At Sauced & Found, we offer a variety of catering and touring services to clients in and around Napoli, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. Our main lines of services offered are: Private chef, Food and wine tours, Cooking classes, and Travel interpreters.
All in Dining Guides
With travel to Italy somewhat challenging these days, now is a time to curate your ideal Italian pantry. Sure, Italian ingredients are more available than ever. But don’t waste your money buying extremely expensive imported oddities. Most Italian homes, especially Neapolitan ones, feature a few staples — dried pasta, tomato passata, oregano and olive oil. Never have I seen an overcrowded spice cabinet in Naples. The basics are simply salt, pepper, oregano.
It’s not Holy Thursday in Naples without Zuppa di Cozze Mussel Stew. While we may be abstaining for meat for several days in Napoli, that’s no reason to go hungry. Enjoy Sauced & Found’s recipe for authentic Neapolitan Zuppa di Cozze this year on Holy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter!
Are you wondering how to make your American Thanksgiving just a little bit Italian? Our Founder, Kristin Melia reminisces about her first Thanksgivings in Italy and offers tips on how to make your favourite American pig-out session ever so slightly Italian.
Far before the rise of the Roman Empire, Campania was already cultivating an intriguing array of grapes and fermenting into richly volcanic wines. Ancient Greek mariners fleeing the Trojan Wars (at least if Virgil is to be believed) brought the first vines or vitis vinifera to Southern Italy. The first red varietals included Piedirosso and Aglianco- a grape whose very name means ‘Hellenic’ in local dialect. Later Roman nobility would consider Campania’s wines the best in the Empire. While Campania has experienced invasions, volcanic explosions, earthquakes and plagues, her vinicultural traditions continue to surprise and delight. Here we outline the most notable Campania red wines. You can find the companion Guide to Campania White Wines here.
Italians don’t do savory breakfasts. Yet they do seem to think that all Americans eat bacon, eggs and biscuits every morning as if the US were a country full of farm hands. Obviously, they don’t know about avocado toast! Breakfast in Italy is fairly no nonsense and of the overwhelming sweet variety. It is also the only time when milk in coffee is acceptable!
Italy protects its food and wine with a variety of control designations. Learn about these designations with the helpful Sauced & Found guide to IGP, DOP, DOC and DOCG. Become and educated consumer and have fun tasting the foods of Italy in the process.
Maybe it’s working in the food industry that causes me to be so particular about where I eat when I eat out. I like honest peasant food that is of the moment and the place. I don’t like cinema. I don’t like pizzazz. Give me a plate of pasta and beans and I am happy. Give me a plate of pasta and freshly harvested borlotti beans that nonna shucked herself and I am ecstatic. The truth is that not many such restaurants exist in Sorrento. But I have managed to ferret a few out and here are my top five.
I enjoy both the pleasure and responsibility of introducing foreign guests to the wines of Campania. While it is true that many just want to get blotto on vacation (and who can blame them for coming to us—we call ourselves Sauced & Found after all)—it is equally the case that many of you want a fully immersive Campania wine experience. This is where the fun begins. Campania, thanks to its wildly varied topography and volcanic soil is the most biodiverse region in Italy. The same soil that gives the world the spectacular San Marzano tomato and squeaky buffalo mozzarella, also produces some of our most stimulating wines.
The Italian meal is more marathon than sprint. Actually, more accurately, the Italian meal is a languorous amble down a country road with ample comfort breaks and conversation. I fondly recall my first real Italian meal at a country inn somewhere on a hilltop in Val d’Orcia. On break from my real job in Rome working as a contractor for the British Government, I was eager to burn through my generous per diem- the same per diem that my more prudent colleagues would use to pay off their student loans.
in an oversaturated market in a popular tourist spot, choosing the right restaurant is important. While Italy is known for her unparalleled foods, not every restaurant serves to such a high standard. By the time you finish reading this article, I hope you cast your net to catch only the finest cuisine in Sorrento.
One of the cool things I was able to witness was a professional chef make a traditional Italian dish for a wedding. Now, the way people prepare a meal here seems to be different from the States. Here, you will add different ingredients until you decide it’s enough. Where in the States, you follow a recipe to the exact measurements. Don’t get confused, these recipes do have some measurements, but they are more like a suggestion and you decide what you would like to do instead.
Positano defies gravity. Pastel buildings hang like tendrils dipping over the sea. Mosaic church domes are wedged between cliffs. Old ladies with in matching house dresses and droopy nylons trudge up countless stairs. The town is vertical, funneling from a long, winding strip of coast into the hills. The highest neighborhood of Positano is Montepertuso, meaning Mount Hole in local dialect. As the legend goes, villagers attempting to escape marauders scampered into the hills above town only to become blocked by an imposing rock formation. They prayed to the Virgin Mary and so she ventured down from the heavens and parted the rocks, allowing the early Positanese to pass through safely. The hole in this rock formation is said to resemble the Madonna (I think it looks like an rather beaky eagle) and would give Montepertuso its name.
