On our recent trip to Montalcino, Joey and I cooked up a Florentine stew called Peposo, which has a long history dating back to when Brunelleschi constructed his magnificent dome in the 1400s. Workers made a simple lunch of stew meat, red wine and peppercorns which was tucked into a clay pot and left to…
We just returned from a few weeks in our beautiful Motherland. Joey and Mark kicked things off early with a week up near Liguria while Jay and I spent a day soaking in the thermal pools at Saturnia to ward off any jet lag. We then met up at a little villa we rented on…
I am not sure what has me more excited….this crostata or that we are headed back to Italy next week! (Ok, I really know the answer to that but this salted chocolate crostata was pretty darn tasty 😉) First, lets talk about the crostata, shall we? This supremely chocolate-y piece of heaven is super simple…
As the calendar ticks forward into Autumn 🍁, food magazines and newspaper recipes would tell you it’s time to start making stews and belly-warming dishes to ward off the coming Winter Blues. There’s just one problem: nobody told the zucchini plants they should stop growing. Markets and farm stands are still filled with these glorious…
Oh glorious summer – how I hate to see you go (excessive heat, tornados, hurricanes and floods aside :-)). Summer is my season and as it slowly fades into fall, I want to squeeze every last bit out of these remaining warm days. My fridge is still packed with the last of the eggplant, zucchini…
Here’s another tasty and simple summer 😎 😎 😎 dish that won’t heat up your kitchen. Pasta mare e monti is a wonderful dish from the Marche region of Italy that combines the fresh summer taste of the sea (squid 🦑), the earthiness of the mountains (mixed mushrooms 🍄) and the fresh bright taste of…
Summer living is the best, isn’t it? There is something about the simplicity that the summer season brings to my cooking that makes my little soul happy – life lived mostly outdoors, the crazy abundance of fresh veggies, easy cooking both indoors and out. And as a born and raised Jersey girl, summer means delicious,…
Summer, summer, summer ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️… what to cook this hot summer? When you want something tasty and filling, Sicilian stuffed peppers are the ideal choice for a light summer dish. They can be stuffed (and cooked on a cool night) ahead of time and reheated or served cold or at room temperature. They…
When the intense summer heat hits, one of my favorite desserts to make is frosty granita, a glittering, icy, slushy frozen Italian treat that makes the hottest day feel as if a cool ocean breeze is suddenly blowing across your face. During what I call my ‘Sicily’ years, we would spend long, lazy afternoons tucked…
Tuna sauce (“tonnato”)?! On pork?! Served cold?! 😲 What is going on here?! Welcome to an epic summer Italian-style with a delicious twist on a classic! The summer of 2021 is shaping up to be quite a season. People are making up for lost time by visiting with friends and family they’ve missed, going to…
Let’s talk about rice salads, shall we? Here in the US we don’t eat rice salads, insalata di riso, nearly as much as they do in Italy during the summer months. But we should! In my opinion, this summer staple comes close to the perfect dish for the hot, humid days of summer. You can…
About a year ago, my sister Michele had the idea to write a short cookbook called Gatherings (⬅️ to download a free PDF version or to purchase a hardcopy). We thought surely the pandemic would be over soon and it would be time to have big family gatherings again. We put together our favorite family…
Our paternal grandfather, Giuseppe Becci, was born and raised in the little village of Scapezzano in the region of Marche, Italy, which sits not far from the Adriatic Sea. The beautiful breezes from the sea wash up the hill to the village, bringing a fresh, briny aroma that scents the air like perfume. The sea…
I somehow missed the whole quinoa bowl craze…not sure what rock I may have been sleeping under but a photo of a rather tasty one floated through my social media feed a bunch of weeks back and I was instantly hooked. Given the very real Covid cooking fatigue (especially for my standard repertoire of dishes)…
It’s that time of the year: artichoke season! Suddenly, artichokes are everywhere in farmers’ markets, and even in supermarkets. Even Stanley Tucci is cooking with them. In a few weeks, just as suddenly as they have appeared, their short season will end. Of course, in supermarkets artichokes are imported from who-knows-where nearly year-round, but in…
