Tag: menu

Baked Ziti for Valentine’s Day?

Baked Ziti for Valentine’s Day?

Why go out for a “romantic” dinner on Valentine’s Day? The restaurants are crazy busy. Why tolerate the hassle of overbooked places and food pouring out of an overworked kitchen? All you’ll get is agita (heartburn). Don’t go out. Stay home and cook Valentine’s Day 

Celebration Crab Salad on My New Year’s Eve Menu

Celebration Crab Salad on My New Year’s Eve Menu

San Franciscans love dungeness crab this time of year. The crabs are big and meaty this season. I’m making a celebratory dungeness salad with celery and shallot, EVOO and Meyer lemon. The lemon perks up the briny sweetness of the crab bathed in mellow olive 

A Lucky New Year’s Eve Dish

A Lucky New Year’s Eve Dish

Just back from Christmas with friends and family in Jersey. Now it’s time to plan my New Year’s Eve menu. I’ll share this year’s menu when I’m done. In the meantime, here are a couple of classic dishes to get you started with your planning. I 

Roasted Turkey & All The Fixings

Roasted Turkey & All The Fixings

Still undecided about your Thanksgiving dinner? Try my recipes for Roasted Turkey scented with rosemary, sage, lemon and garlic, chestnut/sausage stuffing and easy pan gravy. While the oven is hot, add brussels sprouts roasted with pine nuts and parmigiano and butternut squash roasted with honey 

Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken Cacciatore

Flavor memories of my Mom’s hunter-style braised chicken overwhelmed me. I headed down the hill to get what I needed to make this easy, rustic dish. I’m a breast man but go ahead and include all of your favorite chicken parts. The breasts take less 

Crispy Succulent Shrimp (Gamberi Fritti)

Crispy Succulent Shrimp (Gamberi Fritti)

When I was a kid on a steamy summer Friday night in Jersey, fried fish was one of my favorite dinners. My Mom lightly dredged an array of fish in flour and quickly fried them in olive oil. We ate the fish hot out of 

An Easter Dinner Menu for You

An Easter Dinner Menu for You

Here’s a 4-course Easter dinner suggestion. I even threw in Italian wine pairings. Follow my easy video demonstrations and text recipes (a fan suggests I call these “videocipes” or “recideos”) and make dinner for yourself. Bake the 2 traditional Easter Pies the day before and let them sit 

SF Seder From The Roman Ghetto

SF Seder From The Roman Ghetto

I’m jazzed. San Francisco’s own world-famous Italian cook, teacher and author Joyce Goldstein is preparing a Seder at Perbacco on April 10. The roots of this meal are in Square One, Goldstein’s sorely missed Jackson Square restaurant. She first served a Seder meal there in 

Washington Square Park Now Complete

Washington Square Park Now Complete

There was just one shuttered space left on the blocks surrounding Washington Square Park. Now there are none. The historic Original Joe’s restaurant re-opened in North Beach Thursday more than four years after a fire shuttered its Taylor Street location in the Tenderloin.  “Joe’s Special,” a 

Holidays in America

Holidays in America

Lidia Bastianich’s PBS special “Lidia Celebrates America: Holiday Tables and Traditions” is a celebration of family traditions, the common immigrant experience and the importance of food in 4 ethnic cultures. Watch it. You’ll feel good.

Christmas Eve Feast of Seven Fishes (Cena di Vigilia)

Christmas Eve Feast of Seven Fishes (Cena di Vigilia)

UPDATE: There is now a video recipe for Cioppino, the simple and easy seven-fish San Francisco stew: WATCH NOW Italian-American families have their favorite dishes for Christmas Eve fish dinner – some serve 7 fish (for the 7 sacraments or 7 virtues), some serve 10 (for 

A Post-Thanksgiving Melting Pot Dinner

A Post-Thanksgiving Melting Pot Dinner

Two branches of the family gathered in northern Jersey to enjoy a great Italian-American meal with a Syrian twist.

A Jersey Thanksgiving

A Jersey Thanksgiving

We’re all gathered in northern Jersey for our Italian-American Thanksgiving dinner, 3 generations in the kitchen today. My sister Rose and her daughter Wendy are in charge, I’m just the sous chef. RoRo has been rocking in the kitchen since 7 this morning and barking 

Italian-American Thanksgiving – Roasted Turkey, Chestnut-Sausage Stuffing, and Gravy

Italian-American Thanksgiving – Roasted Turkey, Chestnut-Sausage Stuffing, and Gravy

Recipes for Italian-American roasted turkey, chestnut and sausage stuffing and turkey gravy.

A Night in Tuscany in North Beach – Regional Food & Wine Pairing

A Night in Tuscany in North Beach – Regional Food & Wine Pairing

I decided to create a series of private restaurant food & wine pairings to showcase region-specific Italian cuisine and wines, and the cooks that know those regions so well.