comfort food

Winter’s Bones

February 6, 2013

(Pardon the excessive typography on the pics in this post. As if I didn’t have enough distractions, I uploaded an iPhone app called Over, which allows you to play around with text and fonts. I couldn’t resist.) * * * * * The stockpots and soup tureens in my house have been getting a workout [...]

Read the full article →

Baked Farro Pudding: Sweet & Slow

February 17, 2012

Patience is not a virtue of mine. From the moment I injured my finger I have pestered my doctor, and now my hand therapist, about when I can start cooking (with two hands) again, and writing (with two hands) again* and playing tennis (I have a two-handed backhand) again. And so on. While the answer [...]

Read the full article →

Hot Soup for Cold Days

January 18, 2012

The other day I went to toss a package of rolls into the freezer, and, lo and behold, when I opened the freezer door I found a gift. The best kind of gift. A container of homemade broth. With the holiday craze and a looming book deadline for which I’ve been testing recipes fast and [...]

Read the full article →

Cavolo Verza {Savoy Cabbage}

November 28, 2011

That beautiful specimen you see in the photo is a head of Savoy cabbage. Italian cooks do wonderful things with this cabbage, which they refer to as cavolo verza. (The name Savoy refers to the historical region in northern Italy in which the cabbage thrives, and also to the House of Savoy, which ruled newly unified [...]

Read the full article →

Zuppa di Zucca Gialla {Winter Squash Soup}

November 13, 2011

Photo by Maren Caruso from Williams-Sonoma Rustic Italian (Weldon Owen) I resisted including a recipe for winter squash soup in The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy. It seemed to me that there were already more than enough to go around, and one of my aims for the book was to shine a light on lesser [...]

Read the full article →

Ciao, Rustic Italian!

October 30, 2011

Meet my latest cookbook, Williams-Sonoma Rustic Italian: Simple, Authentic Recipes for Everyday Cooking. It has just hit the shelves at Williams-Sonoma stores, and will be available on Amazon as of December 6. Among other things, the book has one of those hip, cushioned, jacket-less covers that we’ve been seeing more of lately (aesthetically pleasing but [...]

Read the full article →

Garlicky Lentil Soup with Carrots and Tuscan Kale

October 13, 2011

Honestly, I had no idea that so many of you apparently love lentil soup as much as I do. A few weeks ago I got an email from a reader requesting a recipe for my garlicky lentil soup. And then another, and another, and so on. I had mentioned the soup in a short Q [...]

Read the full article →

“Basic to Brilliant” Sweet Potato Spoonbread

October 3, 2011

(Photo by Hélène Dujardin from Basic to Brilliant, Y’All) I still remember the first time I came across a recipe for spoonbread, in one of my mother’s old cookbooks. She had a small, diverse collection, and as a girl I enjoyed paging through them, especially a small, spiral-bound book called The Savannah Cookbook. It was [...]

Read the full article →

The Family Dish: Bulgur-Lentil Soup with Minted Olive Butter

September 19, 2011

Some in our family (my daughter and I) like soup more than others (my husband and son). Does this mean that I refrain from making soup for dinner? No way. It just means that I look for soup recipes that are likely to appeal to all, or at least most of us. In general, vegetable [...]

Read the full article →

A Trip to Hawaii and A “Re-Entry” Family Dish

August 15, 2011

Coming back from vacation is tough. No matter how good it feels to be home, it also feels kind of bad. One day you’re lolling on the beach, or body surfing off the coast of Oahu, or enjoying a coconut cocktail at the famously pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The next day you’re wading not through [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries