This zesty cauliflower salad is a fixture on family tables in Naples during the Christmas season. The salad is called insalata di rinforzo—’reinforcement salad’—is because it was customary in the old days to make a first batch as an antipasto on Christmas Eve and to keep on ‘reinforcing’ it with more cauliflower … Read More
A Neapolitan Christmas: Capitone fritto (Fried Eel)
It wouldn’t be Christmas Eve without fish, and capitone fritto, or fried eel is one of the most popular choices in Italy, where the tradition goes back for millennia. While eel is almost unheard of in the US outside sushi circles, there’s a good reason for its popularity: eel has a meaty … Read More
Insalata russa (Russian Salad Italian Style)
Russian Salad, known in Russian as Салат Оливье or Salad Olivier, was once a common feature on festive tables all over the world. Russian salad Italian style is distinguished by the use of Italian-style mayonnaise made with fruity olive oil. This venerable dish seems to have gone out of fashion, perhaps … Read More
Turkey Tetrazzini
The Tetrazzini family of dishes is hard to classify. Despite being a kind of baked pasta dish with an Italian name, it is most definitely not Italian. In fact, it’s not really even Italian-American, if you define that term as meaning the cooking of the Italian diaspora in America. In … Read More
Barchette di radicchio (Manu’s Radicchio “Boats” Filled with Mascarpone, Gorgonzola and Glazed Walnuts)
It will only be a quick post this busy holiday weekend, dear readers, but I didn’t want to let too much time pass without making good on my promise to prepare at least one dish from fellow blogger Manuela Zangara’s holiday cookbook. My choice, her recipe for these pretty radicchio … Read More
The Art of the Aperitivo
Memorie di Angelina is a food blog, of course, but in Italian culinary tradition you cannot separate food from drink. While Italians are not heavy drinkers as a rule, it is also true that, traditionally speaking at least, a meal is not a meal without a glass or two of … Read More
Polpettone in umido con funghi (Meatloaf in Tomato and Mushroom Sauce)
As the temperatures dip, I find myself seeking out comfort foods. And what says ‘comfort’ more than a good meatloaf? And, yes, Italians make meatloaf too. They call it a polpettone or big meatball. Makes sense if you think about, doesn’t it? We’ve already seen Angelina’s southern Italian style meatloaf, stuffed … Read More
Pasta con la zucca alla napoletana (Pasta with Winter Squash, Naples-Style)
Pairing pasta and vegetables is common throughout Italy, but it is probably fair to say that no region puts so much emphasis on this classic combination as Campania, the southern Italian region from which Angelina hailed. Campanians are so associated with their love of vegetables that they used to jokingly … Read More
