Italians love stuffed foods. They’re not alone, of course. The Poles, for example, are famous for stuffed cabbage. But no other cuisine takes it to the same extreme, as far as I know. Stuffed artichokes, stuffed zucchini, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed clams—and when you think about it, manicotti and cannoli are stuffed, too. There’s just something […]
Primi
First courses–typically soup and pasta.
Farfalle with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Cream
This dish is wonderfully simple and richly flavorful. If it has a name, I don’t know what it is, but I have seen versions of this in various places over the years. Sometimes, you can find sausage meat without the casings in the supermarket, but usually you’ll have to slice open a sausage and remove […]
Marinara
When I was a kid, we’d often visit my grandparents in Brooklyn on Sundays. Dinner was always early, and often consisted of pasta with tomato sauce, or marinara. In fact, my dad remembers being a kid—all his friends would get called in for Sunday dinner at the same time, and then come out again afterward, […]
Pesto
Basil is another item I associate with summer. In fact, my dad would plant basil in between the tomatoes in his garden. It really thrived in the humid New Jersey climate, and we had an abundance when the days got hot and lazy. Consequently, spaghetti with pesto was a frequent summer supper, often eaten in […]
Farfalle with Salmon
This is another dish of my own creation. It’s a nice dish to eat al fresco on a warm summer night—but I often serve it with the Christmas Eve feast. (My dad, on the other hand, would typically make spaghetti with a crab marinara, made with crabs he had caught and frozen over the summer). […]