Italian Potato Chips, Preserving Mozzarella, Stracciatella alla Romano, A Sicilian Duchess, and 10 Great Italian Cookbooks SeriousEats – Can you rescue poorly stored fresh mozzarella?  The folks over at SeriousEats.com look at different methods for reconstituting and storing fresh, whole milk, mozzarella.  Here at Scordo we recommend you buy only what you’ll consume for the day. NY Times Dining and Wine – Roman style […]

What We’re Reading: Polenta Lasagna, Chiacchiere, Arancini Veneziani, Olives Ascolane, Art of Sushi Jiro Dream of Sushi – My cousin Mike pointed out this brilliant film about the passion and love behind one sushi artisan’s trade,occupation, and obsession.  The film centers on 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered to be the world’s greatest sushi chefs.  The film is beautiful and a must see […]

  Bittman on Mini Cannelloni, 10 Alternative to Sliced Tomatoes, Batali on Mozzarella in Carozza and Greed, Beautiful Artichokes   Mark Bittman – We’ll forgive the usually rational Mark Bittman for suggesting the home cook use pre-made “wanton wrappers” when making mini cannelloni at home and suggest you look at his otherwise very good recipe.  The problem with using “wanton […]

Gilt Taste – An article entitled “how to make rockin risotto” documents the process of making rice in the Italian style, though the author goes overboard suggesting you use a diagram to note the doneness of the rice and use whipped cream to give the rice a light and airy consistency (our view: you don’t need the whipped cream if […]

(photo: Stovetop espresso with tiny pears soaking in grappa.) Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Baby Coffee, Classic Pizza Dough, Fennel Love, and Culinary Awards!   NY Times Dining Section– David Tanis’ article states that enthusiastically that “fennel is under appreciated no more” and offers a nice baked fennel dish recipe.  We applaud David for making a bold statement, but who knew the vegetable was ever “under appreciated” […]

(photo: homemade pizza with whole milk mozzarella and tomato sauce) Napoli Unplugged – Minestra Maritata or A’ Menesta Maretata is made for Easter, Christmas and New Years. Traditionalists argue it was originally served on Santo Stefano (December 26th) to “clean out the pipes” after large holiday meals. WhyGoItaly – Jessica documents her 8 favorite swear words in Italian – a […]

(photo: a shot of espresso from the MyPressi Twist) Eater.com – I’m a big fan of having practical skills regardless of profession and education.  With the aforementioned in mind it’s a good thing to know how to butcher meat and the photos and content in Ryan Farr’s Whole Beast Butchery look great.   NY Times Dining and Wine – Only in America: the […]

(photo: left to right: simmering green beans and tomato sauce by Scordo and Man Reading by John Singer Sargent) Today we launch a new feature on the site called, “What We’re Reading” and it will basically function as a mechanism to share our notes on cooking, eating, thinking, drinking, and, on occasion, fuming about.     New York Times Dining & Wine […]