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Archive for March 5th, 2009

Italian enoteca Mar 05

I always have problems when I have to translate the word “Enoteca”, because it is a particoular place that the dictionary translates with “Wine Bar”.
This is the description I found on wikipedia.

Enoteca (plural: Enoteche) is an Italian word, formed by analogy with biblioteca (”book repository, library”), which literally means ”wine repository” (from Oeno/Eno- “wine”, and teca ????, “receptacle, case, box”), but is used to describe a special type of local or regional wine shop that originated in Italy.

The concept of an enoteca has also spread to some other countries. A genuine enoteca is primarily directed at giving visitors or tourists the possibility to taste these wines at a reasonable fee and possibly to buy them.

An enoteca is often run in collaboration with growers or growers’ or tourism organisations in the village or region. The reason such establishments were named to connote ”wine libraries” was that they were intended as a hands-on source of information on local wines rather than as regular outlets for larger quantities of each wine, or primarily intended for established customers.

Often, an enoteca stocks rather small amounts of each wine, and customers who wish to purchase large quantities after tasting are referred directly to the producers. In some cases, an enoteca will also sell other local foodstuff and/or serve small snacks to go with the wines.

Since some enoteche serve snacks with the wine, enoteca has also been used as the name of some wine bars or restaurants, especially bistro-style restaurants with Italian food.

Babà with Rum Mar 05

This is the Babà recipe I found on Italian Made.

For the dough:
1 oz. yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter
4 tbs. raisins

For the syrup:
3 tbs. sugar
1/2 cup water
4 tbs. rum

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of warm milk and 4 tbs. flour. Work into dough. Place dough in a bowl, cover, and let it stand in a warm place for 30 mins. or until it doubles in size.

Make a fontana on a pastry board with the remaining flour, a pinch of salt, the eggs, sugar, butter and fermented dough. Soak the raisins in lukewarm water, then squeeze out the excess water and add them to the dough. Pour the mix in a large, buttered, sugar-dusted ring mold and let rise again, in a warm place, until it doubles in size (it should take approx. one hour). Bake at 375ºF for 45 mins.

Prepare a syrup by dissolving the sugar in the water, over a low flame. Add the rum. Unmold the babà while still warm. Soak with the rum syrup and serve.

Note:
Small babà are made the same way, only the dough is divided and baked in smaller molds.