Local Company Makes Entertaining Easy
At Guercio’s three of Tastings’ products were available, priced at $5.99 each. The first was a Heavenly Hazelnut Pesto made of roasted hazelnuts, basil, garlic, and oil. The second was called Aji a-Hot, a sauce made of Peruvian hot peppers, and the third was Olive Madness, the product I chose to bring home.
In order to test drive my find, I selected a box of crackers from the shelves at Guercio’s, one that I had never seen before. Sold in a cello bag accented by small brass grommets, Bello Rustico’s Italian crackers looked hearty enough to stand up to a tablespoon or more of a zippy olive mixture.
Bello Rustico crackers are available in a wide variety of flavors including rosemary, fennel, and sesame. For this particular tasting, I felt that the sea salt and cracked pepper flavor would be best. At $2.49 a package, they are an affordable alternative to the boxed crackers available at most supermarkets.
Olive Madness is a combination of minced olives (black and green), pimento, walnuts, basil, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and black pepper. I chose to form the spread into little quenelles and serve it atop the crackers with a little shred of Locatelli cheese.
Olive Madness is flavorful and rich, and less briny than I expected. The walnuts are difficult to detect but I think that they are responsible for the balance in this spread. The crackers did in fact stand up to the test and their firm, crisp nature kept them from growing soggy under the moist olive topping.
We will all be entertaining at some point this season- at the very least we’ll be asked to bring something along. If you’re interested in offering up a fantastic plate but don’t want to expend effort or money, this is a great addition to any celebratory table.
Click here for a video on how to make a quenelle.
Guercio's
250 Grant Street, Buffalo, 14213
716.882.7935
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salamooch
Yeah....make sure your spoons are CLEAN...and you should do it in no more than 3 turns! Are you familiar with the one spoon quenelle? Allez! Allez!
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ChristaSeychew
Here’s what salamooch is talking about....
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MikeLibra
Christa,
The Aji a-Hot is a wonderful roasted red pepper spread, great on grilled bread, or added to a sauce, or in a soup, and makes a nice dip as well.
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viking
Here's a trick that everyone except vegetarians can try, for a very reasonable amount you can purchase mixed cold cut ends, chop them in a food processor with flavored .mustard and mayo, season to your personal taste. As a spread or stuff peppers with this and cheese makes a killer appetizer. From Guercio's of course.
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RisingDamp666
Quenelles of truffled risotto in a braised lamb confit drizzled with a balsamic fig reduction, topped with shaved white truffle and served with an '01 Brunello Di Montalcino. Now that's entertainment!
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lauras
I second the comment about the Peruvian pepper dip. It is fantastic. I purchased some at a farmer's market this past summer.
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