Our cousins Paul and Dee can tomatoes every year. They usually give me a few jars, and I use them mostly for my pizza sauce, which comes out great. This year Paul invited me to his aunt’s house in Mineaola, NY to participate in the canning. Oddly enough, even though it is a tradition among…
There may not seem like a lot to this dish, but boy is it tasty. Pork chops with vinegar peppers is an old Italian-American stand-by. I have always made this with sweet vinegar peppers, but if you prefer you can use hot, or a mix. For a different variation on this dish you can home…
Pasta al Tonno is the ultimate Italian pantry meal. A can of tuna, some garlic, olive oil, parsley, and a box of penne – that’s all you need. This is the kind of pasta you make on a busy weeknight when you haven’t had time to shop but still want something that tastes like a…
Chicken Piccata is one of those Italian-American classics that proves you don’t need a long ingredient list to make a delicious meal. Thin chicken cutlets, a bright lemon-butter sauce, briny capers, and a splash of white wine, that’s it. This was a staple at my Dad’s restaurant and it’s still one of my go-to weeknight…
You don’t need a fancy culinary school degree to sauté green beans in olive oil and garlic and toss them with penne, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t a great idea. Fagiolini are green beens, also known as string beans. Green beans sautéed in olive oil with garlic are delicious on their own. Toss…
Penne Arrabiata translates to Angry Penne, which is an apt name for this spicy pasta dish. My father didn’t typically put too much spice into his cooking, but this was one exception. If people wanted the pasta angry they got it angry! If you look at and try different people’s versions of Penne Arrabiata, you…
Pasta Puttanesca is loosely translated to “street walker’s pasta.” There are a lot of stories about how this name came about. The most popular is that the ladies of the evening in Naples used to make Pasta alla Puttanesca and put it out on the windowsill so that the aroma of the sauce would attract…
I really love Roman cuisine, especially the pasta dishes. I have featured classics like Carbonara, Buccatini all’Amatriciana and Spaghetti alla Gricia here in the past. Cacio e Pepe is another one to add to our repertoire of crowd pleasing Roman pasta dishes. Cacio e Pepe literally means cheese and pepper, which are the two main ingredients,…
Sausage and broccoli rabe is a great combination—one of those classic pairings that just makes sense once you taste it. Even if you’re not a big broccoli rabe eater (and I know the bitterness can be polarizing), you need to try them together. The contrast between the slight bitterness of the broccoli rabe and the…
Filetto di Pomodoro, with prosciutto and onion, is a rustic and hearty tomato sauce that goes great over penne or your favorite pasta shape. Filetto di Pomodoro is the first of my Dad’s recipes from the restaurant that I learned to cook well. I worked as a waiter at the restaurant and didn’t have my…
