Archive for the ‘In the press’ Category
Christmas taste test: Panettone
November 30th, 2011 | 
Author: The Guardian’s Bob Granleese had the unenviable (read very very enviable) task of taste-testing Panettone this weekend. Out of 15 beautiful festive loaves, our Panettone from Le Cose Buone came out on top…
Our winning panettone: Le Cose Buone from Natoora
Panettone Le Cose Buone from Natoora
1kg, £19.90
The most expensive panettone on test, and you can tell it’s posh by the simplicity of the packaging: just-off-white paper, plain red ribbon with unshowy card. This one cut beautifully (always use a serrated knife to cut panettone, by the way, much as you would a loaf of bread), showed a cautious hand with the fruit, was moist and very moreish. The business, basically – and the only one which had me coming back for seconds, which speaks volumes. BUY NOW
★★★★★
He also tasted our Panettone from Panarello…
Panarello Panettone from Natoora
1kg, £12.95
Looks the part, and the flavour is spot on, but let down by being a touch on the dry side. BUY NOW
★★★
Looking for more Christmas inspiration? Visit our Christmas shop today for the best selection of festive food. SHOP NOW
In the press: The best seasonal fungi
Rose Prince has been writing recently in the Telegraph about the wild mushroom season. Last year was amazing – beautiful cepes were in abundance and we had some of the best wild mushrooms we have ever tried. This year, cepes are hard to come by, especially the really good ones. But why has this year been less than brilliant, and how can we still enjoy the best mushrooms available this season? Read the whole article here or a snippet below:
“It has not been a vintage year for wild fungi. Hunter gatherers say that the wet and cold weather in the early autumn produced some of the poorest quality ceps in years.
The problem has been greater in the traditionally rich Eastern European fungi hunting grounds, whereas here in Britain we’ve had a rather short season of great penny buns (the English term for cep).”
“Chanterelles have been OK, but this year’s girolles are too small,” says Vittorio Maschio of European speciality importers Natoora, who bring fresh fungi from the Paris and Milan markets every week.
“This leaves us in the peculiar situation of enjoying the fungi season when the supply is sporadic. Enjoying it because this is the time when our noses twitch for food that is scented with the “forest floor”; for game birds and venison, rowan berries and mushrooms.”
“The desire for this food is there. It is a matter of filling the gap. This can be done with ease with cultivated mushrooms. Not just the familiar, and sometimes a little dull, buttons and chestnut types, but by some interesting exotics.”
“Natoora has access to champignons de Paris, a tall button type of mushroom held dear to the city for the role it played during the Second World War. Because it grows on sand, Parisians grew this vital source of food on their balconies and terraces in hard times, and still do for the good, non-insipid flavour and texture of these mushrooms.”
“Pre-order and they can be delivered direct. Champignons de Paris are approximately £6.50 per kg; wild chanterelles £7.50 per 150g punnet; pied bleu (a delicious mushroom with a firm stalk) £3.90 per 100g.”
Read the rest of the article here
Make the most of them – view all our delicious mushroom recipes here
In the press: Stevie Parle’s Squash Recipes
With Halloween just gone and a mass of beautiful Autumn leaves at our feet, it’s time for some warming squash recipes, courtesy of The Dock Kitchen chef Stevie Parle and this weekend’s Telegraph…
Read the full article here or a snippet below:
“As autumn settles in, so the squash arrives in force. It is a fantastically versatile vegetable, and a staple of mine throughout the colder months. There are many varieties and they come in all shapes and sizes. Butternut squash are the easiest to find and cook with, so more often than not I settle for a butternut to make a simple, inexpensive supper at home. But I must admit I find them a little sweet and lacking in flavour.”
“I’ve recently been buying crown prince, a beautiful blue-grey squash, shaped much like a classic Hallowe’en pumpkin – you can buy them from www.natoora.co.uk under the name delica. Firm-fleshed and hard-skinned, they roast particularly well and have a savoury depth lacking in a butternut. Otherwise I try to find acorn squash. With its bright orange skin, it has similar flesh, though softer than a crown prince or a butternut so you don’t need to peel it until the end of the season when it becomes tougher. You can buy them in some supermarkets and most farmers’ markets.”
