Small Bites

Red Alert
Ooma Tesoro’s Marinara, the refined red sauce crafted in small batches by Robin and Michael Tesoro of Tesoro Farm in Windsor, Mass., showcases the simplicity of whole, vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh garlic and sweet onion, and extra-virgin olive oil—without any added sugar or preservatives. Still, the seedless stuff has a nuanced, smoky quality.

“We definitely go through a more intense process than just putting tomatoes into the pot and cooking them,” affirms Michael Tesoro, who learned the top-secret recipe from his grandmother, a native of Avellino, Italy. Nab a jar at gourmet grocers and country stores throughout the region; as Tesoro likes to jest, you won’t be lying when you tell friends: it’s homemade.

RINGS OF FIRE
Boiled before being baked, from Annie Kirkpatrick’s kitchen to your kitchen table, Sunshine Bagels satisfy all taste buds. Kirkpatrick’s homemade, hand-shaped bagels are rays of light at the Elf Parlor coffee shop in North Adams, Mass.—though they also may be ordered and shipped to your door. Kirkpatrick crafts more than twenty-five oversize varieties, ranging from cranberry and goat cheese to pepperoni pizza.

“I put love into each bagel,” Kirkpatrick says, “and honestly, I think that makes bagels taste that much better.”

MAPLE MADNESS
Spring signals the end of bone-chilling temperatures to some, but to Berkshire Grown it represents a different sort of conclusion: “The first harvest of the season, which is maple syrup,” says executive director Barbara Zheutlin. To celebrate the amber elixir, Berkshire Grown hosts its annual March Maple Dinner at the Red Lion Inn on March 22, featuring executive chef Brian J. Alberg (at right) and a team of six other chefs from area restaurants. 

“People think [the food] is going to be very sweet because it’s maple syrup, but it’s actually savory,” Zheutlin explains, rattling off such delicacies as maple-cured Berkshire pork and cornbread tartlets with roasted squash and maple-pecan brittle. Happy spring, indeed.

Go with the Grain
Abiding by your New Year’s resolution to eat healthier? Easier said than done—unless, of course, you’ve got a stash of Berkshire Grain Granola. Unlike other heavy, fat-packed granolas, this snack achieves a light and crisp texture from organic ingredients and unrefined sweeteners. Though the Lenox, Mass.-based company focuses on foodservice distribution across the country, four varieties—such as Cinnamon Toast and Blueberry Crunch—are available at local grocers, including Guido’s in Pittsfield and Great Barrington. Pepped up with super-food ingredients like flaxseed, chia seed, and okara powder, this high-fiber treat makes doing your body good a delicious to-do.

Free For All
On the first Wednesday of every month, more than a hundred hungry folk gather at the Great Barrington, Mass.-based Berkshire South Regional Community Center to share a free, three-course meal. But this isn’t a potluck; these Community Suppers, which originated in 2009 as cafeteria-style spaghetti dinners, now feature gourmet dishes cooked up by top chefs such as Tommy Lee of Napa Wine Bar and Eatery (also executive chef of the program) and Dan Smith of John Andrews Restaurant.

“The point is to get people to come together and, no matter what they’re eating, enjoy each others company,” says Berkshire South managing director Jenise Lucey.

So far, it’s working. Smith returns to the kitchen on March 3; Cheryl Thomson takes over on April 7.

SWEET EMOTION
Judy Turbin and Helene Armet, former children’s librarians turned cake-bakers extraordinaire, create fancy confections from scratch that look more like works of art than edible treats. Five years ago the pair launched BabyCakes, specializing in “mini” (six-inch-diameter and three-inch-tall) desserts of such rich, dense varieties as rum raisin, carrot, and chocolate-ginger—available at the Williamstown, Mass., farmers’ market in the summer and fall and by special order year-round.

“We like to use ‘BabyCake’ as a verb,” Armet says, “and encourage people to ‘BabyCake’ someone to say, ‘Thank you,’ ‘I love you,’ ‘Get well,’ ‘Happy Birthday…’”

Fat of the Land
Lardo di Colonatta, a traditional Italian delicacy, has made its mark in Sheffield, Mass. Dominic Palumbo of Moon in the Pond Farm discovered lardo in Italy a number of years ago; seeing the white slabs stacked high at a farmers’ market, he, like many fat-phobic Amercians, was at once horrified and disgusted. Those feelings vanished, however, when Palumbo had the chance to sample the delicacy on crostini at a wine bar. To his delight, the savory, herb-flecked stuff melted in his mouth.

Palumbo decided to make lardo himself upon returning home, as all of its ingredients are readily available at his farm—it made perfect “organic sense,” he says.

Luckily for us, his endeavor has been successful: after perfecting the process of layering pork back fat with salt, rosemary, garlic, and herbs in a large marble box (similar to the ones used in northern Tuscany) and set to rest for six months, the fat is transformed into a silky treat, best sliced paper-thin and enjoyed atop toast.

Stairway to Heaven
As part of her physical and occupational therapy following a car accident, Doria Polinger began baking. The next thing she knew, Polinger was making chocolates for her daughter, Helena Rose
Zeppelin, and sixty classmates to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day. Her hobby, it seemed, turned into a successful business nearly overnight.

H.R. Zeppelin Fine Handmade Chocolates are now available in Massachusetts at Museum Facsimiles in Pittsfield, the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Nejaime’s Wine Cellars in Lenox, and by special order. Her Almond Chocolate Butter Crunch and Triple Layer Chocolate Mint have won rave reviews, perhaps because Polinger strives to make every batch—no matter how large—“perfectly right.”

Her hope: that tasters recognize “just how sweet life truly is.” [MAR/APR 2010]

THE GOODS

Tesoro Farm
Windsor, Mass.
413.684.0898

Sunshine Bagels
413.348.2609
Elf Parlor
303 Ashland St.
North Adams, Mass.
413.664.7303

March Maple Dinner
March 22 at 6
Red Lion Inn
30 Main St.
Stockbridge, Mass.
413.528.0041

Berkshire Grain Granola
172 Housatonic St.
Lenox, Mass.
617.245.2930

Community Suppers
March 3
April 7
Reservations required
Berkshire South Regional Community Center
5 Crissey Rd.
Great Barrington, Mass.
413.528.2810

BabyCakes
Williamstown, Mass.
413.458.8778 or 413.458.9930

Moon in the Pond Farm
816 Barnum St.
Sheffield, Mass.
413.229.3092

H.R. Zeppelin Fine
Handmade Chocolates
Stockbridge, Mass.
413.298.1038
 

MARINARA photo BY MICHAEL TESORO; SUNSHINE BAGELS Photo by Seven Blakeman; Photo of Brian J. Alberg by Chris Blair; GRANOLA Photo courtesy Berkshire Grain; COMMUNITY SUPPER Photo courtesy Berkshire South;  BABYCAKES Photo by Mary Garnish; LARDO DI COLONATTA Photo courtesy Moon in the Pond Farm; H.R. ZEPPELIN FINE HANDMADE CHOCOLATES Photo by Mary Garnish