Italian Holiday and Winter Food Treats: Cherry Panettone, Cerignola Bomba Pugliese (Spicey Spread), Fig Syrup, and Frantoi Cutrera Extra Virgin Olive Oils The Christmas season is a wonderful time to celebrate food in Italy.  In fact, almost every region of Italy produces holiday specific delicacies from special stuffed pastas to incredible desserts such as Panettone, Paneforte, and Torrone. One of our favorite holiday […]

Travel to any home in Southern Italy during the summer months and one dish will stand out as universal; namely, the mighty, yet simple, tomato salad.  During our extended stay in Calabria we consumed tomato salad after tomato salad and never tired of the ripe tomatoes (grown from heirloom seeds), sweet basil, Cipolle di Tropea (famous red onions from Tropea), and […]

Best Canned Sardines We love, high quality, canned fish and we think they are one of the culinary world’s secret weapons, especially when a home cook doesn’t have access to a wide variety of fresh fish.  In fact, in our book we’d rather consume superb salt/olive oil cured sardines, anchovies, tuna, etc. than a fresh fish like Talapia any day […]

(photo: the three Pastificio Vicidomini pastas and extra virgin olive oil included in the contest – six total items – the photo was taken in our basement pantry so excuse the appearance) We love making people happy with food and nothing warms my heart here at Scordo more than giving away great Italian food products to our loyal readers and fans. […]

(photo:  The lovely Taggiasca olive from Liguria in northwestern Italy)  We often talk about the importance of the Italian pantry and how critical it is to have certain staple ingredients in your kitchen at all times.  Keeping a well stocked pantry means you’ll never starve, order out, and be relegated to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner.  Among the universal items we keep […]

Pan Fried Skate with Pancetta and Red Onion Risotto One of my favorite ways to eat is to simply head to the market and pick out items that look fresh, tasty, and don’t break the bank (this week a particularly nice item was fresh Skate).  Don’t get me wrong I’m not heading to the market every other day (like Nonna […]

(photo:Italian durum wheat pasta made by Carlo) When it comes to reviewing Italian products we’re pretty blunt and we’ve, unfortunately, offended a few Italian product manufacturers with not so positive feedback.  In fact, when companies approach us to review already prepared products we often turn them away for fear of writing yet another negative review.  In turn, many of our favorite […]

  (photo: spaghetti chitarra with tomato sauce, ricotta, and peas; see below for recipe) The now immortalized copywriter turned French cook Julia Child remarked once that, “anyone can make a bowl of pasta but it takes a skilled chef to put out a fine French meal.”  You can imagine my reaction to the quote and my thinking on Child’s comment; namely, […]

  (photo: Sangaspano extra virgin olive oil from Messina, Sicilia) On the morning of December 28th, 1908 a massive earthquake and associated tsunami hit the western province of Calabria and moved across the Stretto di Messina into Sicilia destroying city after city (including Reggio Calabria and Messina).  In Messina alone 60,000 people were killed and in Calabria our family lost many […]

(photo: 2010 Olio Verde extra virgin olive oil from Sicilia, I had to scramble and take a photo before I consumed it all!) Any time I’m asked to taste a product from the southern provinces of Italy I get excited, very excited.  There’s of course a sense of pride knowing a product is made from an area you know well and […]