Sunday Snapshots: Cannoli, Stilton Blue and Vino

Happy Sunday amigos! I hope you’ve been having a wonderful weekend. Maybe you got to try out some new foods? I did, and today I want to share them with you.

The first food, cannoli, isn’t new to me. I’ve ate them when I lived in the States, but this is the first one in Europe. I was beginning to think that cannoli might be an Italian-American creation because up until recently I had not seen them here. I also never saw them in the several northern Italian cities I’ve visited. It turns out that these small tubular, cream filled treats are in fact of Sicilian origin. Traditionally they used to be served only during Carnavale but nowadays are enjoyed year round.

The traditional recipe calls for ricotta cheese to be used for the stuffing, but some also use mascarpone. These appeared to be ricotta and as you can see they were sprinkled with pistachio bits. The taste was sweet with hints of citrus and the shell was buttery, crumbly and out of this world good! They tasted so good that I was left wanting another. Thankfully our neighborhood now has an Italian food shop and deli where I can purchase them. I can’t wait to eat more.

If you’d like to make your own cannoli then you should check out Manu’s recipe for her family’s Sicilian cannoli — they look amazing.

Hubby and I also stopped by our neighborhood fromagerie for some cheese and charcuterie. The cheese you see here is Stilton blue, or at least what was left over after we got done devouring it. I was so excited to see it on the counter because I’ve been waiting for a long time to give it a try. I’m no stranger to blue cheese and was ready to dive into the strong scent and taste that Stilton cheese is know for. We bought a couple of other cheeses but to be honest the Stilton was the winner of the bunch this day. I found the taste to be wonderful, it was creamy and the blue was not an overpowering taste. I might go as far as saying that Stilton is now my favorite blue cheese.

You can read more about Stilton here.

Of course no cheese tasting is complete without great wine, so we stopped at the wine shop. Though I know very little about wine, I do enjoy it very much…not to an alcoholic level though. Chianti, which comes from the Chianti region of Tuscany, is my favorite red wine. The first time I tasted it was on a trip to a winery just outside of Florence. I’m sure the rolling hills and gorgeous scenery added to me falling in love with Chianti, every time I drink it I’m transported to that day. This bottle of Chianti was a mid-range price one and it didn’t disappoint. We also purchased a bottle of red from Catalunya, an autonomous region of Spain. If you’ve never had Spanish wine then you are really missing out. I’ve never tasted a Spanish wine that I didn’t like and this was no exception. Both wines were fantastic!

Thanks for stopping by today! This month’s YBR submissions are now open and you can add your link here. I’ll have a Meatless Monday roundup for you tomorrow, see you then. Have a great work week and don’t forget to stop and enjoy life with some good food.:)