Lingue di Pizza are a street food snack that can be found in bakeries all over Rome. The word lingue means tongue, which describes the elongated shape. I have been seeing videos from Italy of people making these all over my social feeds, and I decided I had to try making them. My first question…
Here is another excellent Sicilian variation on pesto. This is different from the Trapanese Pesto that I featured last week in that there is no tomato, and it uses pistachios instead of almonds. Think of it as closer to Genovese basil pesto, but with pistachios rather than pignoli. The difference is that instead of just…
I was looking to do some kind of new fish on the grill. I have my standards that I go to all summer long, usually involving swordfish, or steelhead trout, but was in the mood for a change. I decided a simple grilled swordfish with pesto would be a good idea. The reason I do…
Pasta alla Norma is one of Sicily’s most celebrated dishes, a simple combination of pasta, tomato sauce, fried eggplant, and ricotta salata that has become a symbol of Sicilian cooking. The dish comes from Catania, on the eastern coast of Sicily. The name is said to be a tribute to Norma, the opera composed by…
Many of my favorite memories of visiting Sicily over the years revolve around food. The way a meal could stretch for hours. The way my aunt would disappear into the kitchen and come back with something extraordinary made from almost nothing. My late Aunt Lina lived in Motta Santa Anastasia, a small town in the…
Desserts were not the strong suit of my father’s restaurant. You ate there for the pasta dishes and the Italian entrees. Dessert was an afterthought. Like many Italian-American restaurants at the time, we had premade desserts we got from a vendor like spumoni and tortoni. We did stuff our cannolis fresh, and made desserts like…
Every year for Christmas I get pastries and biscotti from Del Prete pastry shop in Bridgeport. Everything there is great, but they make the best cannoli in Connecticut. So you can imagine my disappointment to find out they had a fire and are temporarily closed, so I need to get my cannoli for the holidays…
Sarde a Beccafico is a traditional Sicilian dish of butterflied sardines stuffed with a sweet and savory mixture of bread crumbs, pine nuts, currants, anchovies, garlic and parsley. Baked in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and squeeze of lemon, it truly is a taste of Sicily. Back in 2001 I went to…
Hey Phil. Why are you making tasty frozen treats in the dead of winter? Blood Oranges are in season. But isn’t it too cold for Granita? Blood Oranges are in season. Wouldn’t Blood Orange Granita be more appropriate in the summer? Blood Oranges aren’t in season in the summer. Why do you have to make…
Summer weather is finally hitting us here in Connecticut, and when it’s this hot I like to keep my cooking as simple as possible, preferably outside on the grill, while still maximizing flavor. These Swordfish Sandwiches certainly check off all of the boxes. Perfectly grilled swordfish steaks on crusty Italian bread with peppery arugula and…
