One of the many things I love about spending time in kitchens in Italy is that you always walk away with a lesson in immigration. At Il Giardino di Candida, a trattoria on Ventotene that bears the name of its chef Candida Sportiello (as well as the island’s patron saint) I heard of a community [...]
About this time every year, journalists covering the "Feast of Seven Fishes" reach out to me for a quote or some background about the Italian Christmas Eve tradition. Every year, I tell them the same thing: the Seven Fish Feast is a thoroughly Italian American tradition and that if you served a mere seven fish [...]
Mullet has been fished in these waters for millennia. Spaghetti con la Bottarga | Spaghetti with Cured Mullet Roe Looking for a flavorful and simple dish for your fish-themed Christmas Eve table (or for any occasion, really)? This is the simplest, most straight-forward Sardinian dish out there. Bottarga di muggine, cured grey mullet roe, [...]
Just as Naples is the capital of Italy’s thick-rimmed wood fired pizza pies, Bari and its surrounding Pugliese towns are known for a beloved regional flatbread, focaccia. An olive oil-rich dough is baked in iron pans at places like Panificio Fiore on Strada della Città in Bari Vecchia, then sold by the slice. The pan [...]
Are you in the market for an easy, delicious, and potentially creative new way to eat bread? Meet u’ pan’ cuott’ (Bernaldese dialect for pan cotto, “cooked bread”). It's a bread and cheese casserole from Bernalda, a town in Basilicata best known as the ancestral village of Francis Ford Coppola. This peasant dish features stale [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcFAP2Mvgz4 Back in the beforetimes, I visited Home & Family on the Hallmark Cannel to make this recipe from Food of the Italian South with Debbie Matenopoulos & the gang. You can watch the broadcast above and cook along using the recipe below. Paccheri alla Cilentana (Paccheri with Capers, Olives, Anchovies, and Fried Bread Crumbs) [...]
