Search the Community

Not sure this is where I should be posting this but I am seriously thinking of doing a cooking class in either Italy or France as a vacation with a friend. I want something that is about a week long, cooking and shopping at the local markets, maybe seeing a winery and some local artisans. I know there are lots of those types of trips listed on the internet but I thought I'd see if any of you have any recommendations or personal experience. Thanks for any input.

Hi - My daughter is leaving for a High School exchange later this month (she is 16). We have hosted 8 students and my favorite gifts were local cookbooks, most were in English. I was wondering if there were any American cookbooks that are translated into Italian. And if so would you think it would be good gift. If not maybe you could give me other ideas. I'm from NJ. Thanks - Lisa

Just got back from 2 weeks in Northern italy - Torino, Ballagio, Mantova and Milan. A good solid vacation - great meals, wonderful art, beautiful villas and gardens. And I promise a trip report - but i have a question: While in Torino - I had this wonderful fish dish - the fish was fried, then marinated in a sweet & sour marinade for 24 hours, served cold - sometimes plain, sometimes with onions and raisins. Similar to sarde in saor from Venice. Does anyone know the name of the dish I'm refering to? (And I thought the cuisine in Mantova was delicious - especially the uniquely spiced pumpkin ravioli) Thanks.

When eating at a friends last evening, she served her grandmother's recipe for a fresh tomato sauce that she knows a "ah moy gyu". Her grandmother was Sicilian and the sauce was chopped fresh tomatoes, crushed garlic cloves, lemon juice, and fresh oregano. She served it as a condiment with grilled steak and said that was the way it was served when she was a child. I am sure that this name is a bastardization of an Italian name and am interested if anyone recognizes this sauce and knows more about it.

A friend has given me some chocolate orange farfalle. a) Please tell me they are not as much of a perversion as I think they might be. b) What do I do with them? Sweet: Creme Anglais, strawberries or raspberries, maybe pistachio ice cream Savoury: Duck strips, mole,

I just got back from Turin Italy. Was there on business (another job), but we had a dinner one night at a pretty good restaurant called Tre Galli. We had a 6 course tasting menu. Great food, we were stuffed and closed the place after Midnight. We had people from Italy, France, Portugal and the US. You should have heard the translations going around the table all night. I have been able to find recipes online for everything we had except two things that I didn't get the name of. One looked like a Greek Dolmades, but was an Italian version with a Garlic Sausage filling, no rice or anything else. The other was some type of spiced fruit that was served with Bollito Mista, Boiled Meats and Vegetables. Does anyone have a clue what they are called and know where to find a recipe for them. Thanks, Angela

I am icing a cake with Italian meringue buttercream and would like to use ganache to pipe a message with on top of the cake. Will this work? Or will my ganache get all messy and gooey? I had this happen one Easter: But that was royal icing over cream cheese frosting. Does anyone know if the ganache might do the same thing over the Italian buttercream. It's for other people, so I really don't want to mess up! Thanks!

I've poured over both the Chester County and Montco threads, but there seems to be a dearth of recommendations for Italian - posting a new topic as my area sort of straddles the topics of those threads. Looking for something with a nice atmosphere suitable for taking a lady-friend one might be in the early stages of trying to convince to spend more time with him, pref with entrees in the $25 range. BYO preferred, but not an absolute requirement. Ideally somewhere in the rough triangle formed by KoP, Phoenixville, and Skippack - I'm willing to stray a bit farther, but much beyond that area and I may as well go down the city. Thanks!

I had someone ask me if I knew anything about a desert type pudding/custard called gnocchi bianco that involves semolina, milk, cinnamon and is served warm. Maybe from up around the Friuli region..... I came up with gnocchi latte from my Artusi book, but it doesn't include semolina.

A shop which I trust is selling white truffles from Alba for about $170/oz, which seems about right for good fresh white fungus. They also have, though, Italian black truffles, from Piedmont, for about a tenth the price. I generally go for French black truffles as they seem to offer the best value -- if such a word can be applied -- as compared to the much more expensive Albanians, and I've always been disappointed in "discount" black truffles: summer truffles, Burgundy truffles, Oregon truffles etc. But I'm thinking that Piemontese black truffles might be the exception that proves rule. Anyone have any experience with these?

Canary Wharf mall gets first London Jamie's Italian Jamie Oliver is to open his next branch of Jamie's Italian in London's Canary Wharf, it was announced today. The first London branch of Oliver's first independent venture will open at Churchill Place Mall next autumn alongside branches of Roka, Canteen and Rocket. Camille Waxer, vice president of retail at Canary Wharf Group said: “In the next 18 months or so we have KPMG, Fitch Ratings and State Street all opening new office buildings nearby. The continued growth in the number of Canary Wharf visitors and workers requires the quality, quantity and variety of dining options to keep pace. “We have been very impressed by the success of Jamie’s Italian in Oxford and Bath. It will inspire more food lovers to visit Canary Wharf and offer our existing customer base an exciting new option.” The first Jamie’s Italian, - described as an "authentic affordable Italian restaurant" - opened in Oxford in June with Bath and Kingston rapidly following. Restaurants are also slated to open in Brighton, Cambridge and Cardiff.

