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What We’re Reading – Eating Well Doesn’t Make You Fat, Greens, Sheep and Blossoms, Frittata Making, Parmesan

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Recently shaved sheep on our Aunt/Uncle's farm in Calabria.

Eating Well Doesn’t Make You Fat, Greens, Sheep and Blossoms, Frittata Making, Parmesan

New York Times Food & Wine – In the category of “duh, did you really need to write a book about this concept” category we nominate Peter Kaminsky for his book Culinary Intelligence where he argues folks in the US would be better off eating foods that maximize flavor (in order to tame our gluttonous appetites and slim down a bit).  Oh, food expert how we laugh at you and your simple advice (telling people to eat like the Italians, Greeks, and French is a different concept than bringing about cultural change in how a given society consumes food; the former is easy, the latter needs a revolution).

Ciao Ciao Linda – If you follow Scordo regularly then you know about our long standing obsession with greens (not the color) but rather greens such as dandelloin, swiss chard, escarole, etc.  Linda’s article covers the lovely green winter cress or wild mustard greens, including a recipe entitled, beans and greens.

Cannelle er Vanille – We’re envious of food blogs and sites that seem to come out of some perfect world with beautiful food photos and earthy settings with animals and kids frolicking in the New England countryside.  Case in point, a nice article on sheep, blossoms, and the food of Spring.  Not to self: sell the house in New Jersey, buy a fancy camera, and settle in Vermont.

The Kitchn – A how-to on frittata making that is fairly good.   We love making frittata and always grate Parmigiano Reggiano into the egg mixture.  The Kitchn also suggests baking the frittata for 8-10 minutes, thought we simply set our oven to broil and place our pan in the oven for 1-3 minutes (to simply brown and cook the top portion of the frittata).

Parmesan.com – The folks behind promoting Parmigiano Reggiano in the United States recently launched a new web site and the resource has some great content on the undisputed king of cheeses, including a a great eggplant lasagna dish. One note on the word “Parmesan”:  it’s the informal use in the English language and how the French refer to what Italians refer to as “Parmigiano Reggiano” – our preference is for the later!

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Author: Lead Italophile (and/or lover of all things Italian).
  • Dr. K

    I agree that Kaminsky’s book might be stating the obvious, but there can be no change without awareness, and though this may be obvious to you and me, and many readers of this site, there are also millions of people out there for whom this is earth shattering news.  Kaminsky himself, for example.  He came to this the hard way, after developing medical problems with his unhealthy lifestyle.  So if this increases awareness, it can only help to foster change, which as you said is not easy.

    We love frittatas.  Like the lunch salad, it’s another marvelous way to manage leftovers.  I often make mine for breakfast, but they’re equally good for dinner or lunch.  Like you, I don’t bake mine, I just put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown the top.  But I let the eggs cook on the stovetop.  It helps to clap a lid on top after you’ve added the eggs.  It speeds up the cooking of the eggs and gets things set without excessively browning the bottom of the frittata.  A little browning is good, but too much and  it’s just burnt.

    Ditto on moving to the country to raise animals, grow vegetables, and cook great food.  Someday.  Maybe.  One can dream.

  • Ciao Chow Linda

    Thanks for the shout-out. I feel honored to be in such company as the other sites you listed.