The year was 1997 and I was a college junior applying for a prestigious fellowship for first generation college students.  The fellowship provided funds and a mentor to guide and prepare students for graduate work in the humanities and sciences.  The fellowship had strict academic and social-economic requirements.  On the socio-economic side, students were expected to be first generation college […]

  (photo: prior to breaking the pasta into smaller pieces, notice the length!) I love impromptu meals; that is to say, one of the biggest thrills I experience in the kitchen is when one dish I have in mind turns into something completely different or helps inform a second dish.  For example, when starring at a few chicken legs in my refrigerator this evening […]

Eggplant Parmigiana or Roasted Eggplant with Tomato Sauce and Grated Parmigiano Reggiano The PBS star Mary Ann Esposito recently caused a little bit of controversy over at the Huffington Post when she published a recipe entitled, “The Real Eggplant Parmigiano.”  Amongst the comments on the post, some readers accused Mary Ann of pushing an Italian-American version of Eggplant Parmigiano and using an […]

(photo: pan simmered baby goat or capretto with onion, tomato, garlic, and red wine) Feasting on baby goat is a staple of our Italian American Easter and Christmas dinners.  My father’s mother, Nonna Rosa Scordo, made a wonderful pan simmered capretto recipe and it includes braising a whole baby goat (which is processed at home or by the local butcher). […]

  (photo: various Scordo family members during the late summer wheat harvest in Pellegrina, Calabria)  You can say, unequivocally, that Americans love their beef. Compared to their Mediterranean counterparts, American’s are ranked third in the world (only behind Argentina and Uruguay) when it comes to choosing beef for their dinner table (Italy is ranked 9th, per 1999 statistics).  An educated guess as to why beef […]

There are some terrific fish on our little planet and while we are, indeed, overfishing our seas , I constantly marvel at how delicious certain varieties of aquatic vertebrates are, including mackerel, sardines, cod, swordfish, trout, branzino, striped bass, salmon, etc.  Much of the overfishing talk centers on Tuna, which is a large industry in Southern Italy, especially near Sicily (where the world’s best tuna is […]

Wild Food I remember walking through the Calabrian countryside with my grandfather as a boy when he suddenly feel to his knees and plucked a few pieces of what I thought was simple green grass from the ground. I, of course, thought he was just being his usual pazzo (crazy) nonno,but what he found were dandelion greens, prized for their earthy, minerally, and […]

Cheap Dinner: Wild Mackerel with Tomato Salad and Orzo with Zucchini and Parsley:  With the arrival of August, our household starts the summer tradition of consuming copious amounts of fresh tomatoes (at times for both lunch and dinner) – see my entries on tomato salad, canning tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  Ripe, garden grown, tomatoes represent the ideal food type for […]

  Think of Pappardelle as fettuccine (see our guide to dry pasta) on steroids (basically very broad fettuccine).  Pappardelle derives from the word “pappare” which means “to gobble up.”  The pappardelle I consumed was egg based and made by Rustichella.   I always associate Pappardelle with meat sauces, specifically a ragu made out of rabbit(it was a favorite of mine growing up […]

  Back in April, I posted about one of my favorite egg sandwiches made with a simple fried egg, fresh humus, and slices of ripe tomato on a whole wheat Ciabatta.  Sandwiches prepared with a perfectly fried egg (with a warm runny yoke) are ideal because the egg provides both the protein (white) and the dressing (yoke).  For me, the combination […]