There’s nothing quite so impressive as a whole roast turkey brought to the table for carving. It’s almost guaranteed to elicit oohs and aahs from your dinner guests. It certainly did back in Rome when we prepared Thanksgiving dinner for our Italian friends. A whole turkey was a rare thing … 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
Pollo arrosto ripeno (Angelina’s Roasted Chicken with Sausage Stuffing)
Apart from lasagna, nothing says Sunday dinner to me like a roasted chicken, sitting on the dining room table golden brown, with crispy skin, tender, juicy meat and—for special occasions—a savory stuffing. It’s a dish that was almost a universal feature of family dinners back in the day but, sadly, … Read More
Rotolo di tacchino (Roast Turkey Roll)
Turkey is a popular meat in Italy, often providing a less expensive alternative to veal in dishes ranging from scalloppine to ossobuco. But a whole roast turkey, Thanksgiving style, is a rarity. Back in Rome, I remember we had to special order our bird from a local butcher and presented … Read More
Scaloppine al marsala (Scalopini Marsala)
The scaloppina (in the plural, scaloppine) and its manifold variations may be the most common secondo in Italian cooking. To me, it is typical of that Italian knack for using a bland main ingredient as a foil for a flavorful sauce. Pasta is the example we all know and love, … Read More
