Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Italian cuisine”
“CI FACCIAMO DUE SPAGHETTI” Italians love pasta. They eat it every day. It’s economical, practical and can be whipped up at the drop of a hat. It’s also a great dish to be shared socially as an additional plate can always be filled, thus allowing liberal opportunity for the impromptu dinner invitation.
VARIOUS TAVOLE CALDE or SLOW FOOD FAST Like my father with the trattoria, my experience with the tavola calda began in Rome, where I spent several months at different times studying Italian. Looking for a nutritious, economical lunch, I ventured into a number of such eateries.
BEFORE THE TAVOLA CALDA My father likes to reminisce about the wonderful meals he ate while living in Rome in the 1950s. Perhaps surprisingly, one of his favorite lunches consisted of a big plate of cooked spinach on which he drizzled olive oil and squeezed a lemon. He would lap it up with several slices of a hearty, crusty bread …
INVITATION TO A PIG BOIL My introduction to le frittole came early in my time in Calabria when I was invited to a student’s house in the country to participate in the experience. I must say that I was impressed with the master of ceremonies and his wife. They were just regular people—a civil servant and schoolteacher—who as far as …
MUSHROOM HUNTING Whenever I think of mushrooms, I think of the little old Italian woman who picked the wild ones growing in the front yard of our house in suburban New Jersey. She would always knock on our front door and ask permission. The first time, my mother hesitated, not knowing if they were poisonous. “No! They are good, very …
SAINT MARTIN’S DAY November 11th is celebrated as Saint Martin’s Day in many European countries. Historically, the feasting marked the end of the agrarian season and initiated a period of fasting that eventually became Advent. Saint Martin or Martin of Tours lived in the 4th century, started out as a Roman soldier, left the army to became a monk and …
GOOD FOOD FOR A GOOD PRICE Every once and a while you happen upon a restaurant that you want to tell everyone you know about—friends of friends of friends, in modern parlance. But then you stop and say to yourself,