Tag: ancestral

Breaded Chicken Cutlets

Breaded Chicken Cutlets

Fried, breaded cutlets are one of my favorite dishes and I make them often. They’re quick to fry up and are delicious. If you’ve been a fan of this site for a while, you’ll remember I’ve shown you chicken cutlets before, but it was in 

My Family Christmas Menu Suggestions

My Family Christmas Menu Suggestions

Some say that the most important meal this season is the Christmas Eve fish dinner. I’m doing the Neapolitan-inspired Feast of Seven Fishes, La Festa dei Sette Pesci. But you gotta eat after everyone is done opening all their presents Christmas day, right? When I’m 

Christmas Eve Feast of 7 Fish Recipe Roundup

Christmas Eve Feast of 7 Fish Recipe Roundup

I’ll be with family and friends for Christmas. Our Neapolitan family tradition is to prepare a 7-fish Christmas Eve dinner, La Festa dei Sette Pesci. Seven fish unless I’m with the Sicilian branch of the family, then it’s 13! I hope you will be with 

Father’s Day Cookies: St. Joseph’s Pants (Cavazune)

Father’s Day Cookies: St. Joseph’s Pants (Cavazune)

Father’s Day is next Sunday, June 15. I’ve been thinking about my Dad with love and gratitude. Though he passed long ago he is still with me. Dad immigrated to America early in the last century. He did not have an easy life but he prevailed. 

Father’s Day: Mussels with Hot Tomato Sauce

Father’s Day: Mussels with Hot Tomato Sauce

Father’s Day is June 15. You know me. Holidays bring back food memories. Here’s one from my Dad Gennaro (aka Jerry). My Mom was always at the stove so my Dad didn’t cook often.  But when he did Dad made some really good dishes. This 

My Mother’s Day Tribute

My Mother’s Day Tribute

To all the Mom’s out there my best wishes for a wonderful Mother’s Day coming this Sunday. Here’s my video Mother’s Day salute to all of you. My Mom was a wonderful cook. I really can’t remember a bad meal, no, not even a mediocre 

Pasta Fazool, Pasta e Fagioli, Pasta & Beans

Pasta Fazool, Pasta e Fagioli, Pasta & Beans

Don’t miss the next recipe video: Subscribe now to my YouTube channel. I ate a lot of pasta and beans growing up in Jersey. My Mom made it often and I loved it. So when pasta fazool, as we called it back East, was a Viewer’s Choice 

Easter Roasted Spring Lamb

Easter Roasted Spring Lamb

Don’t miss the next recipe video: Subscribe now to my YouTube channel. This is the time of the year to enjoy baby milk-fed lamb or baby goat. The season lasts maybe 6 weeks running up to Easter. The prized animals are slaughtered before they are weaned and 

A Pile of Chicken Cutlets

A Pile of Chicken Cutlets

It started innocently enough. I had a bunch of stale bread so I decided to make breadcrumbs this morning. I bought chicken cutlets at Little City to make Chicken Marsala today. But the fresh breadcrumbs won me over and I fried up chicken cutlets instead. You can have 

Baby Artichokes: Eat the Whole Thing

Baby Artichokes: Eat the Whole Thing

Baby artichokes are in the market at a very attractive price. I bought some to create a crispy delight. Be sure to buy plenty. This is another one of those treats that gets poached off the stove by family and friends before the baby artichokes 

Celebrate St. Joseph’s Day

Celebrate St. Joseph’s Day

Move over St. Patrick. The Feast of St. Joseph, Father’s Day in Italy is this Wednesday. Zeppole di San Giuseppe is one of my favorite Neapolitan pastries. But I only make these pastry cream filled puffs topped with an Amarena cherry once a year, on 

Spring Asparagus Frittata

Spring Asparagus Frittata

I made this asparagus frittata last spring while in Rome. Allesandro, my friend and produce vendor in Campo de Fiori, the huge open air produce market in the historical center of Rome, showed me wild asparagus he had foraged the night before. It took him all 

Torta di Riso: Sweet Orange-Scented Rice Cake

Torta di Riso: Sweet Orange-Scented Rice Cake

Don’t miss the next recipe video: Subscribe now to my YouTube channel. As a kid I pigged out this time of the year. I knew I’d have to give up stuff for Lent and usually that included a favorite sweet. So if chocolate was on the 40-day 

Stufato di Manzo: Italian Beef & Vegetable Stew

Stufato di Manzo: Italian Beef & Vegetable Stew

Beef stew was my favorite lunch when I trudged home from elementary school on a cold wet winter’s day. I liked to squash all of the tender ingredients together to form a shepherd’s pie mash-up on my plate that I scooped up with a spoon. 

Family Survives 2 Weeks on Gianni’s Food!

Family Survives 2 Weeks on Gianni’s Food!

A fan wrote to tell me she just returned from a 2-week Florida vacation with her father and husband. Usually to satisfy one of her Dad’s woolies (craving) they cooked up a whole bunch of my dishes. I’m dizzy from the list. Chicken & escarole