“My favourite are violini squash from Italy (also available from natoora). Sometimes called iron bark, they are huge, rough-skinned and violin-shaped with the most wonderful, deep flavour, and come into season in a few weeks.”
Read the rest of the article for some fantastic warming recipes – click here.
In the press: Oilala Passata
This weekend, Rose Prince gave Telegraph readers her thoughts on tomatoes and most importantly, passata. Amongst others, she reviewed our passata from Oilalà:
“A newcomer to Britain’s passata scene is Oilala from Puglia, available from Natoora. Confusingly, there is no oil in the jar, but the tomatoes are grown and bottled on the same farm as a popular olive oil of that name. Aside from a good level of sugars and clear fruit taste, it is the rough texture of this that I like. Commercial passata is often liquidised to a very smooth pulp, which not only breaks down the natural fibre in the fruit, but can give sauces made with it an unpleasant texture.”
In the press: Amalfi Lemons
This weekend, the lovely Kitty Travers shared her superb lemon granita recipe with The Telegraph…made even better using Natoora’s Amalfi lemons. The rich sunshine gives these beautiful lemons an intense flavour and aroma. They are unwaxed and wonderfully juicy, with very few pips, so perfect when you need to use all the juice and rind for cooking…
Lemon granita recipe by Kitty Travers
Serves 10
‘I’ve had granita served as breakfast, in the hot days of August, with biscotti,’ says Kitty. ‘And spooned on to brioche.’ But this one, which won her best-in-show at the British Street Food Awards, is something else. Sicilian lemons are available from natoora.co.uk, or you can use regular lemons.
190ml (9fl oz) water
190g (7oz) golden granulated or caster sugar
7 large Amalfi lemons, about 500ml (18fl oz) juice
150ml (5fl oz) soda water
Make a sugar syrup by heating the water and sugar together in a non-corrosive pan until the sugar dissolves. Zest the lemons directly into the warm syrup (if there are any leaves still attached, you can wash them and add them to the warm syrup too, where they will release their rather peppery oils). Squeeze the lemons, strain the juice and add it to the syrup, removing the leaves if used. Stir in the cold soda water and refrigerate the mixture for 20 minutes.
Freeze directly in a stainless-steel container; a rectangular one is best. Stir with a fork every hour or so, paying special attention to the sides, where the mix will freeze solidly if unattended. Once the mixture is firm and frozen, cover with parchment paper so that the granita is not exposed to the freezer air. Wrap in clingfilm.
To serve, place the granita in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes, then scrape along the top with a heavy-duty ice-cream scoop or metal spoon (Zeroll scoops are best) to create slushy ice crystals.
Top the granita with candied lemon peel and serve with sweetened whipped cream with a tablespoon of marsala.
Kitty Travers’s recipes appear in ‘Street Food Revolution’ (Kyle Cathie, £14.99), by Richard Johnson, available from Telegraph Books (0844 871 1515) at £12.99 plus £1.25 p&p
In the press: Stevie in Milan
Stevie Parle (of the Dock Kitchen) recently created a pop-up kitchen near to Milan market, serving amazing vegetarian dinners. Franco had taken him around the market there just a few weeks before – you can read about their market experience here.
Being close to such incredibly fresh produce certainly gave Stevie some food for thought…
“…I have long been fascinated by the big fruit and vegetable market in Milan. In London I buy much of my produce (particularly in the winter) through my supplier, Natoora (www.natoora.co.uk – which does home delivery nationwide). They, in turn, have a buyer in Milan, Roberto. His family have been buying fruit and vegetables in the market for three generations and he has incredible passion and expertise.”
“Surprisingly for such a big market, the producers are often small scale. Talking to them about how they grow, hearing how rocket is better when watered less, and that the weather had been too warm for grumolo (a kind of radicchio) made me think again about how I source food in London.”
