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The Florentine
The crêpe, that wafer-thin French cousin to the plump and fluffy American pancake, may actually have its origins in Florence. Completely transformed in a Florentine kitchen, Crespelle alla Fiorentina, Florentine style crêpes, are made with the same recipe and technique as French crê
For me, the one defining Tuscan dish is chicken liver pate served on crostini, also known as crostini di fegatini, crostini toscani or crostini neri. It is rustic, tasty, cheap and sensible (why throw away a perfectly good part of the chicken?), and it is on the menu of virtually
Italy's 54th Art Biennale (see page 20) is finally here, and in this world of artists and curators set on the backdrop of a city where the roads are made of water and the taxis are boats, I will set up shop to cook New Zealand and Venetian fare
Gelato may just be one of the world's favourite inventions. Sun-soaked memories of eating it as a child are certainly imprinted on practically every Italian's mind. My mother-in-law recalls Sunday afternoon treats, when her father would take her to the local gelateria to choose between
Employed by the Egyptians for the first time more than 3,000 years ago; employed by Reuters International news agencies until the fax machine put the last 45 out of work; retired out of India's Police Service in Orissa as recently as 2002; currently banned from work in Afghanistan
Italians will always argue that their cuisine is superior to French cuisine. Indeed, they are quite confident that they were the ones who taught the French how to cook. It ...
Aphrodisiacal, addictive, adds punch to any dish, has wonderful digestive properties? I needed no further convincing on a recent trip to Thailand to try chilli in my morning omelette; ...
Carnival is a time to kick up one’s heels, hide behind a mask, pretend, elaborate, and eat ‘rags.’ For most people, the greatest feature of Carnival season is the elaborate ...
La gallina vecchia fa un buon brodo: ‘An old chicken makes a good broth’ is one of Italy’s time-tested aphorisms. And whether you believe that tortellini-filled-pasta parcels, usually served in ...
Here comes Christmas and the chill of the December air in Florence is sweetened with the enticing aromas of artisan bakers making Tony's Bread, pan di Toni. This famous fifteenth- century Milanese Christmas cake, known in Italian as panettone, is now the national Christmas cake of Italy. Many competing
Tradition has it that in Italy old people and children spend time in the mountains during summer so that they can breathe some healthy fresh air at higher altitudes. An even older tradition says that animals need this same treatment. Come summer, my valley-dwelling friends in Umbria-one
If bread is the staff of life, then some bread is la dolce vita-the sweet life. Around the time of the vendemmia in Tuscany, I like making schiacciata con l'uva, a Florentine dessert made with bread dough, red wine, olive oil, rosemary and grapes. Made only during grape
Italy is as famous for pizza as it is for design. Over the summer, I went to Gaeta, where I once lived, to see old friends-and to eat pizza. Pizza-making in Gaeta is an art. Situated on the Mediterranean coast 90 kilometres north of Naples, Gaeta also
My latest consulting job finds me working for a prince in a palace surrounded by olive groves and vineyards. Among horses and children, fields of green grass and gardens, I am organizing traditional Tuscan gourmet picnics, lunches and cooking classes to offer in the restaurant and wine-tasting room. I
This will be my fourth summer in Maine. When I first set foot in Maine, two friends of mine, Berno and Laura Hamilton, welcomed me into their home, a cottage behind a row of pine trees off the Sommes Sound. Berno drove me around the island in an old-fashioned
I went downstairs to eat at Fuori Porta the other day and was lucky enough to find my friend Donald walking in the door with some free time for an aperitivo. We enjoy chatting about politics, the weather (and how Italians always talk about politics and the weather), but our
My mother was pregnant with me the day her father took her to visit the kitchen of the cargo ship where he was working as the crew cook. My mother, being weak-stomached, immediately fell ill from the dense smell of paint, petrol, salt, moisture and fried onions in the
With spring well under way and with the puntarelle season now finished, it is time to start planting my garden for spring and summer fare: cetrioli, melanzane, pomodori, pomodorini, basilico, zucchine, cipolle rosse, and more. When the plant seller I recently visited at Sant'Ambrogio market asked if I
Fresh peas are the true sweet stars of this season! They begin to appear up now, with the first warm days after the rain. Bright green and tender, they are newborn peas with an irregular shape, some even pressed as they are not yet strong enough to support the pressure
You know it is the last gasp of the artichoke season when the large, round, flat mammole and romani appear on the produce tables at the market. Mammole, the sweetest kind of artichoke, are purple with heart-shaped petals. Also the biggest artichoke, their tight, fat leaves hide a large
It seems that everybody is finally coming out of hibernation after a very long, very damp, cold winter in Florence (which even included a frosting of snow). However, although flowers are beginning to bloom and grass is beginning to send up lush green shoots, it is still too cold to
This winter has been exceptionally long and cold, but sparks of spring are starting to sprinkle through the air. Flowers bloom and market stands become crowded with heaps and heaps of big, beautiful artichokes. Although an artichoke's consistency is fibrous and tough on the outside, the beauty of this
In New York, London or Auckland you may be served ‘Italian' food in which basil pesto, for example, has been added to, say, orecchiette pasta and semi-dried tomatoes. No such marriage of regional specialties would work here in Italy, however. And when you observe a cross-regional marriage
The holidays are over and we're midway into January. The month may be long and cold, but it is also the start of puntarelle season. I have only just discovered this vegetable, but, like someone in love, I don't remember what life was like before I tasted a
