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I'm just curious...after boiling pasta in a big pot of water, does any1 keep the water? As in for more than a day or two.

Is it possible to safely save starchy pasta water, the water left over from cooking pasta? I made some cacio e pepe earlier and the residual water left in the skillet was quit starchy. I can think of several instances where that additional water might be useful. Can it be saved in the fridge or the freezer? Any idea for how long?

I can make, by my own admission , perfect sourdough, fantastic baguettes, delicious pizza (even approved by native neapolitans) but I cannot, even after multiple tries, make an acceptable focaccia. Mine always ends up overly dry or too oily. I've tried, as advised by some to use a pizza dough but this ends up too thin and crispy. Others end up as simply like a thin slab of bread. What I am looking for is a soft, delicate but slightly chewy bite with lots of open holes. The focaccia should be lightly but perceptibly oily, nicely salty and with a hints of rosemary or oregano in the topping. The focaccia should also have nice rise and be thick not thin like an unadorned pizza base. So come on egulleteers help me out and let's see those attempts for the perfect focaccia recipe!

i've never made arancini and would appreciate some advice. should i cook the risoto a little firmer than usual? could i make them golf-ball sized? the ones I've seen are the size of a large orange. are these always breaded? thanks

Was checking on gemelli and found a couple of nice sites running down the pasta shapes: http://www.ilovepasta.org/shapes.html http://www.foodsubs.com/PastaShapes.html

Friend in Gillette posted this article about the pizza place they took me when I was passing through. Not all traditional pizza but seriously among the best I've had. I mean Gillette? Really? Always inspiring to see good food off the beaten track. Worth a visit if you are anywhere within a few hours.

Ever seen this cooking technique ? A reference with pictures in italian language. Could'nt find any in english. http://cheprofumino.blogspot.it/2009/02/la-nostra-pizzasenza-forno.html

A friend recently gifted me with a small jar of this incredible Bomba Calabrese. I thought I'd died and gone to spicy heaven. :wub: This particular brand is made by Gigi and is a product of Italy. The ingredients are: eggplant, pepper, hot chili peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, sunflower oil, olive oil, spices and salt. It is also not in chunks or pieces, but is easily spreadable. I found a few recipes for Bomba Calabrese online, but would like to try one that someone from eG recommends if possible. Barring that, I will make one of the found recipes and blenderize it perhaps. And also try to locate the product locally. I've contacted the distributor but not heard back yet. Thanks for any help.

When grandmum made Cappelletti last christmas i took some pics , so i can share this tutorial. Cappelletti are pillows of pasta stuffed with bread, parmesan and stracotto juice, cooked in a chicken broth soup. So what is Stracotto: its just a Pot Roast made from some tough and unexpensive beef cut, simmered for a long time, 6 to 10 hours depending on the cut you choose and your willingness of making the ultimate sacrifice driyng your meat in order to get the best roast juice vs having a proper and tender pot roast on your table.

Makes 40 cookies, 2 loaves. 50-60 g very aromatic olive oil 80 g honey 120 to 150 g sugar (I use 120 because I like it only gently sweet) 2 eggs 2 teaspoons of fine lemon zest, from apx 1 lemon 230 g flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 75 g lightly toasted peeled pistachios 50 g lightly toasted almonds (you can replace some with pine nuts) Optional: a little rosemary or anise seed Optional: more olive oil for brushing Heat oven to 170 deg C. In mixer (or by hand), mix oil, honey, sugar, lemon, egg and if desired, the optional spices - until uniform. Separately mix together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add flour mixture to mixer bowel with liquids and fold until uniform. Dough will be sticky and quite stiff. Don't knead or over mix. Add nuts and fold until well dispersed. On a parchment lined baking tray, create two even loaves of dough. With moist hands, shape each to be rectangular and somewhat flat - apx 2cm heigh, 6cm wide and 25cm long. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until golden and baked throughout, yet somewhat soft and sliceable. Rotate pan if needed for even baking. Remove from tray and let chill slightly or completely. Using a sharp serrated knife, gently slice to thin 1/2 cm thick cookies. Each loaf should yield 20 slices. Lay slices on tray and bake for 10 minutes. Flip and bake for another 10-15 minutes until complelty dry and lightly golden. Brush with extra olive oil, if desired. This will and more olive flavor. Let chill completely before removing from tray. Cookies keep well in a closed container and are best served with desert wines or herbal tea.

