I am not a baker. Never have been. I have always found stove-top cooking fun and easy but baking is a very different art. Cooking lets you stir and taste and adjust as you go along to get things to come out just right. But with baking—once you close that … Read More
How to Dress a Salad “all’italiana”
The proper dressing of a salad has got to be one of the most overlooked techniques in all of cookery. For many people, a salad is something so common that it hardly merits thinking about. But there is actually a kind of art to this everyday task that can really transform … Read More
Sugo di carne (Meat Sauce)
When you mention Italian meat sauce, most people will immediately think of those monuments of Italian cooking, the ragù alla napoletana and the ragù alla bolognese. Those sauces that require hours of cooking and fairly elaborate preparation. These time-consuming ragù are, quite rightly, reserved for special occasions. Ragù alla napoletana is often … Read More
Part III: How to Cook Authentic Italian Food At Home
Well, now that you know all about the varieties of Italian cooking and how to tell real Italian cooking from the fake, you may want to take your knowledge to the next level: making authentic Italian food at home. The good news is, it is really very easy to do. … Read More
Part II: Learning to Recognize Real Italian Food
In Part I of this series, we explored the varieties of cooking styles that call themselves Italian, some rightly, some wrongly. As you will have realized from reading that post, there is a lot of fake Italian food out there, nowhere more so than right here on the internet. Since so … Read More
Part I: Varieties of Italian Cooking
I sometimes feel sorry for Italians. While they are not generally a nationalistic people—Mussolini cured most of them of that affliction—they can be downright chauvinistic when it comes to their food. That’s perfectly understandable as far as I’m concerned, as Italians have given the world one of its great cuisines. … Read More
How to Make a Frittata
One of the wonders of Italian cuisine is its incredible variety, and much of that variety comes from the mix-and-match nature of so many of its dishes. You take a staple base ingredient like rice or pasta, and you pair that with all sorts of flavoring ingredients and come up … Read More
Granita di caffè (Coffee Granita)
As the summer draws to a close, it’s time to finish our trilogy of Italian frozen desserts. We have already explored the delights of gelato and sorbetto, and now it’s time to finish our trilogy with a post on granita, a kind of country cousin to the first two. Most commonly … Read More
