Italian

Confettura di Prugne {Plum Jam}

June 17, 2012

I have a giving tree. It’s the plum tree in my side yard, the one I pass every day as I back out of and pull into the garage; the one with overgrown branches that I have to duck under every time I open the gate to take the dog for a walk; the one [...]

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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 [...]

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Italo-Armenian Meatball Mashup

March 15, 2011

There’s a saying I remember from my days as a newspaper reporter: You’re only as good as your last story. In my family, a similar rule holds true: You’re only as good as your last batch of meatballs. They must be tender and richly flavored; not too big and not too small; light but with [...]

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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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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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