You often find Seafood Salad (Antipasti di Mare) served during the Christmas holiday in Italy but we like to make this salad throughout the year.  Our version of seafood salad includes shrimp, calamari (squid), octopus, and scallops.  You can experiment with various seafood, especially if you don’t have access to fish such as octopus or squid (in fact, we’ve utilized mussels, […]

Stuffed Squid (Seppie o Calamari Ripieni) are prepared and served all over southern Italy.  Travel to Sicilia and you’ll find squid stuffed with raisins, black olives, and pine nuts.  Cross the Straight of Messina (Stretto di Messina) into mainland Calabria and most of the stuffings will include crumbled dried red chilies. Our version of Stuffed Squid (Seppie o Calamari Ripieni) is prepared in the traditional […]

Our fig sauce recipe (salsa di fichi) is an easy and versatile pantry staple than can be consumed with a simple yellow/sponge cake or combined with chocolate sauce and a bit of whipped cream for an Italian sundae.  Alternatively, our fig sauce can be used as a savory sauce for pork and chicken (minus a few of the ingredients below) […]

The Figs of Calabria One of the nicest aspects of visiting Calabria during the summer and early Fall is the abundance of fresh fruit available and the ease of securing it.   Consider, for example, that if you’re lucky enough to own a small parcel of land, and the desire to cultivate it, you’ll be guaranteed seculant peaches, pears, grapes, plums, […]

Growing Figs We recently put up a quick  survey on our Facebook fan page and asked readers if they own a fig tree and we had well over 30 readers respond positively!  The survey not only put a smile on my face but also re-assured me I wasn’t the only child who grew up with live Mediterranean fruit in their […]