Sweet, fresh peas in their pods can be hard to find, but when I spotted some in a local market I grabbed them up to make a delicious Springtime dish from the Veneto: risi e bisi, or rice and peas in Venetian dialect. Although it resembles a risotto, the technique … Read More
Baccalà alla vicentina (Codfish Vicenza-Style)
Baccalà, or dried salt cod, is a favorite meal around our house, even if it only appears occasionally on the dinner table. One of the most delicious ways to make baccalà has got to be baccalà alla vicentina, or in the style of the northern Italian city of Vicenza, slowly … Read More
How to Make Homemade Polenta
Homemade polenta is one of the most emblematic dishes of the northern Italian cuisines from the Veneto to Lombardia to Piemonte. It is also one of the oldest foods eaten in Italy, dating back at least to 990 BCE. In its original form, polenta—known to the ancient Romans as pulmentum—was … Read More
An Italian Hannukah: Riso coll’uvetta (Rice with Raisins)
It may come as a surprise to some, but Italy has a Jewish tradition going back not just centuries, but millennia. A Jewish community existed in Rome dating from during the Roman Republic, even before the Empire, in the first centuries BCE. That presence grew during the late Middle Ages, … Read More
Risotto al radicchio (Risotto with Radicchio)
Risotto, as we all know, is an almost infinitely variable dish. You can pair rice with almost any meat, fish, vegetable or even fruit. One of the very finest ways to make risotto is with radicchio, whose mildly bitter flavor makes it a wonderful foil for the bland, almost sweet … Read More
Pasticcio di pappardelle al radicchio rosso di Treviso (Baked Pappardelle with Treviso Radicchio)
Pappardelle, those extra-wide egg noodles typical of Tuscany, are perhaps my favorite pasta. There’s something about wide noodles—I love Chinese ho fun noodles, too—that are especially enticing. Perhaps the most well-known pappardelle dishes are ‘sulla lepre‘ (with braised hare) and al cinghiale (wild boar)—but pappardelle are quite versatile and, I … Read More
Risotto: The Basic Recipe
Risotto is Italy’s unique contribution to rice cookery. At its most basic, risotto is rice toasted in a flavor base of sautéed onion, then simmered in broth added ladleful by ladleful. When the rice is cooked, it is vigorously stirred with grated cheese (and sometimes butter) into a creamy and delicious mound. … Read More