Carnival time was traditionally the last chance to have meat before Lent. The very word carnevale comes from the Latin expression carne levare, loosely meaning to “say goodbye to meat”. Indeed, martedì grasso or Fat Tuesday is still celebrated with a large meal featuring meat-laden dishes like the Neapolitan lasagne di Carnevale. And yet, perhaps the most iconic Italian dishes for Carnival actually come … Read More
Capesante alla veneziana (Venetian Style Scallops)
Scallops happen to be one of my very favorite seafoods. But in the years I was living in Italy, I didn’t eat them very much. If fact, if memory serves, I don’t recall seeing them on menus or in the markets in Rome, where I lived.* Seafood is ubiquitous in … Read More
Pasta e cavolfiore alla siciliana (Sicilian Style Pasta and Cauliflower)
Cauliflower is all the rage these days, showing up in all kinds of trendy dishes from cauliflower rice to —Heaven help us!—cauliflower pizza. But Italians have been eating cauliflower for ages before it was “cool”, as a soup or in a salad, sautéed, steamed and sauced, battered and fried, pickled, … Read More
Mousse di tonno (Tunafish Mousse)
Today we have a super quick “non recipe” for you: mousse di tonno or Tunafish Mousse. It involves no cooking at all and, assuming you have a food processor, takes practically no time at all to whip up. And it’s perfectly delicious. To make mousse di tonno, you simply purée … Read More
Cannoli siciliani
Cannoli are perhaps the most beloved of Italian pastries, a true icon of Italian cookery across the world. So why, you might ask, have I not written about cannoli in over 13 years of blogging? It’s a good question. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. … Read More
Patate in tecia
It’s back to Trieste this week with a lovely side dish from the region of Friuli Venezia-Giulia. Chiara Giglio, a fellow blogger who hales from that fair city, left a comment on last week’s gulasch triestino post, mentioning that she liked to serve her goulash with a potato side dish … Read More
Gulasch triestino
Italians make goulash? Yes, indeed they do. As we’ve observed before, the regions of Italy that were once part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, in particular Alto-Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia, and to a lesser extent Lombardia, retain many traces of its influence. And nowhere perhaps is this more apparent than … Read More
Passatelli in brodo
The region of Emilia-Romagna in north-central Italy is home to some of the most exquisite fresh egg pastas in the country: tortellini, tagliatelle, lasagne, cappelletti, gramigna, garganelli… as well also many more you probably haven’t heard of. The region boasts 23 different shapes of pasta in all! No wonder that, … Read More