In my view, biscotti (plural for cookie) were created as a vehicle to enjoy coffee.  For example, my daily routing includes making a cup of coffee in the morning accompanied by a single biscotto (the hard cookie satisfies my initial hunger in the morning and provides a buffer against drinking coffee on an empty stomach).    So, while biscotti are […]

In my parent’s region of Italy (Calabria) almond paste cookies are abundant, but rainbow cookies aren’t found in southern Italy (and to the best of my knowledge the rest of Italy is also devoid of this moist and luscious cookie).  Rainbow cookies are an Italian American invention and most likely created to honor the color of the Italian flag.  However, […]

You won’t find an Italian American household which doesn’t produce a version of the ubiquitous stuffed peppers with ground beef and to be honest we weren’t always fans of the dish. Our dislike for stuffed peppers most likely emanated from bland, rice based, stuffings and semi cooked green, bell, peppers .  However, stuffed peppers can be made well as well as […]

As our fans know and understand we’re big believers in from scratch cooking but we’re also food pragmatist; that is to say, we understand that homemade food can, at times, be semi-homemade.  Case in point, is a wonderful semi fresh pasta from the Italian company Giovanni Rana.  Giovanni Rana, a 50-year old Italian pasta company with an excellent reputation in […]

Italian Corn Bread When my wife (then girlfriend) visited my parent’s home for her first Italian themed Thanksgiving she was bewildered by the selection of non traditional Thanksgiving day foods such as pasta, salumi, olives, various vegetables, nuts, fruits, cheeses, and pastries (I offered no explanation, but suggested she eat as much as possible so as to not offend the […]