Orecchiette with Spicy Baby Calamari When our now 31-year-old daughter was an infant we started spending our summers in Sperlonga at the seaside home of a delightful Italian family of contadini (farmers). Although already well into retirement age this couple still dedicated their days to their vegetable garden, lemon orchard, chickens and many plants on...
30-Minute Meals
Pasta alla Carbonara
Pasta alla Carbonara is a delectable and quite simple pasta dish that is a cornerstone of the Roman cuisine. There's not a restaurant in Rome that doesn't serve it. Follow these simple tips and it'll be perfect every time! One of the key ingredients in Pasta alla Carbonara is guanciale (pork jowl) which adds amazing...
Fennel, Orange & Olive Salad
There's nothing like the fresh crunchy flavor of fennel bulbs and they're a perfect ingredient in this fennel, sliced orange and olive salad. I put fennel in just about any kind of salad; use a to slice fennel paper thin for your salad. Fennel tends to turn brown so toss the fennel slices in...
Pioppino mushroom soup with pancetta, spring peas, and green onions
So often what I make for lunch evolves right then and there with ingredients I have on hand and from the garden. Today was one of those days. It's starting to feel just a tad on the chilly side, the sky is gray and rain for the next week is in the forecast so I'm...
Sautéed Purple Cabbage with Fresh Coriander
Sautéed Purple Cabbage with Fresh Coriander What I love most about this dish is that it's downright beautiful. Pantone has established that purple, and all its tonalities, are the food color for 2018 and I concur wholeheartedly. There are so many wonderful purple foods from purple cabbage to beets to eggplant and each one is...
Green onion and tomato fettuccine
The recipe for green onion and tomato fettuccine came about on a whim at the last minute. We went for our morning walk much later than expected, just before lunchtime. On the way home we stopped by our garden to see what, if anything, was left of last summer's produce. Oddly enough the long red...
Panettone French Toast
It happens to be the last holiday of the season here in Italy...the Befana...so I feel compelled to add a little festivity to the day and that usually means a food treat. So we're starting the day off with some Panettone French toast which, as they say in Italian, è la morte sua (its best...
Rigatoni with Smoked Salmon & Mascarpone
My husband is retired now which means most of the time he's home for lunch. I'm usually the food preparer and find myself in a quandary at lunchtime. When I'm on my own its leftovers, salad, something simple. But Maurizio loves his pasta for lunch so that's what I make. I try to keep it...
Beet, arugula, goat cheese and toasted walnut salad
Before you even take a bite of this beet salad you'll be impressed. Just the colors alone make it wonderful. The paper thin sliced beets, walnuts, cheese and arugula create a flavor combination that works in spades. Ingredients (for two people): Procedure: Sometimes the simplest ingredients that can be put together in two seconds produce some...
Spaghetti with Gorgonzola Sage Sauce
One of my favorite pasta dishes which, guess what, happens to be just about the easiest dish–and quickest—to make, is pasta with Gorgonzola sauce.
