Sicilian Girl

Tweet Hash became notably popular during and after World War II, due to the rationing of fresh meat and for many, it came in a can (Hormel corned beef hash). When I was growing up, we never wasted food and leftovers on one night could easily find their way into breakfast the next morning. Hash [...]

Tweet The art of making desserts is a great source of pride for the Southern hostess. Armed with heirloom recipes and an intuitive sense that company may be dropping by, she always has something sweet to offer her guests. Baking and entertaining, a creative outlet for many ladies, translates into tender luscious layer cakes, tarts [...]

Tweet For many folks, soup is the original comfort food, whether it’s a soothing light stracciatella or a hearty pasta e fagioli. This full bodied fennel soup falls somewhere in between. An easy to prepare recipe with only a few ingredients, this soup is so thick and creamy that you’d never guess it has no [...]

Tweet Many of the meals that I prepare, particularly those I’ve created, are actually born out of a previous meal. This is not creative genius on my part, rather a result of growing up in a household that could not afford to waste food. Bread that had become stale, had a new lease on life [...]

Tweet Italians eat fennel (finocchio) in much the same way as Americans eat celery, raw with perhaps a bit of salt. Tossed in a salad, fennel adds a wonderful aromatic   crunchy bite. I prefer this vegetable cooked, braised, sauteed, roasted or baked. Fennel is actually a bulb-like herb with little yellow flowers and is used [...]

Tweet Romas, beefstakes, heirlooms and cherries, so many tomatoes, so little time. Recently, I purchased several pounds of tomatoes which I intended on using in a variety of recipes. “Intended” being the optimum word, life got busy and other than slicing and tossing into salad greens, making Panzanella Portabello’s and Fettunta Toscana, I still had [...]

Tweet Ettore Boiardi, born in Piacenza, Italy came to America when he was just 16 years old. He started his career in the kitchen of the Plaza hotel in New York City, working his way up to head chef. His first restaurant, Giardino d’Italia, was so well received, his customers wanted to be able to [...]

Tweet Little onions, (cipollini) look like ping-pong balls that have been slightly flattened. These little bulbing onions originated in Italy and are harvested 100 days after planting. They have a pale yellow and gold-colored thin papery skin and a translucent white flesh. They have more residual sugar than your average onion and no harsh onion [...]

Tweet This is the mini version of my Orzo-Stuffed Peppers. Just the right size for merenda (snack). Serve them as a delicious first course or bring a tray of peppers to a cocktail party and watch them disappear (use red, green, yellow and orange  peppers for a colorful presentation). Mini-stuffed peppers are a welcome addition [...]

Tweet There are four major groups of cauliflower and hundreds of varieties used around the world. Of these groups: Italian, Northwest European biennial, Northern European annual and Asian, the Italian is the ancestral form from which the others are derived. This recipe calls for the white variety you find most often in the market. Actually, [...]