Trying the Italian Pantry through Try the World

Part of the adventure when traveling is trying local  cuisine from the place you are visiting.  But traveling  is  not always possible due to financial issues or  schedule issues.  That doesn't mean you can not try different cuisine because Try the World  make it possible to  do so with their subscription boxes.  I have never been to Italy  but I have tried some Italian menus in the past.  I'm very excited  receiving this Italy box  from Try the World because I get to  try making some of the dishes that I only see on food  shows on TV.  

There are 8 specialties from Italy  in the box  including  Hazelnut cream by Maison della Nocciola, ground coffee by Giuliano Caffee, Persto Sauce by Cascina San Cassiano, Classic Amaretti by Marabisi, Truffle Zest by Zabatino Tartufi, Mushroom Risotto kit by Terrigena, Balsamic Vinegar by Societa Agricola, and Egg Pappardelle by La Pasta de Aldo.

The very first thing that we tried or my daughter tried  was the classic amaretti.  She told me that it has weird  taste so I  tried it myself and she was right, there was that initial shock when you first but into it, it is very strong.  We didn't find it  very good but it was nice to try it.

These cookies  are made of almond so I had high hopes that it will be awesome since I love almond.

I seldom use pesto in a dish, I think I only   made one dish with it  before.  So  when I saw this  pesto, I got excited because I always see Italian pasta dish on TV with and I thought I would be able to  try it.

Making this pesto was easy, I only added green peas  to it to make the egg pappardelli pasta.

It was a really nice dish with an added  cream cheese since I did not have  mozzarella balls.

The pasta dish was a perfect combo for the pork BBQ I made that day.

Hubby and I  stopped drinking coffee because of his hyper acidity issues   last year.  Sometimes  we  miss having coffee in the morning so this ground coffee will be great  for chilly weekend mornings.  Having coffee once in a while would not be bad I guess so I am glad to have it.

In fact, I already tried it but did not  tell my husband yet lol.  It was a really blend, it wasn't that strong.  Through this Italy box, I have a learned that Italians  have followed  unspoken - but strict - rules  about how to drink it.  It said, never to mix  it with milk unless it's for breakfast and always drink straight shots of  of espresso in one sip.  Very interesting!

This hazelnut  spread is my favorite  among the eight products.  I thought I would be disappointed like the  almond cookie but I was wrong, it's delicious!  I don't eat bread with spread frequently but  this  spread is addicting.  I even  used it for  my English muffin and it was delicious!

Now, let's talk about risotto.  I have never   made risotto before  but thought that it would be easy since it is like  rice but it's actually quite different than I anticipated.  Rice is a lot easier to prepare  and I love it.  The risotto on the other hand  takes a little longer time to prepare  and it wasn't as good as I expected it to be.  I still prefer rice over risotto, maybe because that's what I am used to eating.

But anyway, it was a great experience making the risotto with my daughter.  It was a good pair for the pork tocino that I made and the roasted mushrooms.

Last but not the least is the balsamic vinegar.  I use balsamic vinegar all the time because my daughter love  tomato salsa and I always add balsamic to it.  This  specific balsamic vinegar is quite different from  what I've used in the past.  It was really good one, even my daughter noticed that I used a different balsamic, she liked it too.

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.