“Poco, ma Buono,” in Italian, literally, “Little, but Good,” is a deceptively simple phrase that sums up in a remarkably succinct way the Italian approach to so much of what is great in the wine, food, and culture.
Take, for example, espresso (not “expresso”). Invented by a Milanese businessman as a way to encourage his workers to speed up their coffee breaks around the turn of the century, it represents a true condensation of all that is great about coffee in one mere ounce of tawny brownish-gold elixir.
Yet this is not what we here in America have come to expect…

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