Bake It Twice

Actually, that’s what biscotto (plural, biscotti) means, it’s the Italian word for “twice-baked.”  The first run through the oven firms up the dough to a cookie-like consistency, then the cookie is cut into strips and is put back in the oven for another ten minutes, thus transforming it to the firm, fairly crunchy biscuit so…

Now, That’s Italian

Or so it would seem, with polenta forming a creamy base and Parmigiano Reggiano topping it all with a salty tanginess.  With just a few ingredients and requiring less non-stop attention than cooking a proper polenta usually demands, Oven Polenta with Roasted Mushrooms and Thyme became a keeper when Bon Appetit featured it in the…

Brownies for a Princess

By legend, when an Austrian princess was staying at the Italian resort isle of Capri back in the 1800s, she started longing for the dense chocolate cake of her native Vienna, Sachertorte.  Not knowing how to make the Viennese delicacy, the resort’s Italian chefs prepared a more familiar local almond cake, added cocoa and hoped…

A Square Meal

A fresh salad is a great way to welcome summer, particularly when it celebrates the exuberant greenness that’s, well, everywhere now.  Adorn it with a juicy steak, meltingly tender and sliced thinly across the grain, and you have a complete, satisfying meal perfect for bright sunshine, sultry evenings and other perks of a season of…

Along Italy’s Pacific Coast

Wait, what?  There’s the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, but when did this whole Pacific thing happen?  About 150 years ago, actually, when Italian immigrants to the U.S. made their way westward and those of a more nautical disposition found work is San Francisco’s fishing industry.  While many in the Bay Area discovered wealth inland extracting…

About Time, Isn’t It?

These pages have spanned the globe and have visited relatively obscure culinary destinations, including Laos, Tibet and Uruguay, yet so far they’ve neglected one of the world’s great cuisines, Italian.  That unfortunate exclusion ends with today’s entry, Veal Marsala. What a debut, though.  Take a meltingly tender veal cutlet, pan sear it with garlic and…