Tag: zingermans delicatessen
A Vermont classic since 1980
I’m very excited to announce that we have this great American cheddar back in stock at the Deli. It was one of our earliest artisan offerings back in the ’80s, one of the only farmstead American cheeses one could find anywhere back then, and we were very loyal to it for years. As I said about those Bianco di Napoli tomatoes above, the loyalty grew out of the consistent high quality of the product, and out of friendship with the marvelous, magical man who made it—the Paraguayan immigrant, Mariano Gonzalez. When Mariano left Shelburne after many years to pursue other projects, to my taste, the quality suffered. Consequently, sadly, we stopped carrying Shelburne. In recent years, the flavor seems to be well intact again! And so, happily, Shelburne Farms Vermont Cheddar is once again a deli staple. (Mariano continues to make cheese, currently at Grafton Village Cheese, which we also work with. He remains as kind, gentle, and skilled at cheesemaking as ever!)
In the spirit of Rebecca Solnit’s belief that trying to decide where a story begins is like dipping a cup in the ocean, it seems sound to say that before there were any cheese-loving Europeans on what is now Shelburne Farms, the Abenaki people had been living on the land for centuries. Europeans began arriving and taking the land in the 18th century. The town of Shelburne was formally incorporated in 1773 and by the turn of the century had about 400 people living in it. The lake the Abenaki had known as Bitawbágók was named Lake Champlain, in recognition of French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, Shelburne had about 1000 residents and a stunningly large sheep population of about 17,000. Cheap western wool coming back east on railroads pushed Shelburne farmers to trade sheep for cows. A large amount of the money made on those railroads went to the wealthy Vanderbilt family. Later in the 19th century, the youngest daughter of William H. Vanderbilt, Eliza Osgood “Lila” Webb, took her inheritance and bought up the land of what had been 33 different farms, totaling nearly 4,000 acres. The Webbs brought in hundreds of laborers to clear the lands, tear down the old farmhouses, and build a grand new estate. They engaged Frederick Law Olmsted to do the drawings and began building and laying out the grounds. While Rocco and Katherine Disderide were building the little 1300-square-foot corner grocery that, in 1982, would become the building in which we opened the Deli, the Webbs were constructing the New England equivalent of a summer palace on 1300 acres.
Lila Webb died in 1936, and over the following decades, the land began to degrade. Finally, in 1972, a fourth-generation set of siblings set up the Shelburne Farms nonprofit, to which the entire estate was later given. They started making cheese in 1980. Today, the land is worked regeneratively, with very high regard for natural ecosystems. The cheese is raw milk, a handmade cheddar crafted from the milk of the farm’s pasture-raised herd of Brown Swiss cows, starter cultures, a small bit of rennet, and salt. What we have in-house now has been aged for over two years. Nutty, floral, dry, and slightly sharp—for me, it’s a classic American cheddar. Great with everything! Fresh fruit, in macaroni and cheese, on grilled cheese, with whatever array of condiments tickles your fancy. And there’s a whole lot of history—both of Shelburne Farms and of Zingerman’s, in every bite.
Feelin’ cheesy
Honoring the passing of one of our favorite food-world people
One of the beautiful things about working with artisan food is that nearly all of our suppliers are staffed with caring, generous folks who share our values and are a joy to work with. Last month, we lost one of our favorites when James Mousigian passed away at the age of 65. The Monsieur Mousigian, February’s Sandwich of the Month at the Deli, is a tribute to our dear friend.
James was our rep for the small artisan firm of Fra’ Mani for many, many years, and we’re pretty sure he would have loved this sandwich! For those who don’t know the name, Fra’ Mani is the cured-meat company started many years ago by Paul Bertolli, once a chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley who’s also a kind and gentle soul. Since Day One, Fra’ Mani has been known for its high quality, and James was a remarkable and joyful part of it. I’m imagining him now with his signature pork pie hat and big smile, a smile we saw regularly at the Deli and at Camp Bacon for many years.
