Baratza Preciso Conical Burr Coffee Grinder If I’ve learned anything about making good coffee is that technique and ingredients are paramount.  For example, if you buy your coffee pre-ground and in bulk your morning cup will most likely be mediocre.  Moreover, if you utilize a traditional drip machine or Keurig style brewer you’re making coffee with the incorrect water temperature […]

Grilled Fennel-Crusted Pork Chops Pork in the US used to be an awful affair.  That is to say, the meat was often tough and lacked the well marbled (and fatty) composition of pork found in Italy and France, for example.  Fast forward about 20 years and pork chop aficionados can find high quality chops (and other cuts of pork) with […]

Chicken Involtini or Stuffed Chicken Breast is a fabulous way to manipulate chicken breast to get the most out of a usually bland cut of chicken.  Our Chicken Involtini or Stuffed Chicken Breast (called Involtini Di Pollo in Italian) recipe features a stuffing made with spinach, mushrooms, and mozzarella.    We also flour our involtini prior to pan frying and then […]

The Rok Espresso Maker is a $199 manual espresso maker that we wanted to like but just couldn’t grow found of nor use with any consistency.  The Rok is made of high quality aluminum and designed/manufactured with simplicity in mind.  Unfortunately, we had trouble pulling anything close to a decent semi automatic / super automatic type of espresso shot; specifically […]

The following fish recipe yields a delicious, garlic infused, parsley sauce and delicate, moist cod.  Our cod sautéed in olive oil with parsley and garlic recipe does call for a good amount of olive oil but it forms the base of the green sauce as well as the basting liquid so we suggest you incorporate the entire 1/4 cup of olive […]

Mozzarella has its origins in southern Italy and is a fresh cheese originally made from (water) bufala (female water buffalo) milk  but nowadays is usually made from whole, cow’s, milk.  The technique used to produce mozzarella, and other fresh cheeses,  is referred to as Pasta filata (i.e., “spun paste”) also known as stretched-curd, pulled-curd, and plastic-curd cheeses (which are usually also […]

In our house, salads, of one sort of another, make an appearance 3-4 times per week.  We often consume peppery arugula with crispy fennel, romaine with feta, ripe tomatoes, and black olives, or Boston lettuce with red onion. The salads often follow a hearty bowl of soup made with farro, rice, or cut pasta and is served alongside fresh bread. […]

Book Review: Salumi by Micheal Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing was a popular and more general look at making cured meats.  In the author’s latest pork crazed book, Salumi, Ruhlman and Polcyn focus on eight basic categories of Italian salami (plural salumi), including: guanciale, coppa, spalla, lardo, lonza, pancetta, […]

Halibut is a white, firm fleshed, fish that has a sweet and delicate flavor.  Our seared halibut with tomatoes, scallions, and white wine sauce is easy to make and can be prepared in under 15 minutes. Halibut is also a nutrient-dense fish with high levels of  protein, including minerals such as selenium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium.  Moreover the fish is […]

How to Make the Perfect Bellini For us, nothing beats the elegance and sensation of starting a meal with a glass of lovely prosecco from the regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy.  Prosecco is a sparkling wine and made from the “prosecco” grape; production is made possible via the Charmat method, where the secondary fermentation takes place in stainless […]