From A16: Food + Wine (Ten Speed Press, 2008) Lamb is the most commonly prepared meat in southern Italy, for good reason. Sheep are nimble animals and require less food and pastureland than cows, which are important traits in the rocky, dry terrain of Campania and surrounding regions. The lambs we get from Don Watson of…
From Cucina Napoletana: 100 Recipes from Italy’s Most Vibrant City (Interlink Books, 2008) This is very much a country dish. In areas where meat was scarce or expensive, legumes were often used to provide necessary protein in the diet – with the added benefit that they were filling and could be used over the winter months when…
From Cucina Napoletana: 100 Recipes from Italy’s Most Vibrant City (Interlink Books, 2008) Possibly one of Naples’ best-known traditional dishes, and taken all over the world by the waves of migrants seeking a new life after World War II, parmigiana di melanzane is as tasty as it is familiar. Salting the eggplants before cooking is the key…
After trying countless pizza dough recipes over the years, this Neo-Neapolitan dough from From Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day cookbook has become my absolute go-to. What I love most about it is its versatility—it performs beautifully whether I’m cooking indoors in my home oven or firing up my Roccbox in the backyard. Indoors: I use…
From Sicily: Culinary Crossroads (Italy’s Food Culture) (Oronzo Editions, LLC, 2008) Mussels have several other dialect names in Sicily–cozzi, cozzi niura, arcella, catacozzula, anapinnula–to name a few. The mussels that have been grown for centuries at Ganzirri, an inlet just outside Messina are much renowned. 4-1/2 pounds fresh mussels in their shells 1 medium onion, chopped 1…
From Puglia: A Culinary Memoir (Italy’s Food Culture) (Oronzo Editions, LLC, 2008) Serves 6 1 onion, minced Extra-virgin olive oil 2 cups fresh tomato puree or 2 8 -ounce cans Basil leaves 3-1/4 pounds eggplant (6 small) 2 eggs Sea salt Flour for dredging Stuffing: 6 ounces ground meat, any combination of lamb, veal, and pork 2…
From Seafood alla Siciliana: Recipes and Stories from a Living Tradition (Lake Isle Press, 2009) Here’s another variation on the agrodolce theme, based loosely on a recipe from Charly, chef of Taormina’s Vicolo Stretto restaurant. With red onion crowning each tuna steak, it looks pretty and makes an especially nice warm-weather dish, served at room temperature–like…
Grilled pizza. It doesn’t sound right, does it? Whenever I tell my friends that I am making grilled pizza, they usually give me a skeptical look. It is not until I finish explaining the process that I hear a hesitant, “That sounds good.” Nobody really is completely sold on the idea until they actually taste…
Here is a cookbook that truly understands how Italians eat. “Italian meals are structured in a way that keeps family and friends at the table,” the introduction tells us. The focus on family and friends eating together is a central theme throughout this book. In addition to being family-centric, the Italian way of eating is…
In her latest cookbook Marcella Hazan attempts to capture the spirit of her famous Italian cooking classes, which began modestly in her New York City apartment during the 1960s and evolved into widely sought out Master Classes in her Venice home. With no-nonsense advice on all aspects of Italian home cooking, Marcella Says… successfully transports the reader…
