There’s something very comforting about meatballs. They are, in fact, comfort food, and whether one ate them as part of spaghetti and meatballs or in a meatball hero as a child, they remain the paragon of comfort. In my research over decades concerning the cuisines of the Mediterranean in general and Italian in particular–the kafta […]
Slow-cooked Comfort Perfect For The Week After Christmas
December 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The week separating Christmas from New Year’s can be a strange dead zone in culinary terms. We may be eating leftovers from Christmas dinner, but by the 27th we’re sick of those. New Year’s Eve tends to be more about partying and drinking than comfort food. What do we eat during that week? No one […]
Old French Recipe for Veal Rump Stew, A Cold Weather Delight
November 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This nineteenth-century recipe is from Anjou, the capital of which, Angers, sits in the middle of fertile land and excellent vineyards in the Loire valley. The traditional home cooking of Anjou was simple and not ostentatious. This recipe is adapted from the book Recettes des provinces de France that was produced in honor of Curnonsky, […]
Luscious Winter Braise from Provence
March 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Winter isn’t over yet and if your culinary sensibilities are like mine you’re still in the “fire-up-the-oven” mode. There’s nothing cozier than a winter braise wafting through the house when the chill of the end of winter still lingers. Many people think warmth when they think of the Mediterranean, but the Mediterranean can be surprisingly […]
The Trick to One-pot Halloween Dinners
October 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Outside of the candy that the kids collect, Halloween may be the only American holiday that is not associated with a particular feast or recipe. In fact, I didn’t know until recently that Halloween wasn’t celebrated in America until the late 19th century when Irish immigrants brought the Oct. 31 celebration to the United States […]
Cabbage Lasagna with Braised Veal for a Cold Evening
March 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
In the old days when I first started cooking I cooked exclusively from cookbooks and I never looked for “easy” recipes or quick recipes—especially on weekends—as I reveled in the all-day affair of cooking. I would look for a particularly involved recipe and I would test myself by following its intricate instructions. Frankly, that’s a […]
Amazing Rice Dishes from Spain
March 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The southern region of Spain is Andalusia famous for its invention of tapas, of gazpacho, and a myriad of amazingly delicious rice dishes not well known in the United States. Unlike the paella of Valencia, Andalusian rice dishes are usually baked in an oven or if cooked stove-top are usually cooked in an earthenware casserole, […]
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