Spaghetti with tomato sauce are the dream of Italian cuisine, a magic mix of ingredients, wisdom and history that a very few other dishes in the world have. Unfortunately this dish is manipulated, tormented and crucified almost everywhere. –Rosario Scarpato, Honorary President Itchefs-GVCI Once every year, Rosario Scarpato, Neapolitan-born gastronome, writer, film maker/director, and commander-in-chief of ItChefs-GVCI (Virtual Organization of Italian Chefs) makes a global appeal for the preservation of authentic Italian food by live video conference from the amphitheater of the International Culinary Center (ICC) in New York City, reaching 2,000 Italian chefs in 70 countries. “People all over the world are cooking […more…]
“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 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…]
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…]