Late October in central Italy means that summer vine crops are finally giving way to autumn’s earthy vegetables. Chard, cauliflower and potatoes are replacing the big summer harvests. The air is crisp and daylight savings time will soon end. Autumn in Italy is such a different experience from this season in Los Angeles, where summer is seemingly endless unless you closely watch the produce available at LA certified farmers markets. The transition between seasons brings an opportunity to prepare food that connects very different ingredients.

Continue reading «Frico’» – Fried-and-cooked Potatoes and Zucchini at Our Italian Table.

We are finally back here in Le Marche Italy visiting my family and walking the same streets as my grandfather who immigrated to the United States in 1911.  It’s been a two-year hiatus since our last memorable trip here.

All the things I love about this place have come flooding back – family, afternoons at cafes, the beautiful countryside, the Adriatic Sea. However, the things that really activate my memories are the tastes and aromas of the Italian region of Marche.

Continue reading Pollo in potacchio con patate at Our Italian Table.

Finally, spring is in the air! After a long and arduous winter for so many of us, you can feel moods and spirits lighten. There is a spring in our step as the weather begins to warm and the morning light begins to brighten. Here in the east it remains just a bit too cold to turn the garden soil although only perhaps for a few more days.  I wait  – not very patiently – sketching out my garden plots, reading and re-reading my seed packets, moving my little tomato seedlings from room to room to catch the best sun. 

Continue reading Fabulous Fennel: Baked Red Snapper with Fennel, Potatoes, and Lemon at Our Italian Table.

When I was recently in Rome, I enjoyed a plate of “abbacchio alla romana” at Da Bucatino (http://www.bucatino.com), a restaurant just downstairs from the apartment I was renting. This is an always packed trattoria in the Testaccio neighborhood just south and across the river from Trestavere, near the center of Rome. I love to pick restaurants based on where (1) the locals are and (2) no menus in English can be found. Da Bucatino delivered on both counts.

Continue reading Abbacchio alla romana (Baby lamb Roman-style) at Our Italian Table.

 Baby, its cold outside!! Wow – winter is here!!! Time for a cozy Sunday night next to a blazing fire.  And this calls for some hearty comfort food. One of my favorite winter warmers is a hearty dish of sweet sausage sauteed with lots of garlic, broccoli rabe and potatoes.  Now I am a broccoli rabe fanatic so it doesn’t take much to get me to eat bunches of the stuff – but add in some sausage and potatoes and I am one happy puppy. 

Continue reading Sunday Fireside Dinner: Sweet Sausage and Broccoli Rabe with Potatoes at Our Italian Table.

Ahhh, Italian comfort food….and this is one of those dishes for me.  After returning from an amazing week in Montalcino,  I found myself in need of some comfort food as I tried to get back into the rhythm of work.  I first had this dish in Italy on a chilly afternoon in Sicilia and have been making it ever since. The bite of the rape alongside the sweetness of the sausage and creaminess of the potatoes soothes the very soul. 

Continue reading Sweet Sausage, Broccoli Rabe and Potatoes at Our Italian Table.

In late August, I visited the tiny island of Pantelleria, off the southern coast of Sicily. The island finds itself closer to the shores of Northern Africa than Sicily and it was here that I found some of the warmest souls on earth.  I spent a short 5 days on the island and found myself headed back to America with a suitcase full of gifts, a journal full of memories and a heart filled with warmth. 

Continue reading L’Angolo di Angelo (Angelo’s Corner): Insalata Pantesca at Our Italian Table.