SPRING!!! SPRING!!! SPRING!!! I thought it would never arrive yet here it is on our doorstep! (Apologies for yelling at you with all those exclamation points but I want to shout it from the rooftops!) The earth is vibrating as if it knows how much the promise of warmer weather means THIS year of all…
My sister Michele and I have been on a sensory journey lately–one of food smells and tastes that invoke fond recollections. Looking at old photos doesn’t even come close. Especially now with the pandemic forcing a long period without family get-togethers and holiday celebrations, reliving favorite memories through our favorite foods gives us hope for…
Things are looking up! 14 days until spring. The sun is setting after 6 pm (ok, 5:57 but close enough). And the week ahead promises to be warm here in the eastern US – woohoo! I feel like a kid waiting very impatiently for Christmas. The promise of spring has my pandemic-weary soul flying high…
Growing up, everyone we knew was of Italian descent. Our town was full of Italian immigrant families and our Roman Catholic church was full of Italian families (with a sprinkling of Polish and Irish immigrants) following many of the same traditions they had in Italy. No one was boastful about being Italian, it was simply…
Celebrating Valentine’s Day after almost a year into the pandemic will either leave you giddy at the thought of a quiet romantic dinner at home -or- shaking your head in dismay thinking that even your partner’s blinking is driving you batty. So, I have provided options! 🙂 If you fall into the first category…
Thinking back fondly to our last trip to Italy to visit my paternal family in Le Marche (due to COVID, not in 2020, but toward the end of 2019), I fondly remember meals we shared together that stretched for hours as we ate delicious food and drank excellent wine while we talked and laughed. The…
Don’t let the purple color of this chicken dish scare you away! The taste of the chicken after having marinated in red wine is divine. 🙂 This recipe was one of our Dad’s favorite meals and one our Mom made often. She made it at home. She made it for company. She made it for…
As a kid, I hated all cheese except grated parmesan. Growing up, our family didn’t have a lot of money and going out for pizza was a huge treat. But I wouldn’t touch my pizza slices until my Mom took every last morsel of cheese off the pizza – just tomato sauce and dough for…
Few things in life are more comforting than a steaming bowl of soup. Our mom’s legendary soups were the ones that waited for us after a frosty walk home from school; warmed us to our core after neighborhood snow angel contests; soothed our souls after the big breakups and graced our family table for holiday…
Anyone else feeling a bit weary with this pandemic cooking? Don’t get me wrong – I *adore* cooking and my kitchen is truly my refuge but good gravy, night after night, meal after meal, my creativity has been – let’s say – less than creative lately. I usually dread the end of summer but I…
Even though the weather here in LA is still plenty hot, this year’s home gardening tomato season is drawing to a close. Each year I learn a bit more about getting maximum yield from the plantable urban garden space we have. I had an abundance of cherry tomatoes (both gold and red) this year, so…
“There are places you leave. And places that never leave you.” A bunch of years ago, I was on a mission to visit as many islands off the coast of Italy as I possibly could. I was knocking them off as fast as I researched them – Sardinia, Elba, Capri, Aeolian Islands. (I had just…
The island of Capri, located in the Tyrrhenian Sea and off the coast of Naples, Italy, is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Home to mermaid legends and the famous Blue Grotto, Capri’s delicious local cuisine relies on the waters surrounding it and on the amazing local garden produce, especially lemons. The…
Need a simple refresher for the upcoming holiday weekend? This simple summer sangria (which can be found in our e-cookbook Gatherings that you can download after subscribing to our blog here – shameless plug 🙂 !) is a keeper! Here we used white grapes, peaches, lime juice, mint and basil. Don’t get all worked up…
So…..how the heck is everyone doing out there? Hopefully everyone is weathering this crazy storm with a shred of sanity. I find myself oscillating between #wegotthis (woohoo!) and #getmeoutofherenow (like RIGHT THIS MINUTE); #Ilovecooking (Yay, let’s tackle a market run this morning!) and #Ihatecooking (french fries for dinner); #Ilovecleaning and….wait, those words have never ever…
Well here we are… the beginning of May… locked down and staying safe. But thankfully we have cooking to keep us sane. Fortunately, I also have the garden to keep me occupied. What started off in January as my annual ritual to plant fava bean seeds has morphed into my “victory garden.” With all that…