Of Empanadas and Goliaths: Señora Rosenda and the Soy Barons

 Posted by at 4:01 pm  4 Responses »
Mar 082013
 
Of Empanadas and Goliaths: Señora Rosenda and the Soy Barons

I’ve never met Señora Rosenda, the master empanadera of my last post, nor eaten her empanadas, but she’s the stuff of legend in her corner of Santiago del Estero, on the northern steppes of Argentina. I heard about her from my daughter, Celina, who went to stay with the campesina one recent winter in the scrubby northern flatlands, called the mato, which were once in the shadow of the Incas. When I asked Celina what went into Señora Rosenda’s empanadas, she didn’t know. Instead, she told me this story. Today, this corner of the world is in the shadows of a different […more…]

Unraveling the Mystery of a Grandmother’s Lost Recipe

 Posted by at 1:07 pm  2 Responses »
Sep 102012
 
Unraveling the Mystery of a Grandmother's Lost Recipe

Recently, Oldways Preservation Trust asked me to solve a culinary mystery for the new “Lost Recipes Project” on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. Oldways Preservation Trust is a food think tank with a mission to preserve culinary traditions and artisanal foods. My task for NPR was to trace the roots of a listener’s elusive family recipe for an unusual type of ravioli. The detective work will draw you into the story of one Italian family, their traditions and food. Listen to the story of how I tracked down the long-lost recipe on the audio segment of “The Salt,” NPR’s food blog […more…]

Cooking with Julia: June is for Sweet Cabbage

 Posted by at 5:45 pm  1 Response »
Jun 292012
 
Cooking with Julia: June is for Sweet Cabbage

“Cooking with Julia” || JUNE 2012 If you think cabbage is winter food, consider this: early summer cabbages are more mellow in flavor than those grown for autumn harvesting, particularly those that are showing up in farmers markets everywhere. One variety I’ve seen quite a bit of  lately and snap up whenever I can is Arrowhead cabbage, a comparatively small and mild early summer cone-shaped brassica. I shot these carts filled with them (or perhaps they are Winningstadt, a German cone-head cabbage?–so similar it’s hard to tell the difference) at a farmers market in South West Germany. Despite the ubiquitous Italian […more…]

Cooking with Julia: MAY is for Artichokes

 Posted by at 6:03 pm  3 Responses »
May 072012
 
Cooking with Julia: MAY is for Artichokes

“Cooking with Julia”  ||  MAY 2012 This new feature on my blog called “Cooking with Julia” offers a recipe every month for ingredients in season. I’d might as well begin with artichokes, now in their prime, because I love them, probably more than any other vegetable I can think of. Perish the thought of pickled artichokes, frozen artichoke hearts, or the canned variety. You’ll ruin your recipe if you substitute them when the ingredient list calls for fresh. While artichokes can be tedious to clean–what’s required is snapping off the hard part of the leaves and whittling away the tough […more…]

Feasting with Leopards: An Unordinary Cooking Lesson

 Posted by at 11:51 am  23 Responses »
Apr 062012
 
Feasting with Leopards: An Unordinary Cooking Lesson

On a recent morning in Palermo, I found myself a guest at the historic Lanza Tomasi palazzo, where Nicoletta Polo, the Duchess of Palma, was planning a cooking lesson for American students who would arrive after breakfast. I first met Nicoletta some twenty years ago when she was living in New York City. Originally from Venice and an excellent cook, she versed me on the food of the Veneto for research on a book I was writing then, which includes some of her recipes. Today the Duchess lives in the ancestral palace that her husband, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, has restored. […more…]

Luxurious Penance: Italian Fast Day Potato Salad

 Posted by at 11:36 am  4 Responses »
Mar 032012
 
Luxurious Penance: Italian Fast Day Potato Salad

The Italians love good food, fast days or not. All kinds of special dishes have popped up over the centuries to get around papal restrictions designed to curtail excess (sumptuary laws), for Lent and other holy days. Take the fast day salad. There are many resourceful variations on the theme. What all have in common is that they’re meatless. This one is a composed warm salad of creamy boiled potatoes, canned tender Italian blue fin tuna filets, hard-cooked eggs, and asparagus. Italian tuna, called ventresca (stay tuned for a future  post about this as yet under-appreciated delicacy), comes from the belly […more…]

About that Stracotto: Italian for Very, Very Slow-Cooked, Sublime Stew

 Posted by at 2:53 pm  9 Responses »
Feb 062012
 
About that Stracotto: Italian for Very, Very Slow-Cooked, Sublime Stew

And for which I promised a recipe in a recent post (December 15). Just the remedy for February’s chill.  Go to RECIPE> After I finished off producer Piero Catalano’s bottle of Suavis, the aged vinegar from Sicily’s desert island (“The Other Face of Balsamic” [December 15 post]), a small flask of Modena aged balsamic vinegar took its place in my cupboard. Unlike the Suavis, a souvenir from my September in Trapani (I drank it as a cordial, an “amen” to the day, blissful thimbleful by thimbleful and it was gone by January), aged Modena balsamico can be more easily replaced. […more…]

FOR THE NEW YEAR: Lentils for Luck and Sausages for Plenty, Infused with Holy Oil

 Posted by at 5:24 pm  10 Responses »
Dec 312011
 
FOR THE NEW YEAR: Lentils for Luck and Sausages for Plenty, Infused with Holy Oil

Put them together for the quintessential Italian New Year dish, lenticchie di capodanno (lentils for the new year). Lentils, round and copper-colored, should remind you of money; pork shouts fatness and increase. And the olive oil? Nectar of the gods. “A drop of olive oil on the head, a drop of wine on the lips” remembers writer Bill Marsano, was an infant’s blessing in Italian households. It anoints the breasts of monarchs at their coronations and marks the foreheads of the dying in their final breath of life. In your food, it’s no less a benediction. New Year is an […more…]

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