“I have been buying more and more from Milan and less from Britain, and so have lost direct communication with growers. Being in Milan has inspired me to work even more closely with my producers on home soil, encouraging them to grow the fruit and veg I can’t find easily.”
“I want my ingredients to be as fresh as they were when I was buying them in Milan, where they looked as though they had just been pulled from the ground (and, in fact, had been).”
Just like Stevie, we feel it is so important to know our produce inside out, which is why we have our buyer Roberto based in the heart of the action, talking to suppliers in Milan daily and reporting directly back to us. He carefully selects everything we buy from Milan to make sure it is the freshest and best quality available. Of course there is also some incredible British food around at the moment – and the warm weather is only going to improve this. At the moment, we are sourcing some amazing asparagus from Abbey Parks Farm in Lincolnshire, definitely worth trying.
Something we can only find in Milan is Agretti (aka Monk’s Beard or Barba dei Frati). Stevie has created a delicious recipe using this unique product – Fresh peas and gnudi – absolutely perfect for spring, make sure you try it!
In the press: Monk’s Beard
Monk’s beard (also known as barba dei frati and agretti) is certainly not something you’ll find on the supermarket shelves. It is a delicious Mediterranean plant, mainly cultivated in Sicily, Spain and Northern Africa. It might look very much like chives, but the taste is more akin to spinach, because of it’s rich mineral notes. Barba dei frati though is tarter and has a crunchier texture, depending on how you cook it.
The top chefs that we supply love this product, and Stevie Parle of the Dock Kitchen used this delicious plant in his Brill recipe. Definitely worth a try!
Stevie Parle’s Brill poached with anchovy sauce recipe
“This is a lovely, delicate, yet full-flavoured dish. Agrette is a marsh grass from the Veneto; you can buy it from www.natoora.co.uk. Alternatively, use samphire, but it’s much saltier, or blanch a few leaves of parsley.
Serves 6
Ingredients
One large brill (2-3kg) cut into 6 tranches on the bone
Water
250ml white wine (good acidity)
6 bay leaves
3 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp fennel seeds
Salt
3 bulbs of fennel, cut into sixths
12 small carrots, peeled
200g bunch of monk’s beard (known as agrette in Italy)
For the anchovy sauce
10 salted anchovy fillets
Juice of 2 lemons
100ml good olive oil
Boil the water in a saucepan large enough to hold all your pieces of fish, with some space left around them. Add the white wine, bay, thyme, rosemary, peppercorns, fennel seeds and season with salt.
Bring back to the boil and add the fennel and carrots, simmer until the vegetables are soft, and then carefully remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside. Keep the stock to one side to cook the fish in later.
For the sauce, in a large pestle and mortar or Magimix, crush the anchovies to a fine paste and then squeeze over the lemon juice. Let the mixture sit for a minute or two to mellow, and then slowly add the oil to make a semi-emulsified sauce.
Once you are ready to cook the fish, bring the stock to the boil and add the fish, and immediately turn the heat right down. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the flesh pulls away from the bone.
Once the fish is ready add the vegetables back to the broth, with the monk’s beard. Reheat, remove everything carefully with a slotted spoon and serve with the sauce.”
Buy Monk’s Beard online today and try this fantastic recipe!
Posted in Fruits and Vegetables, In the press, Recipes | 
Tags: Agretti, Barba dei Frati, Easter, Fish, Monk's Beard | 
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In the press: Phill Truin Free Range Chicken
This week, the Daily Mail reviewed a range of chickens, from supermarket basics to premium poultry delights. Moen & Sons fantastic Phill Truin’s free range chicken scored a delicious 8/10 in their blind taste test.
“1. PHIL TRUIN’S FREE-RANGE SUPER-CHICKEN, www.natoora.co.uk
£9 per kg
HOW IS IT BRED? They live in small batches in a paddock in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and are fed a natural diet by hand. Slow-grown, they mature for 14 to 16 weeks before being slaughtered on site.
