Our Baked Salmon with Parsley, Onion, and Lemon (Salmone Con Prezzemolo, Cipolla e Limone) recipe is very simple recipe and takes advantage of a wonderful species of fish; that is, salmon.  If you can find, and afford, wild salmon then use it but well managed, farm raised, salmon has an appealing fatty component that most consumers enjoy over the wild variety. […]

There are hundreds of variations on the popular dish Chicken Cacciatore (Pollo alla Cacciatora) translated as in the style of the hunter, including using various meats such as rabbit, pheasant, partridge, and capretto (baby goat).  Most versions of the dish include herbs, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and a braising liquid such as white or red wine (and/or water).  It’s my guess that most […]

(photo: homemade pizza with arugula salad <including red onion>) Growing up in the suburbs just outside of New York City our neighborhood had its fair share of pizza joints, including Vincent’s Pizzeria, Sal’s Classic, First Pizza Pan, Godfather II Pizzeria, Euro’s Pizzeria, Villa Rosa Pizzeria, etc.  All of the pizzeria’s mentioned made pizza in the NY fashion, that is to […]

The sweet potato is a tropical plant and was brought to Italy by Columbus via South America. Today, the plant is grown in our home state of New Jersey as well as Japan, parts of Russia, and, of course South America.  I’m a big fan of sweet potatoes and we use them in our (via Dr. K.) homemade ravioli, though […]

(photo: courtesy of the documentary: “La Mattanza – The Tuna Hunt in Sicily”  * See below for a description of the yearly event) Eater.com – Eater previews new, 2012, spring cookbooks and “food books.” The preview includes a blurb on The Southern Italian Farmer’s Table: Authentic Recipes and Local Lore from Tuscany to Sicily by Matthew Scialabba and Melissa Pellegrino.  We […]

(photo: thanks to thegivenschronicles.com for the photo) We’re big fans of soup and we’ve covered many varieties such as chicken soup with tortellini, Italian cauliflower carrot, pea, escarole and bean, pasta e fagioli, broccoli bean soup, minestra, chickpea, and our perennial favorite lentil soup. We like to begin our meals with a soup and then usually prepare a protein such as fish […]

(photo: Wild Fennel Seed (Semi di Finocchietto Selvatico) from Sicilia; you can use the seed as is or crush it via a mortar and pestle for savory and sweet dishes) Wild fennel, or Finocchietto Selvatico, can be found throughout most parts of southern Italy and is part of the staple diet for many Calabrians, Sicilians, etc.  My father tells romantic stories of foraging for wild […]

One of the most ubiquitous panini (plural for sandwich) in all of the Italy is prosciutto and cheese.  In fact, I made so many of the aforementioned panini in Italy one summer (helping Zia Teresa in her small shop) I thought all Italians survived on prosciutto (or prosciutto cotto <steam cooked Parma ham>) and cheese alone. Italian’s fascination with panini is easily understood when you begin to […]

(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 […]

(photo: fish salad made with octopus, shrimp, squid, scungilli, and scallops; choose just a few fish for a good fish salad) We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday and spent quality time with their friends and family!  We cooked a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner and wanted to share our photos with you, including pictures of our dinner antipasto […]