In the valley below my in-laws’ house in Manfredonia, there is a sea of prickly pear cactus, and this time of year they are overburdened with multicolored fruit. They tell me at one time, the whole area was covered with them. In the mornings, I often saw older men walking through the cactus valley, picking [...]

[Read more →]

Garlic and Italian food seem to go hand-in-hand….in America. In Italy, it’s a different story. Garlic is one of the things that gets categorized as “pesante” (or heavy/difficult to digest), the concept I discussed in Parmigiano Reggiano Stuffed Onions Wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma. In fact, it’s even been the subject of a recent controversy [...]

[Read more →]

I spent the weekend in Rome, enjoying friendships like this one and relaxing as much as possible in a city and neighborhood that was my first “home” in Italy. I only wish I had discovered the grattachecca much much sooner. Rome of course welcomed us back in its true fashion, that is, by nominating S [...]

[Read more →]

It’s funny the things that make you nostalgic. It’s sticky hot here in Milan, and for the first time I won’t be going back to California for the summer. This time four years ago, I had already left California for Italy, and I made a pit stop in Spain since I had never been there. [...]

[Read more →]

Wow, that’s a mouthful, in more ways than one! I’ve been cooking quite a few sweet dishes recently, so when the Waiter, There’s Something in My… theme for this month (hosted by Jeanne from CookSister) was Stuffed Fruit or Vegetables, I wanted to do something a little more healthy and went with the vegetables…well, at [...]

[Read more →]