That said, James was more than just a sales rep. As Connor Valone, cured-meat specialist at the Deli, says:
He represented everything good about those in our industry: passionate, caring, and enthusiastic, not only about his products, but everyone he met. Being one of the warmest souls who walked into the Deli, smile wide and shining eyes glinting behind his signature spectacles, James was like a brother in meat and in spirit. It was entirely our pleasure to welcome him through the Deli front door, whether for a special event or just visiting with his family during the holidays; it made the “Traveling Salami Salesman” more personable, and among the most revered friends of ours.
Moreover, James was a kindred spirit who cared deeply about the arts, progressive causes, and the betterment of his fellow humans. He had a certain way of seeing each person as their own individual, treated everyone with enormous amounts of kindness and respect, and quickly made himself everyone’s friend. We are better for having known James, and we will deeply miss his charming presence, generous spirit, thoughtful advocacy, and big bear hugs.
The Monsieur Mousigian is our version of a French Croque Monsieur. It features the delicious Fra’ Mani smoked ham that James helped us bring to the Deli menu. The sandwich starts as a grilled ham-and-Swiss with a splash of Dijon vinaigrette on hand-sliced Bakehouse Better than San Francisco Sourdough. It’s topped off with a creamy Mornay sauce, sprinkled with Grana Padano cheese, and toasted until it’s a nice golden brown.
The Monsieur Mousigian is available every day in February. Our love for our dear friend James and his kind spirit will endure forever.
Un Monsieur, Monsieur?
P.S. We sell the wonderful Fra’ Mani ham that’s on the sandwich—sliced, by the pound—for anyone who wants to take it home and make sandwiches of their own!
Don’t miss this exceptional spice blend on the Deli’s shelves
My first experience with za’atar was when I visited Jerusalem for the first time, back when I was a student. Za’atar would come in small paper packets that you get when you buy bagelach in the Palestinian market. You tear the bread, dip the open end in a little olive oil, and then dip it into the za’atar. Aromatic and amazing, it was unlike anything else I’d ever tasted. Which is why, many years later, I’m so excited to have this artisan za’atar from Jordan. Since I got the samples a few years ago, I’ve been eating it at home regularly. I’m thrilled that it’s now on the shelves at the Deli for you to take home, too!
The za’atar comes to us through the hard work of Jumana Jacir, founder and owner of Kamā Local Gourmet in Amman, Jordan. Kamā means “desert truffle” in Arabic. When I knew that Jumana was coming to visit us in the cold last week, I got a bit anxious, but then I remembered she’d gotten a degree in design from Concordia University in Montreal, so our Ann Arbor version of extreme cold was probably nothing compared to what she’d worked through there! After completing school, Jumana decided to return home to Jordan to start a business. Much like our friends at Ziba Foods, who work with women in Afghanistan, she was determined to empower disenfranchised women in Jordan. We were fortunate to be able to host Jumana and her business partner, Khalil Haddad, this past weekend. They did wonderful classes for us on the origin of their products, sharing how they go to great lengths to make them truly exceptional. Right up our Zingerman’s alley.
Jumana’s work truly is remarkable. Everything from the story to the package to the product inside the jar is beautiful, delicious, and authentic! The za’atar starts with fresh thyme from selected farms. After the thyme is cleaned, the thin and delicate leaves are removed by hand, one at a time. The leaves are plucked from the branch fresh, then left to dry before being rubbed with a bit of pure extra virgin olive oil until it soaks in. The thyme is then mixed with pure Jordanian sumac from the north of the country, Jordanian salt, and sesame seeds. The sumac, sesame, and salt are really only accents. It’s the special Jordanian dried thyme that’s the feature.
You can eat the za’atar as I described above, with oil and bread. It’s also great on salads, pasta, rice, or sautéed vegetables. Grace Singleton, longtime co-managing partner at the Deli, loves using it on fresh salmon, much like a blackening spice. Super fine with chicken, and I love it for marinating olives as well! Great in yogurt, or on fresh goat or feta cheese! Be sure to take note of the aroma as well—it’s beyond amazing! This is truly a special product that I’m honored to offer.
