La Buona Tavola

Italian cuisine is… first and foremost, quality. The best. Beauty. Richness and good-ness. Breeders, farmers, prod-ucers. Social responsibility. Our culture. History. Tradition. Art. Being together. Hospitality and well-being. Emotion. Love, sensitivity and memory.  Biodiversity. The symbol of Italy. Everything that …

One look at my mom’s old meat grinder and my eyes instantly well with tears. Never fail. How can that old beast resign me to a puddle of tears with a simple glance?  Maybe I can blame it on the …

Tiramisu is a beloved Italian dessert. It’s smooth, creamy and caffeinated so what’s not to like? I love making it for holidays primarily because it’s no-bake and let’s be honest, we’re all trying to find and easy and delicious way …

Italia Slow Tour in the plane of Castelluccio! We meet some people who are harvesting the lentils. The lentil of Castelluccio is a PGI product and is famous as a curative product, high in iron and protein. Harvesting and separating …

This is a very special recipe for me. In 1993, I visited my relatives near Senigallia, Italy for the first time. Lena, my dad’s cousin Fulvio Becci’s wife, prepared this dish for me. I loved it then, but had never …

Marche is an underrated region of Italy; not as famous as Tuscany or Umbria, but just as beautiful, historic, and fascinating as anyplace in this beautiful, historic and fascinating country. Comprised of four very different provinces, Marche includes forested, mountainous …

When I set out to sell a publisher on the idea of writing a book about Umbrian cooking some years ago, I was asked to sum up the cuisine in a short paragraph. Having just returned from one of my …

The Bitto is Valtellina’s most renowned and important cheese, an incredible local speciality that is produced only here, high up on the mountains in the pastures. Producing this cheese requires skill, expertise, sacrifice and incredible hard work! Let’s go learning …

The first snow clings to the splashes of stricken marigolds outside my kitchen window. Only yesterday, their little mop-heads bobbed undaunted, taunting winter, as a cold wind whipped my little garden. Even in November of 2016, to see them in …

The Marche region of Italy is blessed with 180 km of fertile coastline, so the seafood available is deeply ingrained into Marche’s food culture. In a small marchigiano cookbook I purchased during our last trip to Italy, there are 10 …