Julia Della Croce

At market in Massachusetts this fall there are a variety of apples on sale that I have never seen before including Golden Russets, Freedoms, Spitzen-bergs, and Red Stayman Winesaps. It was the same in the New York Hudson Valley last …

As I wrote in my last column, we are on the road traveling Italy’s nooks and crannies this summer en route to my cooking school in Umbria. Rome was our first stop but despite her spell, the sweltering heat drove …

The tiny island of Burano in the Venetian archipelago, with its colorfully painted houses and boats tied all along the canals “like so many domestic animals,” as Cassiodorus observed in A.D. 537, might be one of the most enchanting places …

Every Italian region has its harvest rituals that make quick and tasty use of the foods of the season. Umbria, lush land of endless vineyards and porky delights, makes salsicce all’uva, pan-roasted sausages and grapes, a dish that joins two …

Recently, I invited a friend of mine over to try out some new recipes I was working on. “But how do you think of all those different things?” she asked, open-mouthed. First let me tell you that my friend, Joan …

Historically and until the present day, enormous quantities of abbacchio, milk-fed baby lamb, have been consumed in Rome and its outlying region from Easter until June 24, the feast of San Giovanni. For example, in 1629, the city alone recorded selling 165 …

Stir, stir, without fear…. You have to continue with that blessed bastone (wooden paddle), at least a half hour after you think the polenta is done. And do you know why? Because this extra cooking, these additional rotations in the …

Once a year, on January 17, Rosario Scarpato, Neapolitan-born gastronome, writer, and television producer makes a global appeal for the preservation of genuine Italian cooking. The adventure, dubbed International Day of Italian Cuisine (IDIC) began in 2008 with a plea …

When I was growing up, I watched my mother poach, roast, bake, or grill the fish my father caught on his weekend expeditions to Long Island’s Montauk Point. Some of the tastiest fish were those that other fishermen tossed back …

American readers who are familiar with my work may know that I have been immersed in the world of Italian gastronomy for over three decades, writing not only about the food and the land, but also about the faces — …