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 […]

The Best Food Season of the Year and Hot Peppers: Pickling and Drying We can assert, without much doubt, that late August through early September is the best time of the year for fresh fruit and vegetables here in the United States.  Backyard gardens, local markets and farms (including ones participating in CSAs), and even large, chain, supermarkets, for example, carry […]

Pickled eggplant (Melanzane Sott’Olio) has been a staple of our Italian American pantry for 40+ years.  Along with giardiniera (a mix of pickled vegetables including carrots, cauliflower, celery, etc.) sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, and pickled mushrooms, our family keeps large quantities of pickled eggplant in our cool, basement, pantry.  We use both melanzane sott’olio and giardiniera (and all of […]

You can make fish fritters out of most any fish (including the leftover kind), but our favorite is Salt Cod Fritters or Frittelle di Baccala  We like salt cod because it shreds or flakes easily and has a wonderful salty flavor profile that lends itself well to the frying method. Dried and salted “salt cod” is sold in whole pieces […]

Family Style Eating: Hanger Steak Nicoise and Tomatoes and Mozzarella  I was giving some thought to formal dining at home the other day and specifically whether American families still sit down for formal, multi-course, meals?  During my childhood, our family often started  meals with a pasta or soup course followed by a family style meal including 3-4 dishes consisting of a […]

Punt e Mes is an amaro-red (sweet) vermouth hybrid made by Carpano and the name means “point and a half” in the dialect from Turin.  The legend goes that a man ordered a glass of red vermouth and half dose of bitters and Antonio Carpano’s bar.   Punt e Mes is made with a variation of herbs and spices and […]

Cappelletti Pasta with Kamut Flour – Made with organic Kamut flour these Umbrian variations of tortellini are an ideal pasta and Letizia Mattiacci from central Italy (Umbria) provides a step by step guide (with wonderful photos) on how to make the pasta shape. Aperol and Sipping on an Italian Sunset – the New York Times Food and Wine section jumps on […]

Friarelli are a type of green (and sometimes red) sweet pepper which are commonly found in Italian specialty shops or any good gourmet market.  Our fried Italian peppers recipe is usually made with friarielli (and/or friggitelli) and not dissimilar to Cubanelles.  Friarelli are distinguished by their narrow conical shape and relatively transparent flesh. A similar recipe which utilizes Friarelli or standard bell peppers is called Peperonata. Fried Italian Peppers […]

The Italian mafia is over 3,000 years old and much of the available literature on the logic behind why the Italian mafia formed is centered on numerous periods of invasion and exploitation by conquering states and armies in Italy.   Thereafter, Italians became “clannish” and started to rely on “familial ties for safety, protection, justice, and survival”, according the FBI. Four Large Mafia […]

The summer is a joyous season for various reasons and tonight we’ve discovered yet another; namely, the summer salad.  The summer salad has many forms and it often materializes without much thought.  For example, tonight we glanced at our bounty of summer vegetables and assembled three salads to go along with our grilled, whole, chicken: Grilled Zucchini and Onion with […]