Olive oil, garlic, a touch of hot pepper, a few anchovy fillets and fresh parsley are all you need to make this scrumptious pasta dish, in just three minutes! Well, a few more if you include the ten minutes it takes for your pasta to cook. Penne with sizzled garlic & hot pepper, anchovies and…
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Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons
My favorite Maroccan dish by far is Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons. It’s wonderful because the tagine cooking technique yields a tender and flavorful chicken, while the preserved lemons add a tangy touch to the dish. To cook with a tagine you place all of the ingredients inside the tagine at the same time, cover and…
Banana Nutella Bread
If you love rich banana flavor and a dessert that’s full of chocolatey flavor then Banana Nutella Bread is the dessert for you! It just so happens that chocolate and banana are a heavenly match; the addition of Nutella takes this banana bread to a new level! If you’re looking for intense banana flavor then…
Tiramisù!
I’ve come to love tiramisù now that I’ve fine tuned my recipe to exactly suit my taste. The key to great tiramisù is to use mascarpone, and to beat the eggs until they’re cloud-fluffy. Of course good espresso and high quality Marsala wine are a given! You can chill tiramisù in a large serving dish…
Italian Cocktails, Mocktails & Liqueurs
Italian cocktails and mocktails are frequently low alcohol content and often with a hint of bitter flavor. This is changing with globalization. Italian cocktails and mocktails are now beginning to take on an international flare and resemble those you’d see in the United States and elsewhere. I far prefer the classic Italian cocktails and mocktails that Italians have…
Lemon Poundcake Drizzled with Lemon Glaze
Lemon Poundcake Drizzled with Lemon Glaze Our lemon tree is bursting with lemons and this is no exaggeration. I haven’t counted them but there are hundreds of beautiful lemons. We leave them on the tree all winter long and pick them as we need them each day: for salad dressings and the like. Let’s face it…
Homemade pasta: easy and fun to make!
No dish is more quintessentially Italian than homemade pasta. It can be long, short, filled or cut small to use in soup. There are also pastas that use a variety of whole grain flours, water instead of eggs, or hot water and butter instead of eggs. Despite innumerable variations, this classic homemade pasta recipe is perfect as the…
Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Grated Parmesan Cheese and Toasted Walnuts
Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Grated Parmesan Cheese & Toasted Walnuts is a delightful winter salad and a great way to serve this winter vegetable! I’d never thought of using brussels sprouts raw in a salad but it’s one of the easiest and tastiest ways to use them. Brussels sprouts are an odd vegetable. Their…
Penne all’Amatriciana
Amatriciana or matriciana, the sauce is still the same: rich, spicy, with crunchy bits of guanciale. The name varies based on who’s trying to lay claim to this pasta sauce’s origins. The sauce is supposedly named after the town of Amatrice in the Appenine hills to the North East of Rome just at the absolute…
Chocolate Truffle Treats
My sister Laurie made these Chocolate Truffle Treats for a recent cookie exchange party and as she described them to me I knew they were a winner! Then when I saw a picture of them I was completely sold. The flavor is so rich and delightful, and incredibly chocolatey, you think you’re eating truffles….
Roman Style Artichokes
We’re fully in the season of Roman, or globe, artichokes. There are so many delicious ways to prepare them, but the best way is Carciofi alla Romana. I usually buy artichokes that have already been partially cleaned at the market, in other words all the tough outer leaves removed, plus the outer layer…
Broccoli Rabe Gnocchi with a Gorgonzola Sage Sauce
Have you ever tried to convince children to eat leafy green vegetables? It’s no simple task and honestly I’m not a champion of forcing children to eat anything against their will no matter how nutritious the food is. It’s a sure fire way to turn children against the pleasure and passion of eating. The trick is to incorporate…