A Culinary Tour of Southwest Ohio, pt. 3
Too much stromboli, arrosticini and sangria ... and then there was wine!
Cincitalia is held every year in Cheviot, Ohio. It benefits St. Catherine of Siena Catholic school in nearby Westwood. There are games, live entertainment and - for our purposes - plenty of Italian food.
I appreciate a good stromboli. For the uninitiated, a stromboli is a “type of baked turnover filled with various Italian cheeses and usually Italian cold cuts or vegetables, served hot,” created by Italian Americans in Philadelphia, according to Wikipedia. Well, Grandma LaManna’s makes one of the best: roniboli. It is made with mozzarella and pepperoni. They also have meatball, veggie and chicken. And then there’s the “superboli,” a combination of all of them. In the picture below, I’m having a roniboli with a side of marinara and a white summer sangria.
But the best dish is the arrosticini served up by the United Italian Society. Arrosticini is a little bit like a shish kabob but made up of one-centimeter cubes of meat, usually lamb. The United Italian Society offers pork and chicken variants. The dish can be paired with bread soaked in olive oil. At Cincitalia, it comes with an Italian salad.
If none of the above suit your fancy you can always go with an Italian American classic: pizza. Local pizzeria LaRosa’s was one hand to serve pizza by the slice, pepperoni or cheese. Other available classics include pasta, lasagna and Italian sausage served with roasted peppers and onions.
After stuffing my belly full of stromboli, arrosticini and sangria it should have been time to go home. Alas! I won the wine tasting raffle. I don’t know much about wines and, I have to confess, I am unable to remember what I drank. What I can tell you is the event was held by a local winery called Henke and all the wines tasted great - to this layman, anyway.
Afterword
I had meant to write more about Cincitalia but a number of things had conspired against me, including my own overindulgence. There have been other, less fun things that have also interrupted my tour. So, I am placing the Culinary Tour of Southwest Ohio series on hold for a while - maybe until next summer. But I have been reading a lot this past month (July) and plan to write reviews in the coming weeks. Be sure to share this with a friend and subscribe if you haven’t already.
