How I Learned to Cook Italian Food and Creative Cooking Like most Italians I learned to cook by watching my mother and grandmother prepare food in their home kitchens. And both woman cooked dishes that were driven by what their mothers cooked at home (and, if I had to guess, this tradition of learning how to cook at home goes […]

You have to love any establishment that sells over 200,000 pounds of Italian cheese in a given week, in turn we’ve fallen deeply in love with the Pittsburgh based, Pennsylvania Macaroni Company.  The Italian food store was started in 1902 by Sicilian immigrants from Trabia and they now carry well over 5,000 Italian specialty items, including an online business that will slice […]

(photo: at the heart of making great small plates for an Italian themed dinner party is good bread) Piattini: 12 Small Plate Italian Menu Ideas Preparing multi course meals can be a fulfilling endeavor, especially when you’re cooking for family and friends who appreciate food.  However, spending hours in the kitchen to prepare L’antipasto, Il primo, Il secondo,  Il contorno, […]

(photo: some of the items in the Cento Italian Pantry Giveaway, including pasta, olive oil, hot peppers, etc.) !Cento Italian Pantry Giveaway Has Ended! Last summer I espoused the virtues of the Italian pantry and the concept of being prepared to cook and eat well every day of the year regardless of access to “fresh ingredients.”  Specifically, I suggested lovers […]

When I asked readers on our Facebook fan page to name a few Italian food fallacies I was expecting a response but I was, frankly, overwhelmed with the feedback to our simple question.  That is to say, while I’ve experienced many of the overt food fallacies found in Italian American cooking (both in professional and home kitchens) there were some items […]

(photos: discovered on a town street during an Easter walk with our son) One of the cocktail party fun facts I often recite is that the burgeoning field of “happiness studies” correlates life satisfaction via a few simple items, including friendship, travelling, social outings (including participating in sport), and time spent with family.  Of course, some of the non-correlative items are large […]

Food Philosophy – You Got to Be Kidding! If you’re not an avid reader of the Atlantic (or similar general interest magazines like the New Yorker) then you’ve undoubtedly missed both B.R. Meyers’ anti foodie argument/rant (in a piece called, “The Moral Crusade Against Foodies – gluttony dressed up as foodie-ism is still gluttony”) and James McWilliams’ March 1st response entitled, “B. R. Myers […]

(Photo: Courtesy of Dr. K., whole wheat and durum ciabatta) The importance of quality bread cannot be overstated and I’m convinced that access to the very best bread would cause a food revolution in the United States (how’s that for a shocking claim on a Tuesday afternoon).  Like pasta (or noodles) and beans, bread is a staple food product found […]

  (photo: cauliflower carrot soup finished with extra virgin olive oil, parsley, and Sriracha sauce). One of the prized crops on the small Calabrian family farm Nonno Lattella worked until a a few years ago was Cauliflower and like many Italian farmers he respected the vegetable for both it’s taste and value.  In fact, Italy is the top producer of Cauliflower […]

(photo: homemade yogurt courtesy of bfeedme.com) History of Yogurt Historical fun facts about food provide great joy for me; I can’t explain the phenomena but I enjoy the epistemological randomness that, for example, yogurt prior to the mid and late 19th century was used primary as a cleaning agent (that’s right, including as a body wash and shampoo)!  In the early […]