Secure this spice blend
Amazing vinegar from a 500-year-old family estate in western Spain
If rare, sweet-sour, super-aged vinegars are your thing, like they are mine, you’ll want to grab a bottle or two of this special new arrival ASAP. It belongs in the same family as long-aged balsamics from Italy, the lovely PX Sherry Vinegar from southern Spain, the little-known but terrific Banyuls from France, and the amazing Rozendaal vinegars from South Africa. Reserva Vinegar from Marqués de Valdueza is a very limited edition. Only about 4,000 bottles were produced for the whole of last year! For context, a large vinegar factory might make that much in a single day.
Marqués de Valdueza is a superb example of what is possible when purveyor relationships are really good! We’ve been getting their splendid olive oil, as well as their wonderful wine vinegar and varietal local honeys, for years now. John Cancilla, longtime lead of the Valdueza team, and his wife Ana have become an integral part of the trips we do with Zingerman’s Food Tours in the Basque Country, Majorca, Andalucia, and now the Canary Islands. Both organizations are much better off from the connection.
While this vinegar will never be Marqués de Valdueza’s biggest seller, it is very close to the heart of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Argüelles, the seventh generation to lead the family business. Fadrique’s passion has powered this project over the last 15 years. The dignity and integrity with which he approaches his work come through in the quality of the finished vinegar. He could have chosen to purchase raw material from other producers, probably at a far lower cost. But, like Massimo Vignelli, Fadrique has, in his own words, repeatedly “made the decision to pursue quality, even if it was less profitable.” The vinegar is made solely with the estate’s own products. Hand-harvested grapes are crushed to produce fresh juice, known in the wine world as “grape must.” The must in this vinegar was started in 2007. It was then slowly reduced over many years to concentrate the natural sugars and complex flavors. The wood of the barrels it’s aged in informs the flavor, much as the quality of the soil would impact plants that grow in it.
The other ingredient that is carefully blended with the aged must is Valdueza’s very fine wine vinegar. Made using the traditional, natural Orleans method, the wine vinegar was begun more than a decade ago, in 2013. In both cases, the barrels are authentic French oak. Lesser-quality vinegars come from barrels made of easier-to-find wood, and oak chips are added to contribute a bit of oak flavor while still saving money. In the case of this special vinegar, the oak barrels have been broken in by the highly regarded Vega Sicilia winery in the Ribera del Duero region. The resulting vinegar condiment is compellingly bright, almondy, and aromatic, with an amazingly long finish.
What do you do with vinegar this special? Come summer, John Cancilla sometimes uses it on an insalata caprese; he warned me not to tell his Napolitana mother since “No one puts vinegar on a caprese.” This time of year, I like to sprinkle a little onto roasted peppers. John also says it’s great on a traditional salad of salt cod (bacalao) and orange that’s done in the region. Fadrique told me that he adds a bit to gazpacho. He also recommends a few drops on aged cheese or on really high-quality anchovies. Here in the late autumn in Ann Arbor, it would be wonderful on a Waldorf salad with local heirloom apples and toasted walnuts.
If you know anyone who loves great vinegar, buy a bottle of this very fine one from the Valdueza family for them before it is all gone! It makes a great gift for any food lover, all the more so if you pair it with a bottle of the Marqués de Valdueza’s marvelous estate-produced extra virgin olive oil!
Buy a bottle
Plus a box of her favorite things (raindrops on roses not included)
There’s a saying that “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” and that’s exactly how Abra Berens found her way into the world of food.
Back in 2002, she was a student in Ann Arbor, out for a long walk and thinking about her future, when hunger struck. She happened upon Zingerman’s Deli, stepped inside—and quite literally stumbled into her life’s work. Abra tripped over the door jamb in front of the Bread Box, and the person behind the counter immediately came around to help her up, offering a sample of Sour Cream Coffee Cake.
