Giada Valenti: From Venice With Love: Kindness inspires kindeness

In a world where it looks that negative news and people behaving bad seems to get much more publicity and attention than good people doing great things, I want to share with all of you in this BLOG something beautiful, kind and positive.

This is happening in Italy but I’m sure something similar is happening right now also in other parts of the world and for sure also here in the USA where we are all watching in shock the horrible events in Texas.

The territory of Arquata del Tronto is a natural oasis located between two national parks: Sibilline and Gran Sasso Mountains and the Laga Mountains. Also called “The Queen of the Two Parks” is crossed by the Salaria (ancient Via del Sale- Way of the Salt).

Here they grow mainly: spelled, barley, lentils besides cereals and legumes.

This idyllic place was afflicted by the earthquake on August 24, 2016 and once again at the end of October.

In Piazza della Repubblica Portogruaro

In my recent visit to Portogruaro, Venice, I was visiting one of my favorite place where my parents always buy their coffee, Armonie di Caffe’, in the main Piazza of Portogruaro, Piazza Della Repubblica.

With Fernanda Gasparoni

While talking to the owner, a dear family friend of years, Fernanda Gasparoni, I noticed that she had at the entrance of the store a display filled with products coming from the Arquata territory.

With Fernanda and Maria Cristina at Armonie Di Caffe' in Portogruaro, VE.

Fernanda and her daughter Maria Cristina, as kind as they are , were so eager to tell me all about it. She told me that after having seen the destruction of their territory hit twice by the earthquake, had heard from her son on how the local businesses of the local companies were continuing to produce their product despite their structures being either inadmissible or completely destroyed. They were temporarily operating in rented laboratories in Ascoli Piceno.

She decided to help them and she bought many of their product to support them.

She’s in constant contact with the two companies that she’s supporting, Molino Petrucci and Filotei Lini of Filotei Nando & C.

The Filotei Lini of Filotei Nando & C. is an artisan company that produces a wide assortment of mushrooms and black fresh truffles , dried, frozen and in jars, made into sauces, creams/spreads and pates in addition to some different kinds of cereals and mixed dried legumes, truffles and aromatic oils and spices.

The Molini Petrucci is also artisan company that

works with local grains and uses stone grinding, spelt flours, antique grain flours, special flours and classic flours, and also offers soups of cereals and mixed grains.

I was lucky to try some of their products and are a delight of taste. They offer for breakfast spotted spelled, spelled walnuts (spelled contains less gluten than other cereals and therefore is more digestible. Spelled flour is also used to cut other flours) .

For your lunch they have pasta with spelled, creamy condiments, olives, mushrooms, artichokes and sauce at the Amatriciana.

They have also side dishes, with mushrooms, artichokes, truffles, olives tomatoes. You can make nice crostini with pate ', or cream or truffle sauce. Delicious.

If you love like me soups, they have some delicious combinations. My favorites are Zuppa Primavera (Spring Soup), Zuppa Arquatana, Zuppa Del Molino (Soup of the Mill) and Zuppa Della Regina (Soup od the Queen).

Very delicious are also the Lentils of Castelluccio, of the Two Parks (the local one, both small, soft and great!) and they have aromatized oil and even, if you are a wine lover, the Piceno red wine.

Maybe we can all together change the trend and give voice and attentions to people like Fernanda that in silence and without looking for fame or recognition is doing something to help people in need.

There is love and kindness in the world. Let’s share it.

From Venice With Love,

Giada

www.filoteilino.it

www.molinopetrucci.com