to see a beautiful town and taste some of the best chocolates you have ever had, then you too will be addicted.

PASTA: Why quality counts

One of the cardinal rules of Italian cooking: always use the best ingredients available to you. Pasta is no different.  It is especially important since pasta really brings together the whole dish. There are many, many brands of dried pasta, or pasta secco,  on the market.  Like most people I used to think they were all the same. I would buy Barilla or De Ceicco at the supermarket and that would be it. Then I tasted the difference between those brands and true Italian artisan pasta or Pasta Artigianale,  

Most of this pasta you will see in stores in the US comes from the famous town of Gragnano which sits in between Naples and the Amalfi Coast.  Gragnano boasts an over 200 year old tradition of pasta making.  There are many special steps and details that have to be followed in order to produce pasta with superior taste and texture.  The center of town is even said to be laid out so that the main street captures the salty, cool breeze off the the Mederterainian creating an ideal scenario for pasta drying.  All of these seemingly small details add up and in the end a superior product, both from a taste and texture standpoint, is created.

There are two important differences in the process vs mass produced dry pasta: the pasta is extruded through bronze dies instead of through industrial Teflon, giving it a rough-textured surface to which sauce clings rather than slipping off, and the pasta is dried slowly at low temperatures so that it retains more of the nutty flavor and aroma of durum wheat. 

Pasta from Gragano has become more widely available over the past few years.  In New York City, you can find it in specialty shops as well as some Supermarkets.  Some of my favorite brands can be found at Eataly, Buon Italia or Agata e Valentina.  Look for Afetlra, Di Martino and Garofalo.  Also keep in mind, many shapes come in larger packages, 500g or 1.2 lbs.  Most mass produced pasta comes in 1 lb portions.  Either way you will pay more for the small batch pasta, but you will not be disappointed.  Every time we have guests, we serve this special pasta, sometimes just with a very simple Carbonara or Aglio e Olio, and we get "recipe" requests every time.  

Gragano, Italy

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Afaletra Garganelli

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Taralli the Italian Pretzel

One of the go to snacks in our house are taralli.  Hailing from Puglia, they were first introduced to me in Naples by our cousin Laura over 10 years ago.  I was addicted at first bite and I think I ate a whole bag!  I couldn't believe the flavor that could come from such a plain looking bread product.  When my son was old enough to eat crunchy food, we introduced taralli to him right away.  They have become the snack he requests most often, although he did not like it when I tried to slip in the fennel flavored ones to his school snack.  Taralli come in many variations. There are savory flavors like fennel, peperoncino and black pepper. You can also find sweet taralli glazed with sugar and often flavored with lemon (we are talking about Southern Italy so makes sense!)  We use the savory ones as part of our go to cheese plate adornments and they are also great dunked in wine.  You can find them at any Italian  special shop from Eataly to Di Palo's in NYC.  A bag usually costs around $3.50, a pretty inexpensive treat that will add a little piece of Puglia to your day.  On my list is to make them from scratch, so stay tuned to see how my homemade taralli come out!

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