Lou Gives A Lesson

Love it or hate it, the blogosphere is a powerful universe! Rapid communication, interaction, pics, tweets, and vids, swirling at our finger tips, and bringing people together for business, for love, or most importantly - for food.

This morning, a nice young Irish Italian man, Pasquale Pisani was given a ravioli demo by our favorite local master of pork and pasta, Lou Palma. 

Pasquale is a foodie and finacial advisor from Hoboken who shares a few mutual friends with Lou, Ruth Kunstadter and Donato DiGeronimo. After hearing about Lou's prowess in the kitchen and viewing a few of his video performances, Pasquale declared, "This guy is  awesome!  Nobody does this anymore!"

So Pasquale reached out via Facebook, and soon enough Lou agreed to give Pasquale a ravioli lesson. 

Lou's given many lessons before to many people.  How does he feel about teaching old Italian techniques to younger generations? "I like it, it's nice.  I've taught my children, I've taught my children's friends, and think I've taught you too!"

So Lou began teaching, making sure Pasquale adhered to the Palma method.  At one point Pasquale began cutting the ravioli improperly by rolling the pastry wheel across the width of the dough before cutting the perimeter and the length of the dough. Lou stopped him, "You have to cut it lengthwise first, it's not critical, but that's how it's done!"

Following the ravioli lesson we took a walk out side to check on the Prosciutto hanging in the garage. Click here to take a look for yourself.  For more pics of Lou and Pasquale, click here.

LL Pittenger Farm at Restaurant Passionne

I have my Lou and Michael Carrino has his Lou; I had to meet Mike's Lou! This morning at Restaurant Passionne I did.

Louis Tommaso and Lori Pittenger, owners of Pittenger Farm, located in Andover, NJ (actually Tranquility NJ) were at Restaurant Passionne as part of a monthly winter Farmer's Market put together by Chef Carrino.

What makes Pittenger meat special?  Pittenger's cattle are all raised on pasteur and are feed hay, supplemented by corn silage, which is an entire corn stalk ground up.  Unlike feed lot cows, the Pittenger cattle are antibiotic and hormone free.

The Pittenger lamb are fed hay, silage and are supplemented with mixed grains containing corn, soybeans and oats. Pittenger also raises Yorkshire cross and Bershire pigs

Among the Pittenger products for sale were Pittenger Farm meats, including the highly marbelized aged beef Porterhouse steaks, as well as  beef jerky, local honey, preserves, pickles, relishes, and locally made goat's milk soap. 

I went home a dozen pale blue "Martha Stewart" eggs.  I cooked them up as soon as I got home and they were as farm eggs should be,  flavorful, with a deep, rich yolk. 

From June through late October LL Pittenger is at the Blairstown Farmers Market on Saturdays, and the Olde Lafayette village Farmers Market on Sundays. 

For more pics, visit the gallery.

Scenes from Bobolink Dairy

Yesterday Hot From The Kettle took a trip out west, to Milford, New Jersey to visit Bobolink Dairy. We were joined by chef and owner of Montclair's Restaurant Passionne, Michael Carrino. 

We toured the farm with proprietor Nina White, who showed us around the historic Stamet Farmland.  Nina  allowed us into the Milking Palor, and the Bakehouse where we sampled some of Bobolinks breads and cheeses, like Baudolino, Frolic, Cave Aged Cheddar, and the thoroghouly satisfying Drumm and Jean-Louis. 

You can order their artesanal products at

http://www.cowsoutside.com/. 

To see all the phots visit the GALLERY, and stay tuned for the video!