She ordered a sandwich, sat in the Next Door Café, and was inspired to apply for a job. Spoiler: she got it, and more than 20 years later, Zingerman’s remains one of the defining influences in her life. It’s where she learned how to taste, to lead, to think critically about food and where it comes from, and to dream big. Zingerman’s Co-Founder Paul Saginaw even officiated her wedding—to another ZCoBber—and Rodger encouraged her to pursue culinary school at Ballymaloe in Ireland. Under the guidance of Founder Darina Allen, she deepened her understanding of the relationship between farms and restaurants, knowledge which continues to shape her work as an author and the culinary director of Granor Farm.
Not bad for a stumble, a sample of Sour Cream Coffee Cake, and a sandwich that needed two hands to hold.
Abra loves Zingerman’s so much that she curated a whole collection of favorite foods for Mail Order. And then she selected seven special favorites to pack together into one box—some she’s loved for years, others she’s just discovered. Together, they reflect our ongoing search at Zingerman’s for great-tasting foods crafted by passionate makers.
Sour Cream Coffee Cake – The cake that started it all. This is Zingerman’s classic in its purest form. Abra’s favorite story about it goes back to her time working for Chef Paul Virant at Vie Restaurant. When he teased Zingerman’s Co-Founder Ari Weinzweig about the price of the cake, Ari sent him one the next day. After tasting it, Chef Virant turned to Abra and said, “It’s worth it. Honestly, it should cost more.”
Roadhouse Bread – Abra is a devoted fan of Zingerman’s Bakehouse breads, and Roadhouse is her very favorite. Developed by Shelby Kiebler (now the owner of Field & Fire in Grand Rapids, Michigan) for the opening of Zingerman’s Roadhouse, this loaf has a burnished crust and a tender crumb made from rye and wheat flours with a touch of cornmeal. It’s also a testament to the Bakehouse’s dedication to regional, stone-milled whole grains.
Lutenista Red Pepper Spread – On a recent trip to the Deli, Chef (and mentor) Rodger Bowser scolded Abra, half-jokingly, for never having tried this spread. “I’m so disappointed in you,” he said before dropping two jars into her basket. It’s now a household staple—tossed with pasta or spread thick on toast with smoked fish. Abra’s lesson learned? “When Rodger tells you to do something (like go to cooking school or buy a specific jar of sauce), you should do it.”
Germack Pistachios – A Detroit institution since the 1920s, Germack still roasts some of the best pistachios around. Abra’s family sends them as holiday gifts every year—and, naturally, keeps a few bags for themselves.
Rancho Meladuco Medjool Dates – While exploring Zingerman’s Mail Order offerings for this box, Abra came across these dates and thought, “I need to know what a $24 box of dates tastes like.” Now she’ll tell you: they’re worth twice that. Soft, rich, and unbelievably delicious.
Hot Peppers in Olive Oil – She loves these for their gentle, layered heat and versatility. Finely chopped and stored in oil, they’re ready to spoon over almost anything. Her favorite pairing? Sweet Medjool dates topped with these peppers, served over ricotta or whipped tahini for a sweet-spicy appetizer.
Spiced Plum Preserves – As a child, Abra was enchanted by the idea of sugar plums, and as an adult, plums have become her favorite fruit. These preserves capture their perfect balance of tart and sweet. She often spoons them over yogurt or scones, but also uses them to glaze roast chicken or serve alongside pork chops. When the parsnips are ready at Granor Farm, she plans to roast them and top them with this jam—a simple act of everyday luxury.
She hopes you enjoy what’s inside her collaboration gift box as much as she does—and that you, too, might stumble into a delicious life with Zingerman’s as your guide.
Remarkable artisan pasta from Italy’s east coast
Over the nearly 44 years that we have been working with traditional full-flavored foods, so much has grown, changed, and improved. There is far, far wider recognition of what goes into making well-crafted artisan foods so amazing. Seasonality is now, in our corner of the culinary world, well understood. People understand that olive oil and wine have annual harvests, and that each year brings somewhat different quality, flavor characteristics, and quantity. The 2025 olive oils that will be harvested and pressed in the coming months will, by definition, taste different from the 2024 oils from the same estates.
