Grilled calamari or squid is a great alternative to fried calamari and is ideal for the summer months.  My favorite way to prepare fresh squid is to marinate a few pounds of the well cleaned fish in lemon juice, parsley, et. al. and then quickly cook on an outdoor grill (the smokey flavor derived from a wood burning fire compliments […]

Baked Whole Sardines in a Vinegar Sauce – An Easy Recipe for Cooking Fresh Sardines Fresh sardines are a staple food along the Mediterennean coast in southern Italy.   A favorite preparation includes cleaning, gutting, and washing the sardines well followed by a quick dusting of standard flour or chickpea flour.  Thereafter, the whole sardines are pan fried and quickly […]

Pan Fried Skate with Pancetta and Red Onion Risotto One of my favorite ways to eat is to simply head to the market and pick out items that look fresh, tasty, and don’t break the bank (this week a particularly nice item was fresh Skate).  Don’t get me wrong I’m not heading to the market every other day (like Nonna […]

(photo: farmed salmon with arugula salad) Like many folks, one of my favorite fish on the planet is salmon.  The wild variety is divine however I do enjoy the high quality, and sustainable, farmed type which has a fattier texture and composition.    I prepare salmon with our breadcrumb topping (see recipe here), olive oil, black pepper, and Kosher salt.  Thereafter, I use our trusty […]

Canned Tuna, Really? As Suzzane Hamlin points out in her well written 1997 article for the New York Times, canned tuna in olive oil is the best selling seafood in the country.  And your first reaction may be something akin to, “what, canned tuna, why don’t American’s buy fresh fish?”  Well, high quality fresh fish is, indeed, best but if you don’t […]

(photo: the final dish including clams, parsley, garlic, olive oil, and red pepper flake) The following linguine with clam sauce recipe is basically pasta alio e olio (garlic and olive oil) with the addition of minced clams (I like the brand “Snows”).  Note: you can use fresh clams but I recommend steaming the clams and shucking them, as opposed to […]

We covered lots of food here on Scordo, including some not so healthy, everyday type of, dishes or recipes (salami, cheese, fried rice balls, etc.).  In turn, I’ve searched the archives of the site and found 9 Healthy, Italian Inspired, Recipes that you can make every week and feel both satisfied and good about what you’re putting into your body (and […]

(photo: just out of the oven baked mackerel) I’ve written about my love of fish on multiple occasions here on Scordo.com, expounding on sardines, smelts, tuna, branzino, and salmon.  Yet I was sad to discover that while I hold all of the aforementioned fish in high esteem, I’ve only written about fresh mackerel on one other occassion (leaving one of […]

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 […]

When it comes to consuming food, a golden rule we aim to follow is centered on eating “whole foods”; namely, minimally processed from scratch food items.  For example, buying whole bean coffee (and roasting it yourself if possible) and grinding it before each use is better than buying a mega container of preground, and unforgiving, Folgers or Maxwell House and, […]