S&M reopens and kicks off a year full of novelties.

Welcome back friends of Spaghetti and Mandolino! Our usual weekly newsletter is back, aiming to tantalize your taste buds and share some stories related to the world of flavor, tradition, and Italian excellence. We have relaxed a bit ourselves, but at the same time, we have tried to reflect on how to make our portal always better and rich in novelties.

As we had already mentioned, Spaghetti and Mandolino is becoming a reference point at the national level for online sales of typical Italian products, and this gives us a great responsibility towards all of you consumers and our loyal customers.

September always represents a turning point for us, especially because it is our birthday month and this year we are officially turning two. Back then, we started with a simple great idea and a challenge aimed at quality and the true and right made in Italy market: and we managed to put it into practice!

Moreover, September is also the month of new entries. Indeed, this year there will be many new additions to our selected suppliers. We have many requests for new entries, and we are also reaching out to other companies through our scout's continuous wandering in small towns, farmhouses, and countryside.

But one goal will stand out for this new year 2017–2018: we will focus greatly on direct bookings from our suppliers. We will especially do this for those small suppliers who work with raw materials in small quantities and transform the products of Mother Earth with their hands. These, in most cases, are unknown to most, even though they are highly sought after in their activity areas. Shepherds, fishermen, bakers, pastry chefs, pasta makers, butchers, cheesemakers, etc.: they are our army of goodness.

Thus, we will have the opportunity to deliver directly to your home from the workshop or factory, works of art prepared to satisfy your desires and your utmost quality requirements. We will seek emotions and stories of men and women who represent the products of their land at their finest. Our daily commitment to uncover the great protagonists of Italian food and wine will guarantee unique, rare, typical, and authentic products!

I would like to remember and thank the new suppliers who have been part of our gourmet proposal since the beginning of this year. Let's start with the specialists in refinement. The holders of the patent for the name “Ubriaco” of the cheeses: Casearia Carpenedo is one of the most prestigious realities in Italy for refined cheeses. A Venetian gem that has managed to have its products selected by the greatest chefs and operators in Italy and even appear with their Blu ’61 behind the windows of Harrod’s in London.

A beautiful entry from a young producer of excellent white wines made from pure Garganega, Natalina Grandi from Gambellara, with her sparkling wines and the fascinating Recioto di Gambellara DOCG.

Here comes Coffee Hat, a roasting company that has selected the world's best coffee crus and gathered them in a selection presented in author capsules.

Finally, one of the oldest cured meats factories in Veneto, Pavoncelli in Verona, which since 1899, in the town of Pescantina, has been producing typical Italian cured meats of quality with a specificity, the Carne Salà, one of its great strengths. 

Another new entry in S&M is Caldo Aroma, which allows access to selected coffee capsules of excellent quality even in quantities suitable for higher consumption.

A major entry we are proud of is Corte Luceoli, the artisans of the Visciola of Cantiano. The real one, the one that all the syruped sour cherries tasted so far do not measure up to the emotion of one of these intense visciola cherries. Extraordinary is the new entry of syruped visciole in purity: spine-chilling!

Our trust relationship with Fresh to Eat continues, which, with its brand Storie della Terra, selects for us Italian organic fruits and vegetables of the highest quality sourced from reliable suppliers from all regions.

Finally, we found the fishermen of the tuna. They are Mare dell'Etna, a cooperative from Acireale that processes the product right in Portopalo, the paradise of the seas of Sicily. The fish is all processed by hand, from cleaning to cooking and finally portioning the product. High-quality Italian tuna that has nothing to do with the canned tuna we are used to.

Riseria Cremonesi has been selecting rice for decades in the rice-growing land of Verona. Its selections reach the kitchens of gourmet chefs throughout Italy. Not only the typical Vialone Nano Veronese IGP, but the best Italian rices and some prestigious Asian selections.

We have started our collaboration with Corrado Benedetti, who is based in Alta Valpolicella. His cheeses and typical cured meats of this area are blended with the typical productions of Valpolicella and Lessinia. High quality and the refined packaging of an author.

Spaghetti & Mandolino is also very attentive to the entry of non-profit organizations that, through the processing of farm products, manage to bring smiles to less fortunate people. This is what the Associazione Multiforme of Fittà, a small ancient village surrounded by the Soave vineyards in Verona, does. Fantastic jams that are good in every sense.

The excellence of teas and infusions has chosen Spaghetti & Mandolino. Peter’s Tea House is the official partner of our portal with mixes of excellent teas and aromatic herbs selected from the most prestigious international plantations.

Parole nel Piatto is a micro artisanal reality in Verona producing sweets that makes the search for raw materials a principle of guaranteed quality.

One of the best pasta factories in Gragnano, declared by great gourmets, chefs, and operators among the top 5 Gragnano pasta makers is Gragnano in Corsa by Vincenzo Petrone. A pasta that will elevate the quality of your dishes and your kitchen. The true Italian pasta.

A great partnership is certainly with Altromercato, leader and founder of the international Fair Trade movement. We will increase their high-quality products that guarantee fair wages and economic and social justice to farmers and artisans of taste in their home countries.

We end on a sweet note with the best chocolatier from Modica for six consecutive years. Sabadì is all the genius and chocolate-making art of Simone Sabaini. Pleasure and unique design for an exciting and unpredictable chocolate.

We look forward to seeing the demand for one of the most typical Christmas and New Year’s Eve products bloom in the coming months: the Salama da Sugo IGP di Ferrara. It will be Salumificio Zironi that guarantees this excellent product that represents the history of Italian Padana cuisine.

This and much more on our channels, as the good evening ladies of Rai used to say a few decades ago. We take inspiration from those words, and undoubtedly from today we will begin a new and even more intriguing story of our beautiful country through the flavors, the scents, and the delicacies that make Italy unique and unrepeatable.

Bernardo Pasquali

S&M