The Trail to Trapani

 Posted by at 6:09 pm  2 Responses »
Sep 302011
 

Day 1: Under the Sicilian Sun Probably there is no better guidebook to the real and the mythical Sicily than Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s The Leopard, the powerful historical novel about Sicilian life at the time of the Risorgimento [Review of the book from THE GUARDIAN]. I took it with me on a flight to Palermo last week and as we drove on the coastal road toward Trapani and our hotel, past dark-skinned children playing along the roadside and men with the bluest of eyes, yellow hair and ruddy complexions, I remembered his image of Sicily as the “America of […more…]

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The Trail to Trapani

FORKS IN THE ROAD: A Grand Picnic for Thousands in Central Park

 Posted by at 1:38 pm  1 Response »
Sep 202011
 

New York City, September 15, 2011 To see the bright indigo boxes dominating the shelves of Italian superstores, suburban supermarkets, and corner mom-and-pop shops alike around the country, one would think that Barilla pasta–which a dozen years ago was only one of many Italian brands available, has conquered America. In New York City last week it was not only pasta that the Barilla empire offered to the people, but a free live concert on the Great Lawn of Central Park. It starred none other than Tuscany’s beloved blind tenor, Andrea Bocelli accompanied by the New York Philharmonic and a chorus […more…]

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FORKS IN THE ROAD: A Grand Picnic for Thousands in Central Park

On the Road with Spaghetti alla Carbonara

 Posted by at 2:32 pm  No Responses »
Jun 102011
 

Photo by Nathan Hoyt At a recent cooking class at the Silo, the cooking school on Ruth and Skitch Henderson’s old estate in New Milford, CT, I decided to demonstrate one of the quickest and easiest pasta dishes of the Italian kitchen: spaghetti alla carbonara. Call it Italy’s version of bacon and eggs if you will–with pasta added. No question that it’s sturdy fare for cool weather, but it’s also a fast summer fix for lunch or dinner–I first ate it as a young girl on a sizzling August day in a trattoria along the Amalfi coast. Outside of Italy, this […more…]

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On the Road with Spaghetti alla Carbonara

On Broccoli Rapini: When Bitter is Sweet

 Posted by at 9:03 pm  7 Responses »
May 192011
 

Cime di rapa (“turnip tops”), broccoli di rapa, broccoletti di rapa, and colloquially, rape or rapini are the Italian terms for what the Americans call “broccoli raab.”  The vegetable was virtually unknown when I was growing up in the States. Today, the pleasingly bitter greens the southern Italians love have become mainstream but they are rarely cooked correctly. Whether prepared in restaurants or carry-out shops, I find they are often too bitter–the result of not  par-boiling first, or undercooking.  This is not a vegetable to cook al dente! This is the Italian way to prepare rapini: Using a sharp paring […more…]

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On Broccoli Rapini: When Bitter is Sweet

At Eataly with Julia: Stalking Italy’s Winter Flower

 Posted by at 1:47 pm  7 Responses »
May 102011
 

Eataly has a gem of a little cooking school. I taught there  in April, timed for the season’s first crop of the precious winter flower of Treviso. Because Eataly carries the uncommon long-ribbed “tardivo” variety of radicchio, I showed my class how to make a stupendous and simple dish with it: Sauteed Spaghetti with Radicchio. The recipe appears in my most recent cookbook, Italian Home Cooking: 125 Recipes to Comfort the Soul (Kyle Books, NY and London, 2010) To buy this book click here Radicchio belongs to the chicory family (cichorium intybus) and there are four different types: – elongated red Verona […more…]

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At Eataly with Julia: Stalking Italy's Winter Flower

CARNEVALE! Gnocchi Friday in Verona.

 Posted by at 1:08 pm  4 Responses »
Mar 072011
 

Carnevale, the gaudy week-long party that erupts in February all over Italy has its roots in the Roman festival that honored the pagan god Saturn. No effigies of saints or madonnas here: Carnevale is a farewell to winter and banishment of the dreary; a delirious celebration of spring and all things delicious, coveted, and forbidden.  Every indulgence is permitted and tradition calls for eating mountains of meat and sausages, rivers of wine, and sweets, sweets, sweets.  Each region, town, village, has its festival foods.  Naples is devoted to lasagne, Ivrea (Piemonte) to fagiolata (bean and pork stew). Tossignano (Emilia-Romagna) bakes […more…]

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CARNEVALE! Gnocchi Friday in Verona.
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