Italian Christmas Foods – An Food Guide to an Italian Christmas At this point in the holiday frenzy, you’re either preparing to host a holiday party or you’ve been invited to a Christmas Eve / Day dinner or lunch.  If you’ve been invited to dinner then get down on your knees and pray the host can cook!  If you’re hosting Christmas […]

Whenever I meet folks and I tell them I’m interested in food and cooking the inevitable question follows: “so, what do you cook?”  Before I answer I often pause and aim to think of luxurious ingredients and extraordinary dishes, but I always end up describing some variation of a pasta, soup, and/or risotto dish.  I qualify my answer by blurting […]

  (photo: salt cod in Spain.  thanks to thekitchn.com for the photo)   NY Times Dining and Wine – What a concept: bring your mother to America so she can make pasta at your restaurant (slave labor or love?). Saveur – Pictures of Italy during Christmas from a magazine that adores Italian food and life. Food and Wine – How […]

(photo: our saffron “threads” just prior to adding to the cooking broth for Risotto Milanese) Saffron (or Zafferano) has always had a special place in my heart; more specifically, it’s had a special place in my memory.  I associate saffron with my childhood and the yellow arborio rice my mother prepared for me on special occasions (viz., any time I asked for it […]

  (photo: the highly prized white truffle – courtesy of Alma Gourmet) Truffle Primer  One of my favorite aspects of visiting Italy in the Summer and Fall months is the abundance of festivals scattered throughout the country.  In Calabria alone, for example, the summer months include food festivals focused on bread, salt cod, wild boar, eggplant, red chiles, potato, etc. […]

  (photo: examples of simple Italian food: lentil soup, fennel and cucumber salad, and flounder with breadcrumb topping) We’re at a food crossroads in America and anyone who takes food seriously in the United States should consider themselves lucky to be living in today’s culinary world.  The food universe landscape in the United States is moving from the ultra bland […]

(photo: courtesy of Dr. K.; from a clockwise position: raw onions, reduced onions, water added to reduced onions, onions prior to cooking, and finished product). When our die hard fan Dr. K. mentioned he tried a new recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s excellent new cookbook Twenty I was eager to hear which dish he attempted.  And when Dr. K. sent us photos […]

(photo: a shot of espresso from the MyPressi Twist) Eater.com – I’m a big fan of having practical skills regardless of profession and education.  With the aforementioned in mind it’s a good thing to know how to butcher meat and the photos and content in Ryan Farr’s Whole Beast Butchery look great.   NY Times Dining and Wine – Only in America: the […]

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 […]

Update: Contest closed; the winner has been notified.   Scordo.com has partnered with our friends over at ItalianBarber.com for a great giveaway, sorry ladies this one is geared towards men who can grow facial hair (but read on if you want to win a great gift for your boyfriend or husband!). ItalianBarber.com is run by two second-generation Italians who live via […]