| Vincent Scordo is an Italian American who writes all about Italian food and life. He believes in the Italian Life for Everyone! >> |
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The silver dollar sized eggplant wonders pictured above are often referred to as Eggplant Fritters (Polpette di Melanzane) and made with a few basic ingredients, including fresh breadcrumbs, roasted eggplant, and good cheese (viz., Parmigiano-Reggiano). Our mother Annunziata is an expert Eggplant Fritters maker which requires the ability to pan fry foods with keen precision (don’t worry after a few attempts [...]
My sweet grandmother (or Nonna Rosa) taught me some invaluable lessons about cooking at home and at the top of her list of practical cooking advice is the seminal claim: learn to love your toaster oven. Yes, the often misunderstood kitchen appliance confined to summer cabins and the senior citizen set was the kitchen tool of choice for Nonna. Why [...]
Pickled eggplant (Melanzane Sott’Olio) has been a staple of our Italian pantry ever since I can remember. Along with giardiniera (a mix of pickled vegetables including carrots, cauliflower, celery, etc.) sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, and pickled mushrooms, our family keeps large quantities of pickled eggplant in our cool, basement, pantry. We use both melanzane sott’olio and giardiniera (and all [...]
You can make fish fritters out of most any fish (including the leftover kind), but our favorite is Salt Cod Fritters or Frittelle di Baccala We like salt cod because it shreds or flakes easily and has a wonderful salty flavor profile that lends itself well to the frying method. Dried and salted “salt cod” is sold in whole pieces [...]
Olive Tomato Tapenade Tapenade has its origins in the south of France and usually consists of finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies, and extra virgin olive oil. In Provence, tapenade is spread on thin toast or bread and is consumed as a light snack or hors d’œuvre. Our black olive and tomato tapenade recipe is a variation of our standard tomato [...]
Cook to Blog or Cook to Live and Enjoy Life? When we cook and have friends and family over the last thing we want to do is document the process (and take photos). This may sound sacrilegious coming from a food blogger, but it’s the truth. For us, preparing and consuming food is not about pictures and words but rather about eating [...]
Have you ever dreamed of being an Italian Count? You know, a fancy aristocrat with an ocean-side villa, a butler, and a few exotic Maserati’s and Ferrari’s in the “stable?” I have to admit I’ve had a few of these Italophile inspired dreams, but I’m quite happy living the Italian life in the US. There is one particular Italian Count [...]
Best Canned Sardines We love, high quality, canned fish and we think they are one of the culinary world’s secret weapons, especially when a home cook doesn’t have access to a wide variety of fresh fish. In fact, in our book we’d rather consume superb salt/olive oil cured sardines, anchovies, tuna, etc. than a fresh fish like Talapia any day [...]
(photo: The lovely Taggiasca olive from Liguria in northwestern Italy) We often talk about the importance of the Italian pantry and how critical it is to have certain staple ingredients in your kitchen at all times. Keeping a well stocked pantry means you’ll never starve, order out, and be relegated to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner. Among the universal items we keep [...]
Over the last few years there’s been renewed interest on the topic of what makes people happy (or happiness studies). ”Renewed” is probably the wrong word since humans have been chasing fulfillment and happiness since we picked up traits such as language, consciousness, and the need to write things down and keep records. The interest in happiness I’m talking about [...]
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