summer

Arrosticini on the Gran Sasso d’Italia

August 2, 2012

While millions of people spent July ogling the David in Florence, the Pietà at the Vatican, and the Trevi Fountain in Rome, I was sighing over a different work of art made out of stone ~ the Gran Sasso d’Italia. This spectacular Apennine mountain range, whose tallest peak, the Corno Grande, rises to 2,912 meters (9,554 [...]

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The Cheeses of Anversa

July 30, 2012

Anversa degli Abruzzi sits on a ridge overlooking the Sagittario River gorges in the National Park of Abruzzo. The medieval village is home to about 430 inhabitants and the ruins of a Norman castle that dates back to the 12th Century. It is also where some of Abruzzo’s best cheeses are made. Anversa was the [...]

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Q & A with Giuliano Hazan and a Recipe for Cold Minestrone with Rice

July 3, 2012

I feel a certain kinship with Giuliano Hazan. I do not have a famous cookbook author for a mother. But Marcella Hazan and my mom are contemporaries, both born and raised in pre-World War II Italy. And while Marcella Hazan is from Emilia-Romagna and my mother from Abruzzo, both grew up in communities along [...]

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Strawberry-Apricot Pie

June 20, 2012

I hope they have health food in Dublin and strawberry apricot pie If they don’t have those things in Dublin we’ll probably die For years—decades—I have wanted to make this pie. Strawberry-apricot pie. Ever since I first heard those three words strung together in the song “The Troubles” by The Roches. This was back in 1979 or [...]

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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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Sage Advice

June 8, 2012

The other day I received a large, lovely bouquet, not of flowers but of sage, which is much nicer in my opinion. The gift was from my good friend (and—lucky me—next-door neighbor) Anne, who happened to be thinning out her herb garden and had more sage than she knew what to do with. I was [...]

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The Family Dish: Watermelon and Tomato Salad

August 22, 2011

Did you ever mix milk and orange juice together when you were a kid? Gross, right? And yet, if you’ve ever enjoyed a Creamsicle on a hot summer day, you know that those two ingredients can be great together. Some food combinations are like that—completely counterintuitive. Take tomatoes and watermelon. The first time someone brought [...]

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Zucchini Blossoms and Summer

August 15, 2010

The first time I wrote about zucchini blossoms I almost didn’t. I mean, why write about an ingredient that so few people seemed to have access to—other than those lucky gardeners who, every summer, are blessed with a bumper crop of squash (and then have the nerve to complain about it)? This was waaayyy back [...]

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