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[cdh]

Dear Mario-

I really love your work at inspiring Americans to think about cooking in a more Italian way... we all really need it, I think.

So... on to the question--

What American purveyors offer ingredients of an Italian level of quality?

Pretty broad, I'll admit. I'll give you a few examples of the stuff that raised the question:

1) Your own experiments with curing meats in the basement of your wine shop-- Nothing good enough out there in the NYC market, so you're making your own... or just helping your Dad's salumeria project in Seattle with a little experiment here?

2) Gorgonzola- I've found that that BelGioioso's Wisconsin produced cheese is as good or better than anything that Zabar's or Fairway have in the way of imported offerings.... much unlike fellow Wisconsonian Stella's offerings.

3) Dry pasta- I've not found an American product that can beat imported pastas... probably won't, given how affordable the imports are... unless you have a hint.

4) Specialty stuff, i.e olives and their oil, proscuitto, pancetta, etc. - Being a Philadelphian who spends a lot of time in NYC, I have the benefits of having everywhere from Tallutto's to Di Palo's at my ready disposal... but are there products that are worth getting that don't appear in the Italian shops like I've mentioned? Any domestic stand-outs that do appear in them?

[Mario Batali]

fret not you will know when you find the goods, da vero olive oil, vella jack sheese, grateful palette bacon, florida grouper, maryland crab, montauk lobster... etc the trick is not to look for substitutes for the italian products, but to identify the great and emerging domestic ones and support them there is no better gorgonzola than the italian, because that is what it is... wisconsin blue is good and even great but is not a sub for gorgonzola, it is a new category great us products some things like dry pasta and prosciutto di parma will not be improved upon... suck it up and buy them when you can and when it makes a dif mb