This past weekend, I stumbled upon Bella Gusta, a new olive oil and vinegar store/tasting room in West Hartford Center. They sell infused olive oils and balsamic vinegars–varieties of which I’d never seen or dreamed of–all yours for the sampling! I was drawn to chocolate, grapefruit and jalapeno vinegars, but came home with espresso. Talk about espresso love!
I’m sure the possibilities are endless, but my first experiment was vinaigrette: deep, dark, dense and delectable! Now I really need to come up with a sexier salad to serve it with.
ESPRESSO HAZELNUT VINAIGRETTE
¼ cup hazelnut oil
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup espresso balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons coarse ground mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Whisk mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl. Drizzle in oil, whisking continually till incorporated, then slowly whisk in vinegar. Serve over your favorite sexy salad. You’ll be CRAZY about it!
January 21, 2011 at 10:36 am
Hi Katty,
Your blog is fabulouse about the balasmic and olive oils. We do not know that they are local in the US.
So can I use your text and translate it in dutch for my friends in Belgium?
I will ofcourse menting that it is your blog in the first place.
Kind regards an have a nice weekend!
Greetings,
Annick
January 21, 2011 at 11:34 am
Hi, Annick! Thanks for your feedback. Please feel free to share–it will be a virtual trip to Belgium for me, HA HA! And happy weekend to you, too!
>>^..^<<
January 22, 2011 at 4:36 am
thanks, I will try to send a copy!
Bye for now.
Annick
January 21, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Oh, that sounds absolutely fantastic! I bet that vinaigrette would work really well with bitter greens – oak leaf lettuce, Belgian endive, radicchio, frisée (curly endive)… you get the pickcha.
Dinner is when?
January 21, 2011 at 1:42 pm
When can you get here?
January 24, 2011 at 12:45 am
Oh this sounds AMAZING. I wish I had a store like this in Austin (we probably do…I just need to find it!) I can only imagine how much better my salads would taste with this dressing!
January 31, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Thanks so much for the kind comments about our store. It’s been a labor of love and we have had such a nice reception in West Hartford. Please keep a lookout for our website, soon to be live.
We would love to hear all of your recipe’s using our products in the future so we can post and share with our customers.
It truly is a great product and we have some exciting new arrivals; Northern Hemisphere single varietal oils from Sicily and California as well as a Cranberry Pear Balsamic and a Pineapple White Balsamic to name a few.
Alan
January 31, 2011 at 7:40 pm
My pleasure–what a great concept! Will definitely be up to check out the new arrivals, too.