Italian sausages and cheeses

Does anyone know of a place in the city that is open after 5 o'clock? I am making a trip this weekend and need to stock up, but time is running away from me, and I can only go after work. The Italian relatives are definitely picky.

Bariis open until 6:30. Their Italian sausage should please your picky relatives. Their cheese selection is not as good, but would do in a pinch.

Here's some threads about italian sausage.

thanks, this will definitly work for me being on my side of town.

hey a teeny au contraire . . . Bari sells real, imported aged Provolone and if that doesn't make your picky Italian relatives happy . . . well, it's a very solid start. And stop by D'amatos next door for some bread, cookies and a slice of Sicialian style pizza for the ride home.

bjr

Both Gino's and Riviera on Harlem Avenue are open until 6 pm during the week.

Conte di Savoia on Taylor by Bishop (so a block or so east of Ashland) is open into the early evening. I find their Italian sausage very good and they have a nice selection of the usual deli items, imported cheeses and packaged goods. They also carry Italian (and other) wines, beer, spirits. The Bari recommendation is also a good one, given the time constraint and assuming your starting from somewhere more or less near downtown. Those two should be the best bet.

Aside to bjt: the pizza at D'Amato's resembles 'Sicilian pizza' but it is what old timers here call 'pizza bread'. Since the D'Amato family is, I believe, not Sicilian, I don't think it makes sense to call their product 'Sicilian pizza'. Pardon the nit-picking but anyway, I agree, it's worth getting a slice with sausage...

Scusate ma sono così...
Antonius

oh no, I appreciate being corrected when spreading misinformation! Is this "pizza bread" then more of an Ital-American thing, like Chicken Vesuvio?

bjt

Thanks guys, I hit both places and bought 11 lbs of sausage. The 11th the sicilian sausage from Bari with the garlic and parsley and no fennel. I did great in the sausage department, and somewhat ok in the meat dept, some volpi and prosciutto de parma, but the cheese, was sorely lacking. Provolone and asiago, my only italian choices. I would loved to have gotten some bread, but we're leaving tomorrow morning, and thought it would be stale. You wouldn't happen to know of some bakeries off the skyway or S. Michigan, even Indiana that would be open around 7 or 8 am tomorrow would you? I am going to do a search and find the apple fritter place, and make a stop there.

nicinchic wrote:Thanks guys, I hit both places and bought 11 lbs of sausage. The 11th the sicilian sausage from Bari with the garlic and parsley and no fennel. I did great in the sausage department, and somewhat ok in the meat dept, some volpi and prosciutto de parma, but the cheese, was sorely lacking. Provolone and asiago, my only italian choices. I would loved to have gotten some bread, but we're leaving tomorrow morning, and thought it would be stale. You wouldn't happen to know of some bakeries off the skyway or S. Michigan, even Indiana that would be open around 7 or 8 am tomorrow would you? I am going to do a search and find the apple fritter place, and make a stop there.

On the cheese front, I'm not sure what Bari is carrying these days, as I haven't been there of late, but Conte di Savoia always has a couple of table pecorinos on hand, as well a table ricotta salata, Gorgonzola, Bel Paese, sometimes Taleggio, I think, as well as cheeses that can double as table or grating cheeses (the usual suspects plus incanestrato). Graziano's also has lots of the basic cheeses and the quality and prices there are great. On the mozzarella/ricotta front, the products of the midwest are at best okay and generally depressing. In the downtown area, Whole Foods and Fox and Obel have various 'upscale' Italian cheese (Stracchino, Marzolino, etc. etc. etc.).

For your bread, I recommend you go to Italian Superior Bakery on Western at Taylor; in the early morning a very quick trip from the Loop... great bread, open as early as you want (if you want to go before six, you should give a call: 312.733.5092)... If you go, get some whole wheat along with the white...
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=25477#25477
I might be there to say hello, though most likely not on duty... ... If I'm not there, tell Frank 'Tony' sent you.

Antonius

nicinchic wrote:Thanks guys, I hit both places and bought 11 lbs of sausage. The 11th the sicilian sausage from Bari with the garlic and parsley and no fennel. I did great in the sausage department, and somewhat ok in the meat dept, some volpi and prosciutto de parma, but the cheese, was sorely lacking. Provolone and asiago, my only italian choices. I would loved to have gotten some bread, but we're leaving tomorrow morning, and thought it would be stale. You wouldn't happen to know of some bakeries off the skyway or S. Michigan, even Indiana that would be open around 7 or 8 am tomorrow would you? I am going to do a search and find the apple fritter place, and make a stop there.

I believe D'Amatos, which is right next door to Bari, is open at 7. Once you get on the skyway going towards Indiana, there's no getting off, so I don't have any recommendations there. I believe the apple fritter place is Old Fashioned Donuts.

Antonius wrote: Conte di Savoia always has a couple of table pecorinos on hand, as well a table ricotta salata, Gorgonzola, Bel Paese, sometimes Taleggio, I think, as well as cheeses that can double as table or grating cheeses (the usual suspects plus incanestrato).

I discovered incanestrato just last year. What a wonderful cheese. I will never put Parmesan on pasta again.

I was standing at a deli counter waiting to pick up an order, when I spied several beautiful tall rounds of cheese with purplish brown rinds textured with indentations from the wicker baskets in which they were made. I asked the striking copper-haired Italian woman behind the counter whether it was like Parmesan. She said no, it was good for grating on pasta. I thought that was weird, because I always thought Parmesan WAS for grating on pasta. I soon discovered the difference.

She gave me a little piece of the incanestrato to taste. At first I was not very impressed. I was expecting that initial sour lactic flavor blast that you get from Parmesan. There was a little of that flavor but not much. In fact, initially I thought the cheese was rather bland. Then I started to feel a tingling on the side of my tongue. Soon, my mouth was filling with a warm earthy mushroom flavor that just kept swelling, eventually finishing with an astringent (but not sour) bite. It was such a complex sensation. I bought a pound of it, and have not gone back to Parmesan since.

The beauty of incanestrato on pasta, especially with a red sauce, is that it does not compete with the flavor of the sauce, rather it augments it. Because the flavor of the cheese is mostly back-loaded, it does not have the upfront sour brashness of Parmesan, but instead lets the tartness of the tomatoes come through. It extends the flavor cycle of the sauce, as the warm mossy flavor of the cheese slowly builds, at first mixing with the sauce then eventually overtaking it, and finally leaving your mouth tingling with a slightly tannic aftertaste. It makes a simple sauce into a wonderfully complex taste experience.

Sorry, I don't mean to wax poetic over grated cheese, but as I said, incanestrato was a recent revelation for me. If anybody has some more info on this cheese, such as favorite brands and local sources, I would be interested in hearing about it.

I haven't had parmesan on my pasta in years, I prefer hard ricotta or peccorino. However, latey I prefer Pecorino Siciliano Pepato. I'll have to try your suggestion.