I am blessed to have married into a Florentine family. My husband’s mother was a fabulous, tough woman who outlived two husbands and raised two lovely men. Tina Barchielli, lost her first husband during WWll, he was taken prisoner and died. Her second husband, Arturo, was the father of her children, Cesare and my husband…
Macedonia- Italian Fruit Salad
This was one of the great dessert recipes I taught for the college students I taught while they were on their study abroad programs. We made a mixed fruit bowl, but it started as a simple way to finish a meal. Cut a piece of fruit into your wine glass and add a spoon or…
Tuscan Herb Recipe- Pancetta “Porchetta-style”
Tuscan herb blend, perfect for porchetta. You can make this and freeze it in a ziplock bag or let it sit out on the counter and dry. I often will make fresh and then infuse an extra virgin olive oil for an hour or so and pour on grilled or roasted meats or fish. Recently…
Wednesday Market in Certaldo
There is nothing I love more than a market day! I live in Certaldo where we have the large market on Wednesday and a small market just a few food trucks, on Saturday. Where I teach, in Colle Val D’Elsa, the huge market day is on Friday. That pretty much covers it for me. With…
Foraging from the Car
The weather here has been so odd, that I haven’t risked walking in the fields to look for wild asparagus. We have had so much rain ( much needed rain) that it would have been a muddy mess. That said, I do know that on the road down the hill from our house, heading into…
Tuscan Trattoria Potatoes- Comfort Food
For me, potatoes in almost any form are comfort food. I adore eating out when you eat like you are at someone’s mom’s house in Tuscany. Many small family trattorias I go to are like that. For making a lot of roasted potatoes quickly, they don’t have time or space to roast all the potatoes…
That time of year… Carnevale.. quando ogni scherzo vale!
Carneval in Italy is a big deal, not just in Venice where the costumes are really “over the top” but in small villages too. Florence has started a WORLD CARNEVAL, celebrating the large mixed cultures which now live here, quite a change from when I moved here in 1984, when the foreigners were the people…