Interview with PBS Host Mary Ann Esposito and Ciao Italia Every big idea or theory has an associated sound bite.  The French philosopher Rene Descartes is remembered for his famous line, “I think, therefore I am.”, the chef Jacques Pepin loves to utter, “fast food my way”, and the chef, turned uber capitalist Lidia Bastianich (see the mega Italian Mall, […]

I’ve always equated good cooking with being prepared, just like a fine carpenter has the necessary tools to build a bookcase or a deck on hand at all times, a home cook should always have a well stocked pantry to prepare meals.  The following is a list of items that I always keep in my Italian Pantry, in addition to […]

August is prime season for canning tomatoes and this year’s Jersey plum tomatoes are outstanding!  The Scordo family purchased about five bushels of locally grown plum tomatoes and canned only passato (passato is essentially pureed tomato, in the past we canned a combination of passato and whole tomatoes).  As the site e-rcps.com points out: Tomatoes are usually preserved in three […]

The year was 1997 and I was a college junior applying for a prestigious fellowship for first generation college students.  The fellowship provided funds and a mentor to guide and prepare students for graduate work in the humanities and sciences.  The fellowship had strict academic and social-economic requirements.  On the socio-economic side, students were expected to be first generation college […]

(photo: pan simmered baby goat or capretto with onion, tomato, garlic, and red wine) Feasting on baby goat is a staple of our Italian American Easter and Christmas dinners.  My father’s mother, Nonna Rosa Scordo, made a wonderful pan simmered capretto recipe and it includes braising a whole baby goat (which is processed at home or by the local butcher). […]

  (photo: various Scordo family members during the late summer wheat harvest in Pellegrina, Calabria)  You can say, unequivocally, that Americans love their beef. Compared to their Mediterranean counterparts, American’s are ranked third in the world (only behind Argentina and Uruguay) when it comes to choosing beef for their dinner table (Italy is ranked 9th, per 1999 statistics).  An educated guess as to why beef […]

Wild Food I remember walking through the Calabrian countryside with my grandfather as a boy when he suddenly feel to his knees and plucked a few pieces of what I thought was simple green grass from the ground. I, of course, thought he was just being his usual pazzo (crazy) nonno,but what he found were dandelion greens, prized for their earthy, minerally, and […]

  Think of Pappardelle as fettuccine (see our guide to dry pasta) on steroids (basically very broad fettuccine).  Pappardelle derives from the word “pappare” which means “to gobble up.”  The pappardelle I consumed was egg based and made by Rustichella.   I always associate Pappardelle with meat sauces, specifically a ragu made out of rabbit(it was a favorite of mine growing up […]

Like any controversial figure, the mighty anchovy is a highly misunderstood food type and is deserving of an introduction and, if you will, defense!  In the US, unfortunately, preserved anchovies have a bad reputation and are seen as a bad smelling (and overly salty) fish.  The reputation, however, is undeserved and the tiny dynamo of a fish should be consumed […]

Rice and Peas (Risi e Bisi)  is basically a variant of risotto and while a good risotto is creamy in texture, a good bowl of risi e bisi is looser in composition. As you would guess, the humble pea is the star of the rice-based dish and the fresher the pea, the better the dish (here’s my guide to buying fresh […]