La Buona Tavola

I only ever cook sweet peppers in the summer when they are in season. They are thick fleshed, sweet, and flavorful, in contrast to their sad winter counterparts. In Italy, as the weather turns cold in the fall, they become …

Italy is known worldwide for its bread: fragrant, tasty, a magnificent balance of crunchiness and softness, it is the perfect companion  to all dishes and the most essential ingredient of countless types of sandwiches.  We all know Italian bread comes …

Second probably only to pizza when it comes to its “iconic” status, caprese salad, or insalata caprese if we want to say it in Italian, is one of the country’s favorite dishes. A staple in the summer, when the juiciest, …

If you had to define Italian cuisine with one, single adjective, what would you chose? Personally, I’d go for “simple.” Simplicity is key in many of our most famous recipes, just as attention to using quality ingredients is. But I …

Fall is magnificent in Umbria. Wisps of morning mist envelope the fields like a veil. Later in the day, the sun is mellow, the light is golden, the leaves on the trees a rainbow of orange and reds. This is …

Who says that good food must be complicated to make, or  that it has to take loads of time to prepare? There is a lot to learn from the way our grandmothers used to cook: it may  have  been a …

Naples has her sfogliatella, the North plays with the Teutonic idea of krapfen, but Rome… Rome has the maritozzo.  You look at it and it’s perfect: golden and shiny, sliced in a half, its creamy filling perfectly levelled all at …

Agnolotti are Piemonte’s best comfort food: warm, filling, tasty, they are so quintessentially Piedmontese they are part of the region’s official list of traditional products (P.A.T.).  Reassuring in their ubiquitous presence on Piemonte’s festive table, they are today  declined in …

San Daniele del Friuli is a beautiful, quaint small town in Italy’s northern region Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the province of Udine.  It is situated on the top of a hill, half-way between the mountains and the Adriatic Sea, near …

Towards the end of October, chestnuts finally make their irresistible appearance on our markets in Umbria. This humble fruit has been a staple of the Mediterranean diet for millennia. Near Mount Etna in Sicily, there is a chestnut tree which …