Steve Sando had a nice write up in the Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/dining/marcella-hazan-rancho-gordo-beans.html?ref=dining According to FedEx tracking my Marcella beans (and others) are due to arrive tomorrow.

Hi there Italian chefs around the world - Two years ago (while visiting my family in New York - we live for 25 years in California)) we went to New York and ate in an Italian Restaurant in Syosset Long Island, New York (Steve's Piccola Bussola) and ordered their Chicken Cacciatore. It was unbelievable, so savory and tender and juice and it had 4 lean and juicy (no skin, no fat, no gristle) rollups wrapped around what looked like a small (about 1-2" rib bone) (in chicken???_ was able to get some of the recipe because I called them 2x, but after 5 tries at various times, I am giving up. He (the chef) said they used thighs - but the thighs I know are fatty and tough so I don't know where they got it. He said they buy the whole chickens and cut it up, so I guess they can get rid of the fat,skin and gristle that way. One, because I am never able to get their dark brown sauce (don't know how they do it because having a brown sauce by working with chicken, mushrooms, wine and onions is an enigma. Their sauce is not sweet, or sour just rich and savory. I saw the kind of sauce that it was when I saw the recipe of Hubert Keller's Beef Borguignon on TV, but it looked soooo difficult and was made with meat, not chicken. That has meat rollups sitting in a dark brown sauce. Help! I want to learn how to make that. The initial recipe that they gave me was this: Take chicken and cut it into pieces the size of a meatball with or without the bone. Take olive oil and make very hot. Brown. Add 2 cups chicken stock, salt and pepper, parsley, and simmer for ½ hour. After brown, put until broiler and brown some more. In another skillet, put mushrooms, onions, little tomato sauce, and when sizzling and hot, add white wine (or Marsala) and cook in pan – ½ hour. Add butter to thicken – but do not boil after butter melts Said I can also put a little tomato sauce in there - maybe it was tomato paste. After ready, marry the two and cook another 15 minutes all together (or not) – just eat it. Below is a photo of Steve's Chicken Cacciatore - I know it looks like beef, but this is chicken!

Just found out that a member of eGullet, @Cia has begun to post his short videos on Italian culinary culture on YouTube. Only one to date but I know there are more in the pipeline. While made by an Italian based in Italy the narrative is in English. Here's the first instalment:

I am led to believe that World Pasta Day 2016 is to be on Tuesday, October 25 this year. So, with this in mind, what are the eG cooks planning on "cooking up" in celebrating the day? I will start the ball rolling. I am going to make my standard egg yoke pasta sheets, rolled out on my now seldom-used manual pasta machine and use them in making lasagna, using my old and reliable bolognese sauce recipe layered with béchamel sauce and a sprinkle of grated Parmesan. And with the left-over egg whites I will make a few meringue bases for portioned pavlova - Spring is here in the Southern Hemisphere and berries and fruit are starting to appear in the shops!

Ciao! I'm Christine and I'm a born and bred New Yorker. I’m an Italian by blood (and at heart, of course) since my parents actually came from Italy. My father was from Sciacca, Sicily while my mother was from Sondrio, Lombardy. Despite coming from different regions, or because of it, love for food and cooking has been one of the mainstays in my family home life growing up. And I’ve always loved the dishes my parents prepared during special occasions, and even on regular days. And of course, I love cooking (and eating) Italian food and I have a few recipes from my mother, but I'd really love to collect some more, especially the traditional ones. And if anyone can contribute some historical background to each dish, that would be really great. Grazie mille!

