At Sauced & Found, we offer a variety of catering and touring services to clients in and around Napoli, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. Our main lines of services offered are: Private chef, Food and wine tours, Cooking classes, and Travel interpreters.
Are you wondering how to make your American Thanksgiving just a little bit Italian? Our Founder, Kristin Melia reminisces about her first Thanksgivings in Italy and offers tips on how to make your favourite American pig-out session ever so slightly Italian.
Far before the rise of the Roman Empire, Campania was already cultivating an intriguing array of grapes and fermenting into richly volcanic wines. Ancient Greek mariners fleeing the Trojan Wars (at least if Virgil is to be believed) brought the first vines or vitis vinifera to Southern Italy. The first red varietals included Piedirosso and Aglianco- a grape whose very name means ‘Hellenic’ in local dialect. Later Roman nobility would consider Campania’s wines the best in the Empire. While Campania has experienced invasions, volcanic explosions, earthquakes and plagues, her vinicultural traditions continue to surprise and delight. Here we outline the most notable Campania red wines. You can find the companion Guide to Campania White Wines here.
A comprehensive guide to the cheeses of Campania. Form fresh to aged, mild and stinky- Campania is a region of many glorious cheeses!
Starting around October every year families across the Amalfi Coast take to the hills in search of poricini. Usually Saint Francis day on October 4th signifies a welcome change in seasons. Switching swimming for hiking, we climb deep into the towering mountains that spread from Positano all the way to Vietri sul mare. For the keen observer, any hiking trip can subtly reveal a multitude of wild edibles- the king of which is the porcini mushroom.
Italians don’t do savory breakfasts. Yet they do seem to think that all Americans eat bacon, eggs and biscuits every morning as if the US were a country full of farm hands. Obviously, they don’t know about avocado toast! Breakfast in Italy is fairly no nonsense and of the overwhelming sweet variety. It is also the only time when milk in coffee is acceptable!
Italy protects its food and wine with a variety of control designations. Learn about these designations with the helpful Sauced & Found guide to IGP, DOP, DOC and DOCG. Become and educated consumer and have fun tasting the foods of Italy in the process.
Maybe it’s working in the food industry that causes me to be so particular about where I eat when I eat out. I like honest peasant food that is of the moment and the place. I don’t like cinema. I don’t like pizzazz. Give me a plate of pasta and beans and I am happy. Give me a plate of pasta and freshly harvested borlotti beans that nonna shucked herself and I am ecstatic. The truth is that not many such restaurants exist in Sorrento. But I have managed to ferret a few out and here are my top five.
Check out the event highlights of the Amalfi Coast this September with the Sauced & Found Guide. From music to food to history, we have got you covered as the autumn creeps upon us.
I enjoy both the pleasure and responsibility of introducing foreign guests to the wines of Campania. While it is true that many just want to get blotto on vacation (and who can blame them for coming to us—we call ourselves Sauced & Found after all)—it is equally the case that many of you want a fully immersive Campania wine experience. This is where the fun begins. Campania, thanks to its wildly varied topography and volcanic soil is the most biodiverse region in Italy. The same soil that gives the world the spectacular San Marzano tomato and squeaky buffalo mozzarella, also produces some of our most stimulating wines.
The Italian meal is more marathon than sprint. Actually, more accurately, the Italian meal is a languorous amble down a country road with ample comfort breaks and conversation. I fondly recall my first real Italian meal at a country inn somewhere on a hilltop in Val d’Orcia. On break from my real job in Rome working as a contractor for the British Government, I was eager to burn through my generous per diem- the same per diem that my more prudent colleagues would use to pay off their student loans.
It’s August 1stand that officially means all of Italy will be on vacation for the next month. It is important to stay healthy and hydrated throughout this salubrious period. To keep your constitution intact, we are sharing some particularly helpful wellness tips, courtesy of our friends in Italy’s South.
in an oversaturated market in a popular tourist spot, choosing the right restaurant is important. While Italy is known for her unparalleled foods, not every restaurant serves to such a high standard. By the time you finish reading this article, I hope you cast your net to catch only the finest cuisine in Sorrento.
