Mike Colameco’s Real Food – Mike hosts one of the best food shows on TV (PBS) and we love his inside look at the restaurant scene in NYC (though admittedly we do little dining outside of our home kitchen); here Mike share’s his grandmother’s beef braciola recipe. Big Night, Big Feast – Stanley Tucci’s family hails from Calabria and they love to […]

Orzo resembles a large grain of rice (risoni) but is in fact a type of pasta.    Orzo means barley in Italian and it’s the Swiss army knife of pasta shapes; for example, it can be used in soup, as a side salad, and even baked in the oven.  Our Italian mother, used orzo primarily in soups such as chicken brodo and, […]

Our standard pickled eggplant recipe, or  Melanzane Sott’Olio, is a staple in our household, but when we crave a slightly more refined version, with a bit less work, we turn to sweet and sour eggplant or melanzane in agrodolce. Most melanzane in agrodolce begin by frying the eggplant but our version includes a quick boil and steeping technique that yields wonderfully delicate […]

The best broths usually contain chickens that have been butchered with fully attached heads and feet; this little known fact was made abundantly clear to me when I asked my grandmother when she would be removing these parts after slaughtering chickens for a large family meal (I won’t elaborate on her response but you can take a guess).   The simple idea […]

For cheap, healthy diet, know how to cook – sent to us via our friend Dr. K. this is a great article from Philly.com that is research based and firmly concludes that, “Those who know how to cook are at a distinct advantage when it comes to nutrition on the cheap.” Pasta alla Norma – a link sent to us […]

We have a love-hate relationship with super automatic espresso machines such as the Philips Saeco Syntia Automatic Espresso Machine (Type HD8833).  On the one hand, we love the idea of a big black box grinding, tamping, and brewing a true shot of espresso (something like a ristretto), yet in our heart of hearts we know there are no short cuts to […]

Canned pears or pere sciroppate used to be a mainstay in most rural villages in Calabria (one of the southern most provinces in Italy) as were canned and preserved peaches and other fruits.  These days, you’re more likely to find supermarket canned fruit in the cupboards of most southern Italian kitchens, especially during the winter months when there is a lack of […]

Friselle bread, at times referred to as freselle, frisedde, fresedde, frise, are made from durum wheat.  Friselle are baked twice and usually have a rough side and smooth side.  Friselle are found throughout all of Italy but especially popular in southern Italy (Apulia, Calabria, Campania, etc.).  Friselle have a very long shelf life and were especially popular during difficult, economic, […]

Strozzapreti pasta is translated as “priest choker” and is an elongated form of cavatelli.  The legend has it that the priests of  Emilia-Romagna and the surrounding regions enjoyed the long pasta so much that they choked while eating it.  I can certainly understand eating strozzapreti quickly as it is, indeed, a delicious pasta. Strozzapreti is a fairly straight-forward pasta shape to make at […]

We have a love-hate relationship with our local Trader Joe’s.  That is to say, we love some of their value based products such as organic milk, eggs, Greek yogurt, cereals, peanut butter, nuts, select breads, etc., but don’t care much for their fruits, vegetables, frozen foods, and meats/fish.  And by value based, I mean product quality is good enough given […]