One of the things I love most about living in Italy is eating seasonally. It isn’t always easy waiting, but we are always rewarded with exceptional flavor and joy. Spring comes in with a bang, artichokes, asparagus, fava beans and peas. When you get the first products, we tend to enjoy then raw. Raw Artichokes?…
Out of the Kitchen into the World- Sicilian Artichokes
I began my culinary professional life in the kitchen of a 5 star hotel in San Francisco, the Stanford Court Hotel. They were open to training me for the position when I told them I wanted to be a pastry chef. While traveling, I always found a job in a restaurant, either waiting tables or…
Sicilian Flavors: Zucca Gialla- marinated pumpkin
When I get ready to leave for a trip, I always leave my husband some of his favorite dishes. This marinated pumpkin is at the top of the list.The market inspires what I cook and this week at my farm shop Francesca had zucca gialla, pumpkin. Francesca is Sicilian and often gives me great recipes…
Winter Recipes: Sicilian Orange Salad
When the skies are grey in winter we wait until the temperatures drop and the blood oranges come into season to bring sunshine to the table in the form of a savory salad. Traditionally, it is served with fennel as an insalata di finocchio e arance. But for me, I never have enough oranges in the…
Polpettone di Patate- Osteria Luchin
I love road trips. My first trips to Europe all included France. My Grandfather was born in Soisson, south of Paris. I studied French for 14 years and was a French Pastry chef. But somehow, France was never really warm and fuzzy to me. Italy on the other hand was one big bear hug right…
Roman Toast- playing with my food
I woke up this morning and decided to make myself a little “brunch”. I received a lovely gift of a families homemade maple syrup and so was dreaming about French Toast with the homemade loaf o made after our Master Pizza class with Giovanni Santarpia in Chianti. At the same time, I remembered a savory…
Artichokes- Leaf to Stalk
I hate waste. We often talk about nose-to-tail cooking meat, but as an ex-vegetarian, often what we clean away from a vegetable is wasted. Last spring, while cleaning fava beans, the bag of the pods was much larger than the bowl I had of the tiny fava beans. I began to do research. In one…
Federico’s Sage Pesto
Winter is here and there is no basil left in the garden, freezing temperatures have killed off almost everything. But so far, we have missed the snow. Puglia and Sicily were hit hard. While watching the weather report on the huge storm getting ready to hit the East Coast which will then move in our…