La Buona Tavola

I stopped by the local farmer’s market this weekend and found myself in front of a beautiful basket of freshly picked arugula.  Memories of a beautiful Tuscan steak, perfectly cooked, sliced and laid atop a bed of simple arugula and …

With the arrival of summer in Italy, it’s definitely time to think about the pasta recipes that are celebrated during this holiday season.  My all time favorite pasta, that I love to eat during my summer vacation on the beach, …

The difference is tiny, yet it cannot be overlooked… “A sliced cookie, made with fine flour, sugar and egg whites:” this is the definition given by the Accademia della Crusca in 1691. Cantuccio, whose name comes from the word “canto,” …

Summer gives us large quantities of marvelous fresh vegetables, but what about the winter? As the saying goes, necessity is mother of all inventions, so giardiniera was born.  Carrots, celery, cucumbers, cauliflowers, zucchini, bell peppers, all chopped, lightly boiled and …

We all know it: in Italy, we love bread! These very crunchy “bread sticks” were invented in Turin in 1679, by the Savoias’ personal baker, who created them appositely for king Vittorio Amedeo II, who couldn’t digest regular bread very …

A traditional Sicilian pasta recipe which I absolutely adore is pasta con le sarde – pasta with sardines. If you have a keen eye though, you’ll notice that in my photos I used fresh anchovies instead of sardines. This was simply …

“Sicilian novels and memoirs that speak of food are more important to me than cookbooks,” says Mary Taylor Simeti, a grande dame of the vibrant Sicilian kitchen and culture. “Sicily’s culture, including its food, is a magnificent melting pot, an accumulation …

Burrata was born in Apulia, more precisely in Andria, almost by chance: and thanks for that!  We were in the mid-1950s when, because of a heavy snowfall, Lorenzo Bianchino couldn’t go and sell his milk so, in an attempt not …

Sturdy yet light, with its typical red color it made the cupola of Firenze’s duomo unique in the world: this is the terracotta dell’Impruneta, a small village only a stone throw away from Tuscany’s capital. Jars, vases, tiles, shingles, all …

Ask anyone around the world to name a classic Italian dessert and many will answer tiramisù. We tend to think that tiramisù has been around for centuries (like many of Italy’s traditional recipes) but you may be surprised to learn …