“Wedding soup” is a popular Italian-American dish made with escarole and tiny meatballs simmered in chicken broth and adorned with small pasta, typically of the tiny acini di pepe (or “peppercorn”) type. It is so popular, in fact, that it has been marketed as a canned soup by Progresso under the funny name “Chickarina Soup“. Italian-Americans […]
When we think of Neapolitan cooking—and southern Italian cooking in general—we think of pasta and pizza. So it may come as a surprise that one of the most emblematic dishes of Neapolitan cooking is actually a rice timbale, the sartù di riso. The word sartù, the story goes, is an Italianized version of the French phrase […]
Rome is not especially known for its love of polenta, perhaps because its winters are relatively mild compared with those up in true polenta country skirting the southern rim of the Alps, but there is one polenta dish you are bound to find if you visit Rome in the cold weather months, polenta with sausages […]
Summer is the season for grilling, as we all know, but don’t limit yourself to meat. Seasonal vegetables are gorgeous on the grill, too. The intense heat of the grill concentrates their flavors and adds a smoky undertone that is very appealing. The main tip for grilling vegetables of whatever kind is to keep the […]
When you want something filling and warming but don’t feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen, cheese fondue is your ticket. ‘Fondue’ means melted in French and, indeed, cheese fondue is basically melted cheese, flavored with just a hint of garlic and thinned out a bit with white wine and kirsch, into […]
It’s hard to believe, but in all the years that I’ve been writing this blog, somehow I’ve managed to avoid writing a post about Italian beef stew. I suppose that’s a tribute to the vast variety of Italian cooking or perhaps a reflection of the somewhat secondary role that beef plays in Italian cuisine. Or […]
Is there anything more comforting than baked pasta? If there is, I haven’t come across it yet. And while some baked pasta dishes in the Italian repertoire—especially the two ‘star’ lasagne dishes, the South’s lasagna di carnevale and the North’s lasagne alla bolognese—are elaborate affairs, there are everyday baked pastas that don’t require days in […]
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