How to save money dining out in Italy

It’s so good, so delicious and so pleasing to all the senses that it almost makes you feel guilty.

The biggest peccadillo, however, is missing out on the authentic Italian experience and getting trapped by hit-and-run restaurants plying the rich tourist trade.

Eating doesn’t come cheap in Italy these days, but there are ways to stretch the dollar to save up to make the splurges really count.

Verdoni Imports Italian Wine Dinner at Branches

"The Wine Professor"

As of this writing, there are only 10 seats remaining for the Italian Wine Dinner at Branches in West Long Branch, presented in conjunction with Ocean Wines and Spirits. The wine dinner is scheduled for this Friday, February 20th, beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Featured will be the outstanding vintages of Verdoni Imports; and the speaker will be Anthony Verdoni, "The Wine Professor."

Here's a look at the outstanding menu and wine pairings...

Wine honcho gives Italian varieties push

From a poor childhood in Naples, to washing pots in a Manhattan restaurant, to the center of the Italian wine scene, Sergio Esposito has had a great rise.

And the wine importer is only in his 30s.

The owner of Italian Wine Merchants and partner of Italian cultural ambassadors Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich published a book last year, “Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family, in the Heart of Italy.” (Broadway).

In what is becoming an increasingly common genre — the wine memoir — Mr. Esposito’s book begins with his early life in the housing projects of Naples. His family, marked for an ancestor’s support of Mussolini, was shut out of opportunity. The family didn’t have much money, but never wanted for food. Mr. Esposito, with help from a sharp ghost writer, writes so evocatively about Italian food — whether his mother’s peasant cuisine or the work of a four-star chef — that the words make you hungrier than cookbook glossies.

Valentino's Piero Selvaggio to become Italian wine Hall of Famer

One of the highlights of the Italian Trade Commission's Vino 2009 U.S. wine convention this weekend in New York will be the induction of eight wine-industry professionals into the commission's newly created Distinguished Service Hall of Fame. Two Californians--Valentino's Piero Selvaggio and Corti Bros.' Darrell Corti--are among the inductees.

Since its mandate is to promote trade and industrial cooperation between Italy and foreign countries, it's little wonder that the commission has found that focusing on Italian wine is good for business. It is also little wonder that Selvaggio and Corti made the organization's short list.