Add cassava to that wardrobe of tortillas. A new line, Coyotas, is an alternative to flour tortillas. It uses gluten-free organic cassava flour and organic coconut oil with only water and salt. The result behaves like flour tortillas, holds up well with fillings and comes in three sizes: small for tacos, medium for larger tacos and quesadillas, and large for burritos and other wraps. The company, based in San Diego, was started by Janet Flores Pavlovich, a native of Hermosillo in Sonora, in Northern Mexico, where the flour tortilla reigns. She learned to make them in her hometown and while she was at it, innovated by using cassava flour. And in one of those felicitous culinary accidents like the Toll House cookie, wound up with a gluten-free product. There are 12 in a pack of small, eight of medium and six of large; three packs for $37.50.
Coyotas cassava tortillas, eatcoyotas.com.
A Gift Basket for Caper Obsessives
I’m not sure I would have given my mother a gift basket of herbs and capers from the volcanic Sicilian island of Pantelleria for Mother’s Day. But for me? Any time. John A. Savittieri, a furniture designer from Maplewood, N.J., was exploring his family’s roots on the island when he became hooked on capers, the savory buds of the capparis spinosa flower that thrive there. Fast forward a year or so, he’s now importing them, tiny or piccoli ones, packed in Trapani sea salt (rinse it off), along with larger caper berries, fragrant dried herbs and the salt, all starting at $4.50. The gift basket, $132.50, comes with a ceramic caper-keeper box shaped like the dammuso houses of the island.
A&J Savittieri Prodotti di Pantelleria capers, eatcapers.com.
A Twist on a Neapolitan Easter Specialty
A new take on Pastiera di Grano, a Neapolitan Easter specialty that legend says was created by a nun, can grace your holiday table this year. Kara Blitz, the new pastry chef at Lincoln Ristorante in Lincoln Center, makes a lovely version, more delicate than some, incorporating tiny wheat berries in the orange-scented custard filling made with buffalo ricotta, mascarpone and orange confit. Tradition has it that the nun wanted to capture the orange fragrance from the convent gardens in her tart. Ms. Blitz bakes hers in a rectangle with a lattice top, enough to serve eight to 10. It’s available, pre-ordered online, for pickup this week through Easter Sunday at the restaurant, $42.
142 West 65th Street, lincolnristorante.com.
A Benefit for Culinary Careers and Asylum Seekers
C-Cap, Careers through Culinary Arts, the nonprofit that prepares middle and high school students with limited resources for work in food service, has added its reach to include adult asylum seekers holding work permits. The pilot program, with a grant of $360,178 from the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul, has just graduated nine students from Central and South America, at its training center in Francis Lewis High School in Queens, six of whom have already secured jobs. The organization will hold a fund-raiser for this and its other programs Monday at Chelsea Piers, honoring Mary Attea and Jennifer Vitagliano of the Musket Room and Raf’s with tastings by more than a dozen chefs.
C-Cap’s National Benefit, from 5:45 p.m. (V.I.P.), Pier 60, Chelsea Piers, 23rd Street and West Street, $700 and up, ccapinc.org.
The Perfect Snacking for the Masters
The nosh of choice for the Super Bowl is wings. For the Masters, the first of four annual golf tournaments, it’s pimento cheese, a specialty of the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., where the competition is held. This year it runs from April 11 through 14, with three pre-tournament events starting April 8. For the first time, Goldbelly is selling a special Taste of the Masters package for munching, including the cheese. A package to serve 12 to 14, $179.95, also includes pork barbecue, egg salad, chocolate chip cookies and pecan-caramel popcorn.
Taste of the Masters snacks, goldbelly.com.
The venerable glossies, Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast, have digital-only competition. The New Wine Review, available by subscription, covers the wine world with news, trends, travel tips, interviews and ratings that aggregate several sources. (Full Pour, a new wine magazine, got off the ground a year ago, but it’s a traditional print quarterly.) Readers can instantly access not only the latest articles but material from previous issues. In addition, it offers subscribers membership in a Slack community, making it possible to engage in conversations and obtain information for experts and amateurs alike. It was founded by Zander Baron, who has had a career in digital media, with Jon Fine, a wine writer and the former acting editor in chief of Inc., and Jason Wilson, a wine columnist and author, as senior correspondent. Annual subscriptions are $299.
The New Wine Review, newwinereview.com.
Three Cheers for Front Burner
This column began in 1983 as Food Notes, when the Food section was called the Living Section, evolved into Food Stuff and finally settled on Front Burner 10 years ago. It has always been devoted to news about food, culinary happenings, products, new wines and spirits, cookbooks and markets. After this week you will still be able to find me writing Off the Menu, my restaurant news column that is expanding its scope and, from time to time, will offer some Front Burner muscle. Pay attention to the Food section of The Times online and in print.
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