When it comes to grilled cheese the basics are essential.  One needs good bread, good cheese, a good cooking fat, and the right type of cooking heat.  If you’ve ever had a bad grilled cheese sandwich, Italian style or not, then the panino was probably lacking in one or more of the items above! Our grilled cheese, Italian style, features good […]

We have a love-hate relationship with our local Trader Joe’s.  That is to say, we love some of their value based products such as organic milk, eggs, Greek yogurt, cereals, peanut butter, nuts, select breads, etc., but don’t care much for their fruits, vegetables, frozen foods, and meats/fish.  And by value based, I mean product quality is good enough given […]

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: a piece of Italian Gorgonzola or blue cheese that I used with our basic salad dressing recipe) Condition Yourself to Love the Foods You Hate I’m always surprised when folks tell me they don’t like a particular food or ingredient such as cilantro, baby goat, rabbit, blue cheese or Gorgonzola, etc.  When I ask folks why they don’t like a […]

(photo: Columbus Artisan hot sopressata sliced by hand) Peperoncini and Salumi If there’s one food item that the southern province of Calabria is famous for it would be peperoncini (or red chili peppers). Peperoncini are used in pasta dishes (Penne all’Arrabbiata, for example), cured meats and vegetables (including the trendy salumi spread, ‘Nduja), soups, and an eggplant stew dish called […]

(photo: an Italian tuna sandwich with tomato salad prepared with Pace da Poggio Etrusco extra virgin olive oil) As many of you know we keep plenty of high quality tuna in olive oil in our Italian pantryat all times!  And we usually prepare our tuna in two ways: 1. as a stand alone salad to be consumed with olives, cheese, […]