I picked this book up yesterday. I am a big fan of Carmellini's cooking, while he was at A Voce, it was my favorite restaurant. (I haven't been back since he left.) I am eagerly anticipating his next restaurant. I was very excited though, that in the meantime, I heard he was coming out with a book and when I saw it in the store yesterday, I couldn't resist. It starts out with a pretty good and interesting stories that influenced his development as a chef. As is the case with many people, as a young man he was surprised to discover in Italy that the "real" Italian food of America, was something quite different than that made in Italy. It features some of his signature dishes from A Voce, like the Duck Meatballs and his Gnocchi. After checking out the recipe, I now know why the duck meatballs were so good. He labels his gnocchi recipe "The Best Gnocchi", and at A Voce they certainly were. They were the lightest gnocchi I ever had and I have been trying to find a recipe like that for awhile. I can't wait to try it. Does anyone else had this book? Have you made anything from it yet? p.s. Over at the feedbaghttp://www.the-feedbag.com/ they've got Carmellini on video doing some of the recipes from the book.

hello everyone, I was just looking for a little help. I was wondering if anyone knew of any really good hole in the wall italian restaurants in central to northern nj. Something nice to go to but not exactly babbo if you get what im saying. Thanks for the help.

My grandmother made a chocolate pastry around Christmas time. It was a fried dough (may have been a stufoli recipe) with chocolate, chestnuts, pine nuts and citron inside. The looked like round raviolis and were fried then covered with honey. I believe she called them bastadella (sp?). Anyone know of any similar recipe? Thanks

Hey all -- I did a search, and I must not know what I am doing with the search function.... anyway. I want to make the Fassone for my tartuffi, and I was wondering what to do - which cut of meat is best -- do I add anything other than olive oil and salt??? Any help is appreciated.

We had lunch a couple of weeks ago at the Locanda della Tamerice near Ferrara -- fabulous, but that is another story -- and tasted a squash that was so wonderful that we asked what it was and after lunch went straight to the nearby farm stand that it had come from and bought one to take home to Rome for our Thanksgiving dinner, in lieu of sweet potatoes (anybody want to address the topic of patate dolci too?). Now, if I make a mess of it, I can't run out and buy another, so any suggestions from you northerners? It is not that large, as these things go, about the size of a very small baby, and, of course, hard as a rock. I cannot find how to post a picture (imagegullet won't load), but it's sort of hourglass-shaped (violin, appunto) and has bumps all over. Many thanks for any tips.

Hi all, I'm posting for a friend whose living in Rome. Anyone know where to find fresh lemongrass? Thanks!

I'm looking for a gift for a friend and am trying to find a book with just, or primarily, great pasta sauces. I'm not particularly looking for a general Italian cookbook, though if the best variety and quality is in a more general book, then that's what I'll get. A general search on amazon brings up a a ton of results, but I don't recognize the authors and would like to get something especially good. Any ideas?

As I mentioned over here, I have a very small kitchen with virtually no storage space. I have no oven; no dutch oven; no toaster oven; nor any immediate plans to get one. Whenever I look at an English language cookbook, I usually end up discarding it in frustration, since most of the recipes contained at some point require an oven. What can you do? It's a cultural thing. It does, however, mean I rarely acquire new cookbooks. So when I was browsing through a used bookstore in Tokyo the other day, and I came across an old copy of 'Marcella's Italian Kitchen", I picked it up only out of random curiosity. As I flipped through it, I casually skimmed the text for the telltale signs of oven temperature directions, and cooking times listed in hours. Imagine my surprise when there were virtually none. My heart started beating faster, and I thought, "Well, I'm sure all the recipes call for obscure Italian ingredients that I have no prayer of finding around here." I scanned the pages, this time looking for white truffles, strange fish, specific kinds of rock salt....nothing. Instead, it was full of recipes calling for fresh, seasonal vegetables,packaged pasta, and fresh fish... I clutched the book tightly and thought - "We have fresh fish in Japan. We have vegetables!" Then I ran up to the counter and bought it, before my husband could see me. (We have no bookshelves at home, either. Zen minimalism, you know.) When I go it home, I was thrilled to find that not only were the majority of the recipes things I could cook, they were things I would cook. So I went through and tabbed the book with coloured tabs, coded to the seasons here in Japan (green for summer recipes - tomatoes, aubergines; red for fall - mushrooms, pumpkin) and resolved to cook one dish from it each week until I got bored - or my husband begged for an end. Whichever came first. I invite you to cook along with me, if you have one of her books, and would like to increase your use of them. I have no idea if this book is her best or worst book, since I bought it used, there was no basis for comparison. There's a topic on Marcella Hazan herself, which you can use if you'd like to check out what people have to say about her books. Tuesday is as good a day as any, so I chose that for menu planning purposes - we still have vegetables leftover from the weekend, but won't need any leftovers from dinner the next day for our bento boxes, since it's my day off. This week, however, I was called away on Tuesday night to sample some mojitos at a new rum bar that opened in our neighborhood. (These things happen) So this recipe got made on Wednesday instead. The end of summer is aubergine season in Japan, and our local vegetable stand is literally piled high with bags of them for 100 yen every day. It's my favourite vegetable, so I always like to bring a bag of them home. I'm getting a bit sick of cooking them with dashi and ginger, though, so the recipe for baked aubergine with garlic and parsley on page 264 looked just the thing. I do have a small fish grill, which will grill small things, so my aubergines went in there for the baking. I didn't have any Italian parsley, so I used mitsuba (shh! don't tell!), but they came out great. She called for a half cup of olive oil, which made me gasp, but I used it all anyway. I can see I'm going to have to start buying bigger bottles. When they were done, I whizzed them up in my blender, and tossed them with hot linguine, as she calls for in the note at the bottom of the recipe (well, actually she calls for spaghettini - but I had linguine - you get the idea). I reserved the peels before I blended the insides, and chopped them for a garnish. I know from bitter experience that most recipes that feature aubergine heavily turn an unappetizing gray, and I wanted some colour punch to make it look nice. I julienned them, and piled them on top of the pasta. It look alright, but it tasted divine. And, aside from the aubergine roasting, which was unattended, the whole thing took ten minutes to put together. I think I'm in love. Now if I can only find a substitute for veal. Do you think kurobuta pork would do?

