Di Bruno Bros. The Culinary Pioneer Spring 2016

Culinary Pioneer THE

A Q UA RT E R LY G U I D E TO YO UR N EXT FO O D A DV EN TUR E!

Spring 2016

Hope springs eternal.

AND SPRING MAKES US HOPE FOR ALL THE BRIGHT, CRISP, REFRESHING FOOD WE’RE ABOUT TO EAT!

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THE CULINARY PIONEER SPRING 2016 | CONTENTS

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QUICK, FRESH, AND R E A D Y- T O - I M P R E S S P A I R I N G S

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GIFTS FOR MOM

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GIFTS FOR DAD

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SPRING SANDWICH SPECIALS

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L I G H T & E A S Y PA S TA S

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F A M I LY R E C I P E : H O M E M A D E M E AT B A L L S

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VENDOR SPOTLIGHT E S S E X S T. C H E E S E

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MONGER PROFILE

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QUICK, FRESH, & READY-TO-IMPRESS

FRESH RICOTTA soft, fluffy, spreadable

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MITICA HONEY imported from Italy

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DB PISTACHIOS (CRUSHED) roasted & salted

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SLICED BAGUETTE

BRABANDER sweet, nutty goat Gouda from Essex St. Cheese

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FAT TOAD FARM CARAMEL SAUCE creamy, smooth, sweet

WILDE WEIDE springy, grassy, herbaceous Gouda from Essex St. Cheese

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LA QUERCIA PROSCIUTTO sweet, salty, nitrate-free

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FRESH ARUGULA

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SLICED BAGUETTE dibruno.com

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Pairings MASCARPONE creamy, rich, delicate

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CAMPARI 15 YEAR AGED BALSAMIC thick, nutty, sweet

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FRESH STRAWBERRIES

ALPHA TOLMAN fruity & buttery

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TAIT FARM FOODS GINGER PEACH CHUTNEY sweet and tangy

MELTED CHALLERHOCKER smooth as velvet

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TAIT FARM FOODS SOUR CHERRY JAM like eating fresh cherry pie

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SLICED BAGUETTE

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Gifts for

M O M

MARQUES DE VALDUEZA ESTATE EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL This oil is produced by a single estate that has been in the family since 1624. Rich and buttery with a delicate, slightly floral finish. An outstanding finishing oil.

THE BELLA MOTHER’S DAY GIFT BOX Here’s a simple way to let mom know you appreciate her as much as you both appreciate good food! We’ve composed an array of our favorites including Delice de Bourgogne, Black Lava Cashews, and Bequet Caramels that are sure to delight!

Sunday May 8

DB OIL & VINEGAR CRATE The quintessential Italian duo.

Let your cooking soar to new heights with these classics.

THE BELLISSIMA MOTHER’S DAY GIFT CRATE She brought you into the world (and did a whole lot more since), and she at least deserves some super luxurious cheese for all that! We’ve hand-selected the perfect Mother’s Day assortment, that she’ll eat up all day (and the next and the next! Long live Mother’s Day!)

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THE PAPA ROBUSTO FATHER’S DAY GIFT CRATE Gift boldly and let dad know the Pepper Shooter doesn’t fall far from the Soppressata!

Habanero Blend cheese, Black Lava Cashews, spreadable salami, plus a Di Bruno Bros. knife so dad can spread and slice to his heart’s content.

THE PAPA BELLO FATHER’S DAY GIFT BOX We honor dad with a glorious collection of bold flavors.

A dense and serious Gruyere, a perfectly paired Onion Cabernet Spread, crunchy Black Lava Cashews and more bolster this bounty of goodness.

Full-bodied, distinguished.

Robust, yet refined.

Gifts for

D A D Sunday June 19

LA QUERCIA ACORN-FED TAMWORTH HAM Rich, strong, sweet, and nutty with a silky, melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Acorns have been associated with superior dry cured meat for centuries, and La Quercia is proud to be the first to bring this tradition to the US.

HANK SAUCE A zesty and flavorful hot sauce with a stealthy heat that keeps you coming back for more. Perfect for wings.

Add to your morning eggs and wake right up!

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April • May • June

sandwich specials Everyday our culinary experts are perfecting and expanding the art of putting delicious foodstuffs between slices of beautiful bread. To spotlight their handiwork, we now offer two Chef’s Sandwich Specials a month

at the counter. Here’s a sneak-peek at the droolworthy menu so you can start planning your lunches. Ditch the vending machine, escape the office, soak up some sun, and enjoy a deliciously easy, handmade sandwich!

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1. T HE BUCHERON SPECIAL

april

4 th - april 17 th

Bucheron, first-of-the-season asparagus & forest mushroom salad, radishes, and watercress with a touch of fig jam on chardonnay miche bread.

