Italian Food Shop & Cheese Boutique
Salvatore Nicastro purchased a ticket to come to Canada in in 1959. In 1972 he was one of the founding owners of the original Nicastro Bros. Food in Centertown, the hub for the Italian community in Ottawa at the time. Over 50 years later his family continues to provide high quality produce and service throughout the city.
Located at 792 Bank St. in the Glebe as well as 1355 Wellington St. this small Italian grocery story boasts some of the best cheese and cured meat selections in Ottawa. They also offer catering services with platters, paninis and cheese board as well as prepared salads, pastas and sweets. A more in depth inventory can be found on their website https://negozio.ca/
Today I am grabbing a selection of items for a mothers day charcuterie picnic lunch.
The produce I got was:
Delices de Bourgogne - Cow milk triple cream from France. This was my favourite, extremely creamy and smooth, had it out of the fridge for a couple of hours so the texture was fantastic. Bottom right on the board.
Roquefort Vernieres - Raw sheep milk cheese also from France. Blue cheese, extremely strong and salty flavour. A little too intense for me other then in very small pieces. Middle right on the board.
Challerhocker - Raw cow milk from Switzerland. An almost sweet, nutty flavour and a little grainy. Still quite salty but good contrast to the Roquefort. Biggest one in the middle of the board.
6 year old cheddar - Raw cow milk from Quebec. It was nice and crumbly with a sharp salty tasty. Bottom left on the board.
The meats were(in order right to left):
Citterio salame spianata - This was from Spain and the pick of the meats. Nice and spicy and with good balance of salt and fat.
Salami Prosciutto - Kind of bland and generic to be honest, it was nothing special.
Smoked salmon - Ended up just getting it from the supermarket (Independent). Nanuk brand. It was pretty tasty, I think it was out of the fridge too long for rolling nicely for presentation. It didn't hold together very well when I tried to take it out of the package. Still very tasty though
Happy Mothers Day!
BSB