Let me start by saying this: I love all my family so much. But we often argue on vacations. Yes, we are all adults here. But since my brother and I moved out (and honestly, even before that because who am I kidding), family vacations can quickly become deep-seated arguments if we’re not careful. Here are my top tips for a successful family trip!
One of the cool things I was able to witness was a professional chef make a traditional Italian dish for a wedding. Now, the way people prepare a meal here seems to be different from the States. Here, you will add different ingredients until you decide it’s enough. Where in the States, you follow a recipe to the exact measurements. Don’t get confused, these recipes do have some measurements, but they are more like a suggestion and you decide what you would like to do instead.
If you ask any Neapolitan about Conca dei Marini, they will enthusiastically tell you that the sfogliatella pastry was invented there. Like many pastries of the middle ages, cloistered nuns invented the sfogliatella. It seems that while the cloistered men made alcoholic tinctures to maintain their independent cash flow, their sisters of the cloth were busy making sweet treats. And so was the case of the sfogliatella. The Santa Rosa Convent soaring above the tiny port of Conca dei Marini is where the ricotta stuffed and amarena cherry studded shell shaped pastry was born.
am pretty sure that Pescheria Azurra lets everyone pay with a credit card now, but what do I know.
With the spring reticently rolling around, the iconic preparation of braised squid and peas is a Neapolitan tradition. I make this recipe just as the fresh peas appear at Pignasecca and I use medium sized adult squid. In Naples we enjoy squid on Fridays because we still eschew meat for borderline spiritual, mostly superstitious reasons that day. You do you!
Furore is perhaps the most logic defying of any town on the Amalfi Coast. It is a vertical sliver of land that runs from the deep crevice of the Fiordo port on the sea to about 600 meters above sea level high into the Monti Lattari Mountains. There is no central piazza. No easy road to connect lower and upper Furore. The people of Furore even have split identities with those in the upper quarters more closely identifying with the mountain dwellers of Agerola and the lower quarters more historically linked to the mariners of nearby Conca dei Marini.
Praiano gets her name from the Latin word pelagium, meaning open sea. Later the same word would evolve to mean beach in both Spanish (playa) and Portuguese (praia). Praiano consists of two main parts. Vettica Maggiore which lies lower on the coast and Praino on the upper part of this vertical town. The main road SS 163 Amalfitana slices through the two neighborhoods. Nobles throughout the days of the Amalfi Republic summered here and today you can affordably rent family villas in Praiano with dazzling sea views.
Positano defies gravity. Pastel buildings hang like tendrils dipping over the sea. Mosaic church domes are wedged between cliffs. Old ladies with in matching house dresses and droopy nylons trudge up countless stairs. The town is vertical, funneling from a long, winding strip of coast into the hills. The highest neighborhood of Positano is Montepertuso, meaning Mount Hole in local dialect. As the legend goes, villagers attempting to escape marauders scampered into the hills above town only to become blocked by an imposing rock formation. They prayed to the Virgin Mary and so she ventured down from the heavens and parted the rocks, allowing the early Positanese to pass through safely. The hole in this rock formation is said to resemble the Madonna (I think it looks like an rather beaky eagle) and would give Montepertuso its name.
The Amalfi Coast offers some of the most striking panoramic vistas in the world. I like to call it suffocatingly beautiful because everywhere you look, every jagged cliff, every bougainvillea encrusted villa, every secret stone tipping into the sea is simply more beautiful than the last thing you saw not just that day but in your life. Driving down the Amalfi Coast is the pastel panoramic equivalent of gavaging yourself with shrooms at Woodstock. You just do not, cannot believe that what you are seeing is real. The good news is that it most definitely is.
