Tag: food

Cannoli Siciliani: Crispy Tubes Filled with Sweet Creamy Ricotta

Cannoli Siciliani: Crispy Tubes Filled with Sweet Creamy Ricotta

Don’t miss the next recipe video: Subscribe now to my YouTube channel. Often at the end of a special meal growing up in Jersey Italian pastries would cap off the day’s celebration. I’d visit Ferrara’s Pastry on Bloomfield Avenue in Newark and buy a dozen and a 

Torta Pasqualina: Easter Greens & Ricotta Cake

Torta Pasqualina: Easter Greens & Ricotta Cake

Don’t miss the next recipe video: Subscribe now to my YouTube channel. Easter is a relaxed holiday. There’s a saying “Natale con i tuoi. Pasqua con chi vuoi.” Christmas with your family. Easter with whomever you like. In Italy the Easter celebration spills over to Monday, called 

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 

Tiramisu is an Easy Pick-me-Up

Tiramisu is an Easy Pick-me-Up

Don’t miss the next recipe video: Subscribe now to my YouTube channel. Want a “pick-me-up”? That’s the meaning of tiramisu and with its potent hits of espresso and alcohol, it is the perfect ending to a perfect meal. Tiramisu was one of the favorite dolci at my 

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 

North Beach’s Il Casaro Pizzeria & Mozzarella Bar Opens

North Beach’s Il Casaro Pizzeria & Mozzarella Bar Opens

A couple of months ago I told you about Il Casaro (the cheese maker), the soon-to-open North Beach pizzeria and mozzarella bar. Well it finally happened a couple of days ago and I stopped in to wish my friend Francesco “Buona Fortuna”. He sat me at the end 

Pasta Primavera: Bow tie pasta with early spring vegetables

Pasta Primavera: Bow tie pasta with early spring vegetables

Don’t miss the next recipe video: Subscribe now to my YouTube channel. I love this time of year when the first of the early spring vegetables start to hit the market. Pencil-thin asparagus, tiny peas, and tender fava beans are among my favorites, so I just had 

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 

Cardi Fritti: Fried Cardoons

Cardi Fritti: Fried Cardoons

In the spring when I was a kid in Jersey I went foraging for cardoons with my Uncle Frank in the “wild” West Orange hills. He married Aunt Florence, my Mom’s sister, and they lived downstairs from us. Uncle Frank was born in Calabria and didn’t 

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. 

Baci: Make Chocolate Hazelnut Valentine Kisses

Baci: Make Chocolate Hazelnut Valentine Kisses

  We shot 3 new video episodes yesterday. Don’t miss any of my new YouTube cooking shows released every Saturday. Subscribe today. Even though I was busy shooting I had time to make these too. Perugina Baci, the chocolate covered hazelnut kisses with little love 

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

Don’t miss the next recipe video: Subscribe now to my YouTube channel. Growing up in northern Jersey when my Mom took out her small black cast iron pan Sunday morning we knew we were in for a treat. She was getting ready to make crespelle (crepes) for