I have a friend in Bremerton who is originally from NJ. He's craving a cannoli badly, says he's had one in the six years he's lived there, at "a really expensive Italian restaurant in Seattle." That just won't do. Can anyone help me point him at a bakery near him? Thanks!

I have been on a sformato binge lately. I have done all the usual, like artichoke, asparagus, fennel, carrot, cardoon, red pepper, spinach etc. but on Christmas Eve we are invited to go to some friend's house and I must bring something vegetarian along for a pot-luck dinner so I am looking around for some unusual combinations. If you come up with something really interesting and I will make it, photograph it and post it here... (If you don't already know: a sformato is basically just a savory flan)

ciao tutti.i wonder if anyone has tried to make gnocchi with beans (cannellini)instead of potato and if so how it turned out?

Welcome to eGullet Cook-Off XLIV! Click here for the Cook-Off index. We've just devoted a Cook-Off to braised brisket, and we're turning again to moist, well-cooked proteins for our next adventure: ossobuco. You will see it spelled a number of different ways out there, but Marcella Hazan refers to it as one word in her definitive Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, so I'm going with that spelling. No reason to argue with Marcella, after all. Ossobuco is braised veal shank, named after the "bone with a hole" that used to be attached to the hind shank of a calf. (Let's all agree to stick to veal, and not have, say, halibut ossobuco. ) The classic Milanese version includes vegetables, tomatoes, wine, and broth, and is served with risotto alla milanese, perfumed with saffron, and with gremolada. Some of the versions out there are a bit wacky. In particular, The Silver Spoon Cookbook simmers the 2" thick shanks for 30 minutes atop the stove. Given that Hazan has 1 1/2" shanks in a 350F oven for two hours, I'm pretty sure the SSC is a waste of good veal. Indeed, I'd think that a much lower oven for longer would work wonders. There are more things to talk about here than just braising temps and times! For example, many other versions of ossobuco depart from the Milanese approach. In her out-of-print More Classic Italian Cooking, Hazan provides the recipe for Ossobuchi in Bianco, the white referring to a sauce lacking tomato. In The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, Giuliano Bugialli offers ossobuco Florentine style, with peas and pancetta, and Lynne Rossetto Kasper's Italian Country Table offers a home-style version with mushrooms, favas or snap peas, and more intense flavors such as anchovy, sage, and rosemary. We have one short discussion of ossobuco here, and an even shorter one on wine pairings here. Indeed, as is often the case with Italian food, the best discussion is the one shepherded by Kevin72, the Cooking and Cuisine of Lombardia, which muses on on the dish's origins and execution throughout. I'm wondering a few things myself. Some folks say that braised veal cannot be reheated, unlike other dishes that benefit from a night in the fridge. I'm also wondering what other sorts of sides -- polenta, say, or the Italian mashed potatoes that Hazan suggests for the ossobuchi in bianco -- would work and/or are traditional. So who wants to welcome the new year with some bones with holes?

I picked up a copy of this while suffering a snow delay at SeaTac airport a couple weeks ago. I don't usually succumb to food magazines but the recipes in this one looked promising. Having read through the 12/08 issue I feel that this one might be worth subscribing to. The articles are interesting, the recipes look to be fairly true to Italian traditions (with some exceptions, but every cooking style evolves over time). There's also a good amount of (free) content including recipes available online. La Cucina Italiana

What is everyone's favorite Italian recipes? I was reading an article in More magazine about writer Ann Hood, who grew up in an Italian family that took pride in their culinary traditions. The article included a few of her family recipes that I am dying to try out- like Gnocchi in tomato sauce, and Polenta with Kale. Any other Italian faves?