I was an atypical child. The other kids would come home from school and happily eat their milk and cookies, but I hated milk and didn’t care much for sweets. My idea of an after-school snack was a bowl of rice mixed with lots of butter and cheese. I would make … Read More
Panna cotta
It may come as a surprise that this famous, elegant dessert from the Piemonte region of Italy is so very easy to make. Panna cotta, or “cooked cream”, is nothing but warmed (not actually cooked) cream sweetened with sugar and infused with vanilla, then thickened with gelatin and chilled. Traditionally served unmolded, you … Read More
Risotto ai funghi (Mushroom Risotto)
Well, Autumn is well and truly upon us. We’re waking up to cool mornings and going to bed to downright chilly nights. And while our local farmers market is still full of peaches and tomatoes, a mushroom stand made its first appearance last week. Mushroom Risotto came immediately to mind. I love risotto … Read More
Il Gran Bollito Misto (Mixed Boiled Meat)
We usually think of boiled meat as a by-product of making broth, a humble if comforting dish for parsimonious souls. But in northern Italy, particularly in the Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna, they’ve transformed the dish into a regal spread. Traditionally, a true Gran Bollito Misto includes seven different cuts (tagli) of beef … Read More
Zabaione (Zabaglione)
Zabaione, spelled Zabaglione by some Italians and all English speakers, is a classic sweet that you don’t encounter much any more on restaurant menus, let alone on home tables. That’s a shame, because it’s truly delicious and supremely versatile, equally suited to serve on its own as a sweet ending to an … Read More
Zuppa dei valdesi (Piedmontese Bread Soup)
A reader who I’ll call “Nancy T.” wrote me recently to tell me about a bread soup dish called zuppa that her Piedmontese grandmother used to make. The word is one of several in Italian that mean ‘soup’ (see our Glossary for details). A zuppa is rustic soup, typically the kind that … Read More
Bagna cauda
Bagna cauda or, more properly, bagna caôda, means ‘hot sauce’ in English. It refers to a typical Piedmontese dish for communal eating that is popular in cold weather months, a kind of cross between fondue and pinzimonio, if I can put it that way. It is, quite simply, a collection … Read More
Vitello tonnato (Tunnied Veal)
If I had to mention one dish in the Italian repertoire that epitomizes elegant summer eating, this might well be it: vitello tonnato, also called vitel tonnè in dialect, which means’ tunnied veal’ or simply veal in tuna sauce. More often than not, though, it is called by its Italian name … Read More