2. T HE CHICKEN WALDORF

april

18 th - may 1 st

White meat chicken salad with grapes, celery, apples, golden raisins, and Birchrun Blue cheese on raisin walnut bread.

3. THE MAMMA MIA

may

2 nd - may 15 th

Fresh mozzarella, vine ripened tomato, basil pesto, and Prosciutto di Parma on an everything focaccia.

4. T HE BEAT THE HEAT PANINI

may

16 th - june 5 th

Nduja, Pecorino Crotonese, broccoli rabe & pepper salad, lemon garlic aioli, and pesto on focaccia.

5. T HE BEER LOVERS CLUB

june

6 th - june 19 th

Bronzed pork loin, Stilton Reserve, speck, pickled tomatoes, lettuce, and Marcona almond aioli on craft ale bread.

6. T HE PEACHES AND PROSCIUTTO

june

20 th - july 3 rd

Perfectly ripe peaches, Prosciutto di Parma, Taleggio, arugula, and Lucero Ascolano olive oil mayo on rustic ciabatta.

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LIGHT & EASY

Pastas

Your favorite dish doesn’t have to be heavy. Simple, seasonal ingredients will help keep that spring in your step!

ROASTED GARLIC & HERB LINGUINI • Linguini of your choice • DB Roasted Garlic & Herb Cheese Spread • DB Classico Olive Oil • La Quercia Prosciutto • Fresh peas • Salt and pepper to taste Add Roasted Garlic & Herb Cheese Spread to a saucepan with DB Classico Olive Oil. Simmer on low heat until melted. Add prosciutto and peas to sauce. Pour sauce over linguini and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste!

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GREEK PASTA SALAD • • • • • •

Sfoglini Radiators Sicilian Oil Cured Black Olives Essex St. Cheese Feta Marques de Valdueza Olive Oil Fresh spinach Roasted peppers

Lightly sauté fresh spinach. Add to a large bowl with cooked Radiatori and mix in other ingredients.

Drizzle Olive oil over top and finish with salt and pepper.

PESTO FUSILLI • • • •

Bartolini Fusilli Pasta Di Bruno Bros. Pesto Roasted tomatoes DB Classico Olive Oil

Mix cooked fusilli in a large bowl with pesto sauce. Add as much pesto as you want! Stir in roasted tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil.

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AT? THE ME H G N I S T S I MI BA L L W T H E A E V A N H CIPE O THE RE GE! A NEXT P

DI BRUNO BROS.

FAMILY RECIPE Meet Chef James, who brings this recipe and our day-to-day culinary world to life. He joined the Di Bruno Bros. family in 2006 after cooking for some of the greatest restaurants in the Philly area. Chef James takes a simple approach to food, choosing to focus on each ingredient’s integrity without over complicating a recipe. Here he shares his means for making a massive amount of meatballs! Mangia!

homemade meatballs YIELDS APPROX. 40 GOLF BALL SIZED MEATBALLS

3 lbs. ground beef 3 slices of day-old bread 1/2 cup milk 3 eggs 1/2 bunch of Italian parsley, minched 3/4 cup Pecorino Romano, grated 2 Tbsp. kosher salt 1 Tbsp. black pepper Soak the bread in milk for 30 minutes. Squeeze dry and add to rest of ingredients. Incorporate well by hand. Do not over mix. Roll meatballs into desired size.

Meanwhile, in a heavy bottomed large surfaced saute pan, add about a half inch of canola oil and heat to 300 degrees. Do not overcrowd the pan. Fry the meatballs in batches until dark brown on all sides and internal temperature is 160. If you don’t have a thermometer, break a meatball open to check for doneness. Drain on paper towels and add to your favorite sauce.

Hint: You can bake these in the oven if you prefer not to fry. Just lightly coat with oil, and bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Be sure to space an inch apart for even cooking.

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VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Essex St. Cheese Brooklyn’s Essex Street Cheese Co. is a cheese importer and wholesaler that focuses on a limited number of perfectly ripened classic cheeses, handpicked at the source.

ESSEX ST. FOCUSES ON A FEW WELLAGED CHEESES, SPECIALLY SELECTED AT THE SOURCE. HERE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITES:

They are cheesemongers themselves and offer cheesemonger training and education both on-site and with trips to the farms that make the cheeses, in France, Holland, Italy and Spain.

Essex St.’s Manchego 1605 is one of the few that is handmade with unpasteurized milk from a single herd, aged with an unwaxed rind.

Marcel Petite Essex Comté

Cravero Parmigiano

Remeker aged for six months is called Remeker. After being aged for 18 months, it is called Olde Remeker. If it has a natural rind, it is aptly titled Remeker Pure and has been aged for 8 to 9 months. There will be a quiz on this!