Trattoria, osteria, ristorante….. where to start? And more importantly what is the difference? A trattoria, like an osteria, serves simple, rustic food. Unlike a ristorante, a trattoria features a limited menu, often scrawled on a chalkboard or haphazardly scribbled on A4 paper and photocopied. But thoughtless, trattorias are not. These are establishments of cucina povera and if you hope to eat like a local while in Italy and do not happen to have an Italian nonna, then this where you want to spend you feeding time. Naples particularly has some of the best trattorias of Italy. Waves of tourism that have radically changed the restaurant industry in the rest of Italy (and not in a good way), have left Naples relatively untouched (for now). It is still possible to sit at a communal table, eat a hearty plate of pasta and enjoy a carafe of local wine for 10 euros. Below are Sauced & Found’s favorite trattorias in Bella Napoli. Some of these places have weird hours so always check hours first!
The international press has been obsessed with Elena Ferrante in ways the local Neapolitan press never have been. Some people think they have unveiled her true identity. Some people think she is a man. Many people love the books. Most Neapolitans have either never read them or vehemently despise them. The reason for this is varied- just as the town of Naples is varied- something that gets lost in the books themselves. Neapolitans almost unanimously agree that Ferrante writes like someone who has left Naples- particularly the brutal post-war periphery of Naples that was as chauvinist as it was bleak. There is no subtlety or dimension to this portrait of Naples. It is simply a place of violence that one must silently endure or boldly escape.
While the sfogliatella pastry and pastiera pie may be the undisputed kings of Neapolitan dolce, gelato will always remaining an admirable favorite. With warm weather still going strong as we launch into fall, the gelato shops of Napoli remain humming with activity. And what better way to spend a Neapolitan Sunday afternoon than with a constitutional stroll with a constitutional cone in hand. Below are Sauced & Found’s selections for the top five gelaterias in Napoli.
It’s a calm summer night on a terrace overlooking the Gulf of Sorrento. You have eaten a lot—too much really. Bruschetta, smoked provolone, oregano studded olives, bubbling eggplant parmesan, Gragnano pasta shells stuffed with salted cod and wild parsley and baked to a crisp gratin. Those were only the first two courses. The main course of Branzino stewed acqua pazza style in Vesuvian tomatoes and garlic puts you over the edge. Then dessert arrives- a crostata of plump boozy apricots and vibrant mint leaves. You are stuffed, finished, finito- but somehow your stomach defies its limits and the laws of gravity. You eat that sublime slice of tart. Just as you are wishing you wore those stretchy pants, out of the corner of your eye you spot a tray approaching. Chilled ceramic glasses and a bottle of electric yellow nectar materialize. Dinner is not over yet. The digestive has arrived. And it is limoncello.
So many foods to sample in this most spectacular region of the world. While the views alone are worth the trip- it is the food that makes you yearn to return.
Let’s get one thing straight ragazzi- pizza is just one of the MANY iconic dishes that Naples offers. Still no trip to Bella Napoli is complete without it. The original Neapolitan pizzas are the simple Marinara of San Marzano tomato sauce, oregano and garlic or the Margherita of tomato sauce, mozzarella or fiori di latte cheese and basil. The secret to enjoying a good pizza is to keep it simple. And for the love of God, don’t drive the pizzaioli of Naples crazy by trying to customize your f*cking order. Order what is one the menu and basta!
You have to try hard not to drink good coffee in Naples. Every neighborhood bar is a window into the vivacity of that sliver of Neapolitan territory. The first thing I do every morning after rolling out of bed and making myself look generally presentable (locals might argue that lululemon pants and crocs do not qualify as presentable Napoli- and who am I to quibble) is head to the bar across the street from my house. I go for the company. The invasive inquiries into my personal life. The exchange of hyper local recipes and even more hyper local gossip. This is the bar where I start my day. Twelve hours later, I will also end my day here with a spritz or a gingerino and a complex discussion of what was for lunch and what will be for dinner and how I will spend my Easter and whether I will make or buy my pastiera. It may only be February, and yet this is the idle chatter heard in Neapolitan bars everyday across the city. To know Napoli is to know her bars. Below are the most iconic.
There is a generous degree of debate regarding who has the best coffee in Italy. Neapolitans will unfailingly boast that ours is the best coffee in the world. I agree with that assessment. But I am also biased. As a rule, the coffee of the South is earthier and more full bodied. As you move up the boot, coffee brands change. In Naples Kimbo is King. In Rome you find a lot of Lavazza. Trieste is home to Illy. The brand you use at home says a lot about your allegiances so never give a Neapolitan a gift of Illy coffee. This will be unapologetically offensive. I did this once so I should know. After learning that I was supposed to take coffee and sugar to a dead relative’s family to commemorate a death-o-versary, I took Illy, thinking it posh. Let’s just say I made them all forget the somber occasion of the day.
