(photo: left to right eggplant/feta/parsley, cheese and tomato sauce, red onion and mushroom lavash pizza) I love stumbling onto new food items. In fact, I encourage folks to pick up a few random items at their local market and try new recipes from time to time.  One such recent food stumble included a package of Lavash bread at a […]

Orecchiette is the little pasta (or “little ear”, literally translated) that could; that is to say, at first glance the pasta shape from Apulia seems unremarkable, but when paired with vegetables it springs to life!  In southern Italy, Orecchiette are made by way of wheat flour and the traditional method includes pressing down on dime sized pieces of dough to get […]

Sometimes food photos are better than the actual food item.  I can wholeheartedly say, however, that when it comes to rice balls or Arancini the photos below look as good as they actually taste. You can find my recipe for Arancini here.  Enjoy a few photos of a recent rice ball extravaganza held in New Jersey and leave a comment […]

(photo: final product with a bit of extra provola and olive oil) When it comes to living life, I’m a sucker for both luxurious and practical things.  I’m equally comfortable driving a Honda or a Mercedes-Benz or living amongst nose-in-the-air snobs or dyed in the wool blue collar types.  I lean towards the practical and modest side of living, but who […]

Here we go, the first pasta dish consumed for the Scordo Pasta Challenge or Vincenzo Eats His Way Through Every Pasta Shape Known to Man! #149 Trenne Think of Trenne pasta as the “quill” pasta; that is to say, Trenne are shaped like a writing instrument that is triangular in shape.  Trenne is a more modern and angular version of Penne […]

 I woke up this morning and had a revelation! Well, it wasn’t exactly a revelation of grand proportion like when Einstein told Newton he was all wrong about the physical world back in the early twentieth century rather my revelation was epicurean and it concerned my favorite food on the planet; namely, Pasta!Like Julie Powell’s idea of cooking through all the […]

Don’t tell my wife but I had a secret lover on my wedding day.  That’s right, in addition to my beautiful wife I secretly adored the Potato Croquettes (Crocchette di Patate) that were being served at our party!  The potato croquettes were made with a mashed potato filling, stuffed with cubes of fresh mozzarella, and breaded with fresh breadcrumbs, dried oregano, […]

Butterflied Whole Chicken on the Grill One of the earliest food memories I have is of Nonna Vincenzina slaughtering a young chicken on Via Nazionale in Calabria.  Nonna simply walked into the chicken coup, grabbed one of my feathery friends, and snapped it’s fragile head (the bird ran around for a few minutes and thereafter dropped to the dirt floor). […]

Photo: via Veri on Flikr. If you haven’t experimented with Couscous then you’re missing out on a wonderful product.  Most couscous is made from semolina wheat, but Israelis make their couscous with hard wheat and it’s usually larger in size.  Traditional couscous takes a good amount of time to prepare, but most folks in the US use the quick cooking, and thus […]

Recipe: Homemade Sun Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil One of my favorite, all purpose, condiments on this little planet is sun dried tomatoes preserved in olive oil.  Authentic sun dried tomatoes capture the essence of the tomato and can be enjoyed year round.  There is a difference between tomatoes that have been truly dried in the sun and dehydrated tomatoes (click here to […]