From the category archives:

Pasta and Rice

Pappardelle al Cinghiale

August 21, 2010
Pappardelle al Cinghiale

This is the first time in several years that we haven’t attended the Sagra della Pappardelle al Cinghiale in Torre Alfina, Italy, and I must admit I’m missing it.  The tables lined up in the piazza, the village children serving the grownups, chicken and wild boar sausages hot off the grill, good local red wine, and the star of [...]

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Make Your Own Bottarga

June 29, 2010
Spaghetti with Bottarga

Waste not want not, or so they say.  Working on the assumption that there’s a lot of truth in that old chestnut, we’ve almost worked our way through an entire twenty pound mahi mahi.  We’ve had seared mahi mahi with green seasoning, mahi mahi and coconut curry, soy-glazed mahi mahi, mahi mahi in a creole sauce, and fish head curry.  The [...]

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Mushroom Asparagus Risotto

June 23, 2010
Mushroom Asparagus Risotto

We always take at least one extra, empty suitcase when we travel to Italy.  We need something to hold the olive oil,  cantuccini biscotti for Audrey, salumi, cheese, coffee, pasta, rice for risotto, and honey.  And the dried porcini mushrooms.  I love their earthy flavor and use them to add depth to risotti, soups, stews, pot roasts and stuffings.  The ones I [...]

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Cheesy Grits Casserole

March 23, 2010
Cheesy Grits Casserole

Bones and I have what you might call a mixed marriage.  I, being a born and bred Southerner, love grits.  Bones, being English, does not.  Sometimes a girl gets homesick and requires an infusion of grits and is willing to subject her husband to grits, no matter the outcome.  In such cases, I always break out [...]

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A Birthday Lasagna

March 21, 2010
Lasagna with Meat Sauce and Besciamella

I bought a book on etiquette shortly after Audrey was born, assuming that any great-grandchild of my gracious Southern grandmothers would naturally grow up to be extremely well-behaved, polite even.  Bones, on the other hand, declared loudly that he had no intention of raising a quiet, mousy, namby pamby, mealy-mouthed child with no mind of her own.  He [...]

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Pasta Cooked Like Risotto

January 26, 2010
Pasta Cooked Like Risotto

This method for cooking pasta like risotto has travelled a few miles to get to my kitchen. My version was inspired by a recipe from Patricia Wells at Home in Provence, a favorite in my cookbook collection.  Ms. Wells’ recipe was in turn inspired by a dish she tasted at French chef Alain Ducasse’shotel-restaurant in the Provencal countryside.  [...]

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Feast of the Seven Fishes

January 8, 2010
Spaghetti alle Vongole

I’ve been playing with the idea of preparing a Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve ever since I read artist Ed Giobbi’s description of his family’s feast in one of my favorite holiday cookbooks, Christmas Memories with Recipes.  Well, this was the year and what a feast it was.

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Spaghetti and Meatballs

December 10, 2009
Meatballs

My love for anything and everything Italian is well-known to regular readers of this blog.  And eight years in New York instilled a similar affection for Italian-American cooking.  A Sunday sauce (a.k.a. gravy) is a glorious thing.  A New York slice is still the gold standard by which I judge any and all pizza, including that in [...]

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Chicken Pelau

November 9, 2009
Thumbnail image for Chicken Pelau

Audrey was raised on it.  Devica never goes to the beach without a pot of it.  It reminds me of a Caribbean jambalaya.  It’s dark, rich, and hearty, without being overly heavy.  What is it?  Why it’s pelau, Trinidad style.  And it’s good, especially made by Devica.

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Egyptian Lentils and Rice

November 8, 2009
Thumbnail image for Egyptian Lentils and Rice

By special request, I’m posting the recipe for the Egyptian lentils and rice I wrote about here last week.  In her lovely book, The Arab Table, May S. Bsisu says that “Egyptian food has the reputation for being bland, but any home cook there will tell you that this criticism should be reserved for the country’s [...]

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Fusilli with Sausage and Cream

October 13, 2009
Fusilli with sausage and cream

Audrey never ceases to amaze me.  I was in the kitchen last night putting this pasta sauce together and she said, “Can we have it with penne?  It tastes better when the sausage gets inside the pasta.”   Hmmm.  I was well into adulthood when I moved to New York, started eating in Italian restaurants, got a subscription to Gourmet magazine and began [...]

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Cucina di Bambini

August 28, 2009
Fettucine with Shrimp and Cream

It’s not all sagras and restaurants.  Hotel rooms are fine for a day or two, and I love a good restaurant meal.  But I need a kitchen.  I need to shop the local markets, check out the local ingredients.  I need to cook.

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Day Sail on the White Squall

June 20, 2009
White Squall

 
One of the best things about having guests come to stay is that it gives you a reason to get out on the water.  You wouldn’t think we’d need a reason.  But, though we do live in paradise, we have the same demands of work, school and life in general that keep the rest of [...]

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Pumpkin Ravioli

June 8, 2009
Pumpkin Ravioli

I was thrilled to get an email from Federica asking if I wanted to join in a series of lunchtime cooking sessions with a few other like-minded women who enjoy cooking and eating.  The sessions would be based on “the flavor choice and cooking experience that you want to share with everyone else…each one prepares [...]

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Spaghetti with Arugula, Pancetta and Cream

May 17, 2009
Spaghetti with Arugula, Pancetta and Cream

 

I moved to Tortola from New York City 16 years ago and the hardest thing for me to adapt to wasn’t the heat, the bureaucracy and red tape, or the slow pace of life.  It was the food available in the supermarkets.  It was of poor quality-and there was so little of it.  The chicken was [...]

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