If you've ever grown your own produce, you already know this: nature is mind blowing. Growing anything at all seems like a small miracle. For me, especially when it comes to the vast and varied (and variegated!) radicchio family. This past fall and winter, it was emotional to sow and tend the seeds, harvest the [...]
Most Easters I am on the road. I love visiting farms and friends in rural parts of Italy for the long holiday weekend. Since we are firmly in the "red zone" until after Easter wraps up, I'm staying put in Lazio but already dreaming of 2022 when I hope to spend Pasqua in one [...]
Amici! I miss traveling and eating in Italy with all of you. And so, while we're still all online, I'm excited to announce KP's Italian Eating Club, a virtual community hosted by DEMI where we can all connect through our shared love of all things Italian. The interactive group chat is an ongoing food/wine/booze/cooking party. In the club, we [...]
The Italian south’s resources and position as a crossroads in the Mediterranean have made it a target for conquest and transit for millennia. As invaders and refugees made their way to the south, they brought their customs, cooking methods, and ingredients with them. At times, the locals would reject the new arrivals—both the people and [...]
Last year I covered Sarah Cicolini's Roman trattoria Santo Palato for Australian Gourmet Traveller, one of my favorite magazines to contribute toe. The article included 7 recipes that the Abruzzo-born chef serves in her adopted city, including some of the Italian capital's classics. She says of her version of amatriciana, "There's no one recipe; everyone [...]
Insalata di Polpo con le Patate Octopus and Potato Salad Thanks to millennia of overfishing, the Tyrrhenian Sea is rather impoverished. The most abundant species are small oily fish like anchovies and mackerel and cephalopods like squid and octopus. This octopus salad is inspired by Basilicata’s short coastline, where octopi are fished from the [...]