Manchego 1605

L’Amuse Gouda

“Oh my God, what was that?”

Essex St. Cheese hand selects Marcel Petite Essex Comté from among the 100,000 wheels slowly and coolly aging in the caves, basing their choices on flavor profile, not on age or price.

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- Huffington Post after tasting L’Amuse Gouda

MONGER SPOTLIGHT:

malachy

Franklin Cheesemonger, Certified Cheese Professional, and talented illustrator, Malachy, was recently selected for an internship through Essex St. Cheese with L’Amuse Gouda in Holland. His handwritten and illustrated application detailed his plans to keep a visual journal of his trip. We’ve included a few of those illustrations here. Enjoy!

What inspired you to pursue a career as a cheesemonger?

I credit my wife, Amanda, with sparking my interest in cheese. She’s been working in food policy for a while and her interest and advocacy around good, local food opened my mind and started me on my current path.

You have an internship with Betty Koster of L’Amuse coming up in Holland. What about your time there are you most excited about?

I’m excited to work alongside Betty (and the rest of the team at L’Amuse). She and her husband Martin are great ambassadors of Dutch cheese.

I’m really thrilled to have the opportunity to visit with the cheesemakers and affineurs behind some of the best loved cheeses at Di Bruno Bros.’ cheese counters (Wilde Weide, L’Amuse, Brabander, Remeker, etc). Having the ability to see a product’s entire life cycle — from liquid milk to cheese room to aging cave to cheese counter — is a rare treat and one I don’t take for granted.

It strengthens my understanding of the product.

It is knowledge I can then pass along to other mongers and the Di Bruno Bros. clientele.

Why do you love L’Amuse?

L’Amuse has that quintessential Gouda flavor — butterscotch, toffee, caramel. What I love most about it though is the texture. For a cheese aged over two years it is rather creamy and shot through with little tyrosine crystals. At L’Amuse they age the cheese at higher temperatures and humidity to promote flavor development while retaining that smooth texture.

Aside from L’Amuse, what are your three favorite cheeses at the moment?

Ouleout - A washed-rind cows milk stinker from New York’s Vulto Creamery. It is dense and creamy and possesses an almost stone-fruit-like sweetness that mingles nicely with the funk.

Terschelling Sheep Gouda - An unusual sheep milk Gouda from Terschelling Island in the North Sea. It tastes like a butterscotch krimpet... or yellow birthday cake, for those not from the Philadelphia area.

Cashel Blue - A cow’s milk blue from County Tipperary in Ireland. It is really buttery and grassy with a smoky minerality that adds a shot of complexity.

What is your favorite part about being a monger at DB? Definitely the people. Whether it’s my fellow employees, the customers, the producers or sales reps for our vendors I get to interact with people who are engaged and excited about good food.

Food is a great leveler.

What do you wish people knew about cheese?

I believe that one’s taste can change — even well into adulthood. For someone to say “I don’t like X cheese” is limiting. It also dismisses the fact that within styles and milk types there is immense variation. There really is a cheese for I approached it more as a pitch for a project rather everyone. You just might need to than a straightforward essay. I’m always dlooking i b r u n o . c otry m them | 1all 0 to find it. for opportunities to combine my love of cheese with my love of art and illustration.

Your application for the internship was a bit unconventional, incorporating your original illustrations. Can you expand on what made you think to do it that way?

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FE E L T H E C H EES E LOV E? SHA RE T H E C H EESE LOV E. Some fresh picks from our friends on Instagram.

cybele.mp First time I have ever been to #dibrunobros when we were the only customers. Watched as they prepped a 70 lb wheel of gruyère with a street value of $1,800. #ihaveexpensivetaste #iwantcheeseforchristmas

_snarkattack A #fantastic little #cheese treat. This is a Burrata, a #homemade #pesto enclosed in #mozzarella them wrapped in leek leaves. #dibrunobros #philly #italian #market

jillytarakara Fancy soda lemonade + pretty day = nice would recommend 10/10

cicciatlv #dibrunobros stores supply with #ready #fresh #pizza #dough add a #preservativefree #prosciuttodiparma #arugula #mozzarella #garlic #balsamico and #enjoy with #wine #idea #fast #meal for #foodie

CH AT CH E ES E W ITH US ! @DiBrunoBros | #DIBRUNOBROS

Discover all of our delicious locations!

The Italian Market | Rittenhouse | The Franklin The Comcast Center | Ardmore Farmers Market Catering: Full-Service, Delivery, & In-Store Pickup DiBruno.com

NEW on the BLOG Di Bruno Bros. is excited to be partnering with fellow hometown hero, La Colombe Coffee Roasters! We are now proudly brewing La Colombe and pouring their innovative draft lattes at all our coffee bar locations!