John: It’s sweet, it’s earthy, it’s really interesting. Looks like a turkey, but the flavour is all chicken. Great for a special gathering. 4/5
Anne: This would be perfect to serve to a group of friends for Sunday lunch — it has a lovely, mild flavour. 4/5
TOTAL 8/10″
In the press: Fresh pasta
Tried and tested: fresh pasta, by Rose Prince
(The Telegraph, February 12 2011)
Rose Prince wrote such a lovely review of our fresh pastas in this weekend’s Telegraph. Both our oustanding handmade pastas from Vittorio Maschio and the ever-popular Fresh Pasta Co. were included in her “tried and tested” favourites. Read her lovely words below or the full article here.
“When I first met Vittorio Maschio, he was making pasta above a pizzeria in Battersea. Originally from Venice, he had perfected a pasta dough recipe and was doing well selling to chef Giorgio Locatelli and restaurants like The Ivy. He has since linked up with Natoora, the south-London-based Italian and French produce specialist that sells outstanding fruit and vegetables, as well as other specialities online.”
“Maschio mixes different flours to make tender but resilient pasta. Ingredients for both plain and stuffed pastas are natural and the flavours perfectly judged. He makes a large range of plain pasta shapes, both quirky and common; long, plump bigoli (like fat spaghetti), creste di gallo (”coxcombs”), tiny gnocchetti from Sardinia and egg lasagne sheets. All these are available from the Natoora website for home delivery all over Britain; for larger orders of stuffed pasta there’s a bespoke service.” (Call us on 0207 627 1600 for wholesale enquiries).
“Recently we ate a heavenly supper of tiny pouches filled with fresh buffalo ricotta and herbs, served in a rich chicken broth with a few gratings of Parmesan. For winter dinners I have ordered fat rounds of pumpkin ravioli, flavoured with amaretti biscuits, as sumptuous as a pasta dish can be, and bigoli, made with white pepper and the yellowest eggs, crying out to be clothed in a rich carbonara.”
“These pastas contain no preservatives, and their shelf life is consequently short, but this is as close as you can get to having a genuine skilled Mamma in the kitchen.”
“Mark Garcia-Oliver has a practical solution for those who want good-quality pasta that keeps. Based in south Wales, Garcia-Oliver’s Fresh Pasta Company imports fresh pasta made with wholesome ingredients in a small family-run factory near Lake Garda. His filled pasta – venison, simple (delicious) ricotta, spinach, squash, braised beef – is generous, homely and leagues ahead of supermarket equivalents (his products are soon to be trialled in Waitrose). The pasta is made on Thursday in Italy, heat treated to add shelf life (though the flavours are still true) and reaches British shops four days later. His perseverance to bring good, fresh pasta to a wide British audience has paid off – buy from good farmers’ markets countrywide.”
- Natoora; 020 7627 1600 – pasta made by Vittorio Maschio (from £2.50 for 250g, serves two; filled pasta from £25/kg) and other excellent deli foods. (It also stocks the Fresh Pasta Company, below)
- The Fresh Pasta Company; 0845 603 7746 – call for stockists. Plain pasta from £3.99 for 250g; filled from £5.99 for 250g.
In the press: French Cheeses
“The very best French cheeses…tasted and rated by Bruno Loubet” – Observer Food Monthly, February 2011
We were so pleased to see such lovely reviews of our delicious French cheeses in this weekend’s Observer Food Monthly magazine. You can explore all our wonderful cheeses in our online cheesemonger, or read the reviews below.
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Brie de Meaux
“Wow, this stinks! I love it. Robust, ripe, complex flavour that lasts a long time. This is a knockout cheese.” 5 stars. Best buy. |
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Camembert de Normandie
“Very good, strong smell; it has depth, fills every part of your mouth. This is a great Camembert.” 5 stars. |
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Comté
“Tastes very specifically of hazelnuts, which is very nice. This doesn’t last all that long, though.” 3 stars. |