(photo: Carnevale in Reggio Calabria, thanks to Demetrio Bruno for the photo) Carnevale, which means “farewell to meat”, is celebrated throughout the world including in the United States (known as Mardi Gras) and Italy.  Carnevale usually takes place 40 days prior to Easter and in Italy the celebration includes food, parties, music, various entertainment, masquerade balls, and wild pranks!  This […]

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 […]

By now you know of our connection to Calabria and our familiar, immigrant, story. You know, for example, that our parents immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970’s from a tiny hilltop village in southwest Calabria called Pellegrina and that we’ve been influenced greatly by the traditions found in the region (located in southern Italy).  However, we’ve never told our loyal […]

Our friend and avid home cook Dr. K. continues his mastery of all things Italian with a terrific homemade bread from Sicilia; namely, Durum Pane Siciliano – a bread shaped in the form of the Occhi di Santa Lucia (i.e., a pair of eyeglasses in homage to Santa Lucia, the patron saint of vision). Dr. K. utilized a recipe from Carol Field’s, The […]

(photo: close up of panforte made by Pasticcerie Sinatti in Siena) We’ve never been much of a dessert type of site here at Scordo.com – holding the view that sugar and chocolate can’t compete with salt and fat!  So, when we had the opportunity to try a traditional Italian dessert we were a bit skeptical given our countless posts on pastas, salumi, crocchette, eggplant parmigiana, […]

(photo: some of Dr. K.’s homemade duck prosciutto sliced thin and eaten with bread and Prosecco)   I’m a big believer in chasing happiness in life and not the 30 minute kind that’s associated with a new car, electronic device, or a bigger house (sorry all you hedge fund managers and Goldman employees).  Happiness, after all (and there’s empirical evidence for this) is derived […]

(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 […]

(photo: locally produced bacon from a nearby butcher) By now, you’ve read my countless references to salame, prosciutto, capicola, cured pork, etc. and you may be thinking: what’s wrong with this guy, does he have a thing for pigs or something?   The short answer is yes and the pork obsession is centered on the cured kind – that salty and spicy […]

(photo: Typical Italian breakfast, brioche with gelato.  Image courtesy of THE MUESLI LOVER) Italians Love Coffee and Sweets for Breakfast! News break: if you’re Italian, you can have cookies for breakfast.  Seriously, cake is a traditional breakfast food in Italy and so are other sweets including cookies, brioche, pastries, croissants,etc.  Coffee is consumed as well and it’s usually a quick espresso […]

The History of Pasta Shapes – The Italian People and Pasta Just in case you were having sleepless nights concerning the birthplace of pasta, the esteemed food critic, Oretta Zanini de Vita confirms that there were records of pasta in Italy 500 years before Marco Polo returned from China; so pasta was, in fact, invented in Italy.  I’m glad we cleared the […]