Christmas

Baked Pandoro French Toast

January 13, 2013

It’s not often I have leftover Pandoro. Everyone in my family loves it so it doesn’t last long. I still have a clear image in my mind of my son at age 1, toddling around in a blue and white striped one-piece thingie with a sailboat on it, clutching a giant piece of Pandoro in [...]

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Dicembre Dolce: Cherry Republic Biscotti

December 2, 2012

There is more than one way to slice biscotti. There are at least sixty. Or there will be when I’m through with them. Which is a roundabout way of saying I’ve just started work on a new book project. Subject: Biscotti. It won’t be an exhaustive project ~ just a fun little homage to one [...]

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Dicembre Dolce: La Cicerchiata

December 20, 2011

Fabulous photo by France Ruffenach for Chronicle Books Fried dough pellets glued together with honey to form a ring. That, in essence, is la cicerchiata, a traditional dessert from Italy’s Abruzzo region. There is nothing subtle or sophisticated about it. And yet, it is impossible to resist. Here is what will happen if you set [...]

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Dicembre Dolce: Panforte di Siena

December 12, 2011

For most of my life—right up until last week—I despised panforte, the celebrated Christmas fruit-and-nut confection from Siena. Every year at about this time, a flat, sort-of circular pleated package containing a dense hockey puck of a—what? Was it a cake? a torte? candy?—would appear on our buffet, purchased by my mother. She would unwrap [...]

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Dicembre Dolce {Sweet December}

December 4, 2011

Photo by Maren Caruso, from Williams-Sonoma Rustic Italian (2011, Weldon-Owen) I do not have a sweet tooth. Nine times out of ten I will choose a second helping of pasta over dessert.

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Pandoro: A Holiday Bread to Trifle With

December 29, 2010

Panettone, the sweet, yeasted domed Italian holiday bread studded with raisins and candied fruit, has legions of fans in Italy and around the globe. I, however, am partial to the other Italian holiday bread: Pandoro. Pandoro (the word means ‘golden bread’ in Italian) is a tall, star-shaped leavened sweet bread that is produced in Verona, [...]

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Christmas Eve Calamari on Leite’s Culinaria

December 21, 2010

(photo by William Meppem for Chronicle Books) What does Christmas smell like to you? Maybe it’s the sharp, resinous scent of freshly cut pine trees or the warm, enveloping fragrance of cinnamon and nuts in freshly baked cookies. But to me, Christmas smells like squid…Read more about my favorite Christmas Eve dish on Leite’s Culinaria.

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A Little Christmas Bling

December 13, 2010

Every year, thousands of people head to the Mall to see the National Christmas Tree. I head to La Cuisine, in Old Town Alexandria, to see the trees in the window displays, beautifully and lavishly decked with sparkly food ornaments-hundreds upon hundreds of them. Each year I purchase one (or two) to add to my [...]

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Sane Entertaining

December 10, 2010

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, on WAMU (88.5) radio in Washington, D.C. My fellow guests were Meagan Hegenbarth of RSVP Catering, and Chris Lowery, store captain at Trader Joe’s in Bailey’s Crossroads, VA. Among the topics covered: what to serve at a progressive holiday [...]

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Traditional Scottish Shortbread-By Way of Italy

November 2, 2010

Traditional Scottish shortbread was the first recipe I ever clipped from a newspaper. I know it sounds odd because it’s not Italian. But of course that’s precisely why I was drawn to it. To me, everything that was not Italian was exotic–even a basic biscuit with just three main ingredients–butter, flour, and sugar. What drew [...]

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