La Buona Tavola

With the holidays behind us, many of us have gone a bit overboard with the continual stream of cakes, cookies, libations and heavy meals.  If you are like me, your carb-laden body is screaming for healthier food choices; vitamin-packed options …

Combining simple, local ingredients with tradition, a dash of history and never-ending love Mantuan cuisine is known as the food of princes and people. Many dishes date back to the days of the House of Gonzaga, a princely family that …

Everyone has favorite childhood memories, and one of mine is of the lovingly prepared food whose aromas filled the air of my old neighborhood in the Cape Cod village of Sagamore. It was genuine Italian food, rich, honest and simple. …

Portland has no shortage of good international restaurants – whatever you are hungry for you will likely find it somewhere. Northeast Alberta Street has one of the densest collections of international cuisines anywhere in the city. Traveling west on Alberta …

Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, the renowned chef, restaurateur, author, television personality and pioneer who introduced and educated Americans to authentic Italian regional cuisine, met me at her Upper East Side restaurant Felidia on 58th Street for an afternoon chat about her …

First generation American born of italian immigrants, Rossella Rago grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn with a deep link to her Italian roots in Mola di Bari (Apulia), the village where her parents were born. As for the majority of Italians, …

Lentils and pork sausages, the first to represent coins, the second for abundance, served up together, has long been considered an auspicious dish with which to usher in the New Year in some parts of Italy. Take Modena’s lenticchie di …

A Christmas without panettone is barely a Christmas in Italy: loathed or loved, the Milanese born sweet loaf is something everyone has in the kitchen this time of  the year. Light, fragrant and pleasantly rich, panettone lovers relish its candied …

Listening to Elisabetta Ciardullo’s first experience in the US, I couldn’t help thinking about the fictional nanny Mary Poppins. Just as the British babysitter, to solve the situation, pulls magical gadgets from her purse, the Italian event planner and personal …

While in Umbria on vacation a few years ago, we went in search of fabled Castelluccio lentils. We had seen these lentils for sale when we were visiting the town of Norcia—so devastated by Italy’s earthquakes earlier this year—but despite …