Puntarelle or cicoria di catalogna (or cicoria asparago) is a variant of chicory. The heads are characterized by an elongated shape (about 40–50 cm), light green stems and dandelion shaped leaves. Puntarelle have a pleasantly bitter taste.Puntarelle appear on vegetable stands in late winter and throughout the spring. Puntarelle are picked when they are young...
Condiments
Miso Caramel Sauce
I’m someone who really loves my sweets, but I do love a salty, umami touch to desserts to elevate them to nirvana level. Case in point is this wonderful miso caramel sauce that’s divine drizzled warm on ice cream. Miso caramel sauce is super easy to make but you do have to exercise care in...
Homemade Blackberry Jam
The first year we made homemade blackberry jam Maurizio picked the berries and I did the cooking and canning. Blackberries have so many seeds which we find unpleasant in jams and tarts so I decided to remove them. It's a laborious, time consuming task and I cursed myself the whole way through making the jam...
Homemade Yogurt
Homemade Yogurt is delicious with fresh fruit, or just plain. The best part is how easy homemade yogurt is to make! Exactly a year ago I made my first trip to India. All the food was amazing but what stood out above everything was perhaps the simplest food of all: yogurt. Yogurt in India is...
Preserved Lemons
I first tried preserved lemons last spring in San Francisco and loved them immediately. What attracted me to preserved lemons was finally having a new recipe to help me use the dozens upon dozens of lemons our trees produce every year. I love limoncello, who doesn't, but we make it every year. I'm always racking my brain to come up...
Red Snapper Ceviche
Yesterday we spent the day fishing in Belize. Cagey, a local fisherman, took us out for the day on his small boat and we hit all his top fishing spots. I'd really hoped to catch a tuna and we nearly did. We had a barracuda on the line that broke away and even managed to bend...
Roast Sunflower Seeds
Last year I decided to take a day trip in search of fields of sunflowers to capture some great photographs. Our timing was off and in the end we missed the season. We swore to each other that we wouldn't miss the season this year so in June I started scoping out sunflowers. About ten...