I don’t think this understanding has been carried forward, though, to wheat and pasta production. Our friends at Mancini Pasta in the Marche region of Italy are on a mission to change that. They recently shared this about the state of this year’s harvest, completed a couple of months ago now:
With the new “vintage” of Pasta Mancini—Harvest 2025 now in production, we are very keen to share with you the very positive characteristics of our new harvest.
On July 13th, we concluded our annual harvest of the Mancini wheat. This season was characterized by very favorable weather conditions, which contributed to a particularly good harvest.
Specifically, we would like to highlight:
HEALTH – zero chemical residue.
QUALITY – high protein content.
QUANTITY – 6,400 tons harvested from the 1,157 cultivated hectares, with an average of 5,5 tons per hectare, and peaks of as much as 8 tons per hectare in coastal areas.
(For more info on Mancini’s 2025 harvest, go to the Notebook on their website.)
Artisan pasta has long been one of the greatest contributors to the quality of my culinary life. Rustichella, Martelli, Cavalieri, Gentile, Faella … all have enhanced my pasta-eating enjoyment for many years now. Six or seven years ago, I added a new-to-me arrival to that list. Pasta Mancini, from the Marche region on Italy’s east coast, has become a regular item at our house, and on our shelves at the Deli. It is also the pasta in the Roadhouse’s remarkable and widely praised Macaroni and Cheese. If you like eating artisan pasta even an eighth as much as I do, consider giving it a try.
Mancini is unique among my favorites because it is the only farmstead pasta maker in Italy, meaning that the pasta is made in the same place that the wheat is grown. In fact, if you go on their website, you can see an aerial map of the fields. This might help you picture where the wheat that’s cooking in your pasta pot came from.
Four varieties of wheat go into the pasta: Maestà, Nazareno, Farah, and Nonno Mariano (the latter is named for Massimo Mancini’s grandfather and developed with agronomist Oriana Porfiri). The family has been farming this land for nearly ninety years now—Lorenzo Mancini, the fourth generation to help lead the family business, says, “We are first farmers, then pasta makers.” They began growing wheat in 1938, right before World War II. Nearly 20 years ago now, the family built a pastificio (pasta factory) right in the middle of the wheat fields! The design of the building was done, effectively, I think, to be in harmony with the surrounding fields.
All the same important techniques that go into any great artisan pasta are at play here, too—low-temperature mixing, bronze die extrusion (properly made pasta should have a very rough surface), and slow drying (48 hours for the long cuts). Mancini keeps the grain in cold storage at 18° Celsius and blends the various wheat varietals each year to get the flavor they’re looking for in the finished pasta. With that in mind, each year’s pasta will, indeed, be slightly different in flavor, just as one would expect with an estate olive oil or wine. The aromas of the grain will fill your kitchen while you’re cooking, and the perfume of the pasta will peak if you pour out the pasta water (be sure to use a bit of it to thicken your sauce first). The palate-catching quality particulars that make Mancini so good must, by definition, be directly related to the quality and types of wheat they’re growing, and then the skills and styles of their milling and making procedures. The pasta really is fantastic. Great chewy texture (be sure to cook very al dente) and great flavor. Remember, with all artisan pasta, the pasta itself, not the sauce, is supposed to be the star of your supper.
One other indicator of pasta excellence: Taste it a day or two after you cooked it, cold. Industrial pasta will have all the appeal of soggy commercial white bread. Great artisan pasta, on the other hand, will taste like a bit of well-made sourdough bread.
We have five shapes on hand to get going—mezze maniche, fusilli, maccheroni, penne, and spaghetti. The Mezze Maniche are the favorite at our house. They are short and stubby, 1 inch or so long and nearly as wide, “tubettes” of pasta, and their name means “short sleeves.” The Maccheroni are what we use the most of. The Roadhouse goes through about 500 pounds a week all on its own!
All the Mancini offerings are marvelous. I learned years ago that a bowl of just-cooked artisan pasta, topped simply with great olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino, gives you a world-class meal in under 15 minutes. Same goes for a just-cooked Mancini pasta tossed with room-temperature butter, coarsely ground black pepper, and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Easy, remarkable, and, although your serving plates are almost certainly much simpler, a better meal shall not be had at Buckingham Palace.