(photo: fennel salad with radish and feta) By now most of you are well aware of my passion for lazy weekend lunches (see my tomato salad and sardine lunch and leftover salad).  Optimally, a lazy weekend lunch is consumed under a bit of shade (with temperatures in the mid 70’s), with a loving family, a beautiful bottle of wine (yes, […]

(photo: mint: easy to grow and very versatile) Nothing gets me more excited then roasting a chicken, but I’ll admit that there are times when it’s more convenient to work with chicken parts.  One of my favorite parts of the chicken is the thigh as it combines both dark and white meat and is almost impossible to overcook.  I’ve been creating […]

You can tell that a country is serious about preserving food culture when they issue “protective status” labels for cheeses, meats, wines, etc.  Italy, for example has standards for wine (such as DOC or Denominazione di Origine Controllata; meaning that any particular wine from an officially recognized region of Italy must be produced in specific well-defined regions, according to specific rules […]

(photo: the beautiful, 1 liter, tin housing Frankies Sicilian olive oil and a salad of tomatoes, red onion, and basil)  Amongst southern Italians there’s a deep rivalry between Calabrians and Sicilians.  If you travel to Calabria’s old capital Reggio Calabria, you’ll see many Sicilian influences from the regional dialect to arancini and the breakfast delicacy brioce (a type of sweet bread that is served with […]

I’m a big fan of the AeroPress single cup coffee maker, but one minor drawback of their simple system is that there are quite a few parts to assemble and clean (the inexpensive AeroPress still, however, brews a great cup of coffee).  Recently, I was given a nifty single cup coffee maker (by way of Dr. K, a dedicated Scordo.com […]

Italian Shopping on Steroids – On the Italian Life and Consumerism: Our Review Of Eataly You’ll have to excuse me if I sound a bit crabby this morning, as I just finished reading a New York Times review of the mega supermarket Eataly (located in New York City).  While the Times article was somewhat critical of the 50,000 square foot space […]

What is Good Espresso and Can You Make it at Home? Over the last few weeks or so I’ve been giving some serious thought to purchasing a semi automatic espresso machine.  My rationale for buying a home machine (including a burr grinder) includes two premises: 1. it’s very hard to find quality espresso at cafes (even in major cities like […]

Chicken Cutlets, Homemade Breadcrumbs, and the Importance of Good Pollo I made my first chicken cutlet when I was 12 years old and it was a complete disaster.  From what I remember, I over seasoned the breadcrumbs, placed the breaded cutlets in below temperature oil, had very little of that magical “golden brown” color, and undercooked the chicken.  Fast forward […]

(photo: linguine fine tossed with tomato sauce and grilled calamari) I bet you thought the Scordo Pasta Challenge lost a bit of steam during the late summer!  You shouldn’t, however, fear because we’re back with shape #72A, the extraordinary linguine fine (a variation of the standard linguine shape that’s quick cooking <4 minutes!> and wonderful with delicate sauces such as […]

Farro: History and Guide to the Ancient Grain The ancient whole wheat grain farro has a long and interesting history and for many years fed almost the entirety of the Mediterranean and Near East – hence our article Farro: History and Guide to the Ancient Grain.  Specifically, it fed the vast majority of Romans from 44BC to the collapse of the […]