Certain recipes bring me back in time, to cooking in Andrea’s mom’s kitchen. Tina was great. She was a simple but fabulous cook and I learned a lot from her and her sister Vivetta who owned a restaurant at the sea. I do several of her recipes often and the Tuscan fried baby artichokes are…
Pici Pasta -Tuscan Traditional Pasta
I have always enjoyed learning to make Tuscan traditional pasta shapes. Locally, the cucina povera, poor cuisine, found a way to make eggless pasta. Flour and water pasta is one of the first pastas created we can trace it back in history to Roman times and also think about Ramen noodles. Around Siena and heading…
Panna Cotta – My Favorite Dessert
Panna Cotta or as I refer to it, Jello for grownups, is one of my favorite desserts. Since I was a pastry chef, that is saying a lot. When I go to a old school trattoria , if Latte alla Portughese or Creme Caramel is on the menu, I will order it. These are both…
Happy New Year- Another Trip Around the Sun
Happy New Year? I think we all love to celebrate and as an expat, I discovered new holidays to celebrate in Italy. We all have December31/January 1st as New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. My mom was raised in Shanghai, we although we are not Chinese, Chinese New Year’s was always big in our…
Dining with the Diva | Spinach and Ricotta Flan
Here is one of my first FB live cooking classes making a traditional Spinach and Ricotta Flan,a sformata.They are commonly made with a base of bechamel instead of the ricotta. In Tuscany, we have such lovely ricotta and it is used in many ways, Crespelle alla Fiorentina, Ravioli Gnudi or a Torta Pasqualina. On this…
Market Day Menu: Chickpeas and Beets
Creating a market day menu for me is like being on one of those cooking shows every time I shop. In my own village, Certaldo, we have our large weekly market on Wednesday. They bring it all in, not just food. This is like the mall coming to you, you can get almost anything you…
Prètto Prosciutteria {Siena} |Taste Chianti
Taste Chianti App review of Prètto Prosciuttera Siena Located just a small distance from the Piazza del Campo, Prètto Prosciutteria is a great stop to take a break anytime of the day. Not just a prosciutto place as the name would lead you to believe. It is sort of like the old wine bars, called Vinai,…
The Joy of Cookies- Zaletti
As I was baking these Zaletti cookies from Venice last night for a friend of mine Monica from Cook in Venice, for an interview she did with me, I realized that baking is really one of the best therapies which brings me joy. It has been a tough winter, my husband has some medical problems…