Hi. I'm brand new to this site. I used to be on Chowhound but I see now that that site is a mess. I found this site and it looks pretty cool. The main reason I joined is I’m looking for recommendations for a restaurant to hold my wedding in March 2018. We were hoping maybe in Brooklyn but we are open to anything interesting. There will be 55-60 people and the ceremony will also be at the restaurant. I’m thinking of a brunch/early afternoon affair, most likely on a weekend. Would love to find a funky/old school/unique/charming type of place for my sweetheart. Inexpensive please! Thank you in advance!

Hi. I'm brand new to this site. I used to be on Chowhound but I see now that that site is a mess. I found this site and it looks pretty cool. The main reason I joined is I’m looking for recommendations for a restaurant to hold my wedding in March 2018. We were hoping maybe in Brooklyn but we are open to anything interesting. There will be 55-60 people and the ceremony will also be at the restaurant. I’m thinking of a brunch/early afternoon affair, most likely on a weekend. Would love to find a funky/old school/unique/charming type of place for my sweetheart. Inexpensive please! Thank you in advance!

This may not mean much to non-British members, but I'm sad to read this morning of the passing of Antonio Carluccio, the only "celebrity chef" I ever met and spoke with. Many years ago, I was standing outside his beautiful Italian deli in the northern fringes of Covent Garden, London admiring the wonderful fresh wild mushrooms on sale which were displayed by the open door and regretting that I couldn't afford them that day. As I was doing so, the man himself came out and stopped to chat with me. He was large of body and heart. At that time he was known mainly from his books and for his passion for (the then unfashionable) mushroom foraging, only later becoming a television star, too. Here are a few links. One to an obituary, one to a personal memoir from food writer Matthew Fort and one to a Q+A session with the maestro.

My newest cookbook is and I've been cooking from it lately for the past week or so. I absolutely adore it, and the restaurant on which its based. (The seats however, are another story, but that's a minor quibble.) Anyone want to come along for the ride? (the last two pix are dishes at the restaurant, and recipes for those can be found in the book)

What is the difference between these two? Apparently, Bucatini is in short supply because some wackos think they make great straws! 😯 Then "Big Pasta" got US Customs to block the importation of one brand because they didn't add enough "iron" to their pasta to be legal for importation from Italy! 😲 Looking for some good pasta, I came across Colavita in these two styles as I don't want flat pasta or one of the other shapes. It looks like these names are used interchangeably but, they are different pasta shapes. How are these different from each other? Is the hole size different? Is one thicker than the other? In the $2~$3 per pound range, where do I get good "dry" pasta? What brands and shops are the better ones to shop at? Amazon can hook me up with 20 pounds of Colavita for a reasonable price in today's inflated market but, other brands and sources might be a better option. I am looking for quality pasta, not cheap mass-market pasta from the local grocery store that carries bland mushy Skinner and American Beauty. TIA, Sid

I have been making pancetta for the first time. I have experience with the curing process doing things like bacon and cold smoked salmon in the past but this is the first time I have ever hanged anything. After a week of curing it has had 11 days hanging so far (I was planning on taking it to 28 days hanging) Although I foolishly forgot to weigh it. It smells really good like some awesome salami and the outer rim of the pancetta looks lovely and rich and dark. It was a recipe by Kuhlman in one of their charcuterie books. But when I inspected it today it had the mould growing on it as in the pics below. I have since scrubbed the mould off with white wine vinegar and returned it to the cellar. Is it wise to continue? Daniel

The Modernist Cuisine team is currently traveling the globe to research pizza and different pizza styles for our next book Modernist Pizza. Nathan and the team will be in São Paulo and Buenos Aires soon. We'd love hear from the eGullet community—what pizzerias should they visit while they're there? You can read more about our next book Modernist Pizza here. Thanks in advance, everyone!

My article was published (my first one!)! Hooray! And I do have some Florentine restaurant recommendations including the new Osteria del Pavone which is amazing--lampredotto ravioli is now a thing and it must be tried. http://www.classicchicagomagazine.com/florence-in-winter/

I'll be in Naples for a few days next month and I wanted to try something traditional, and my friend recommended trying parmigiana. She said she loved it, but the problem is that she ate it at her Italian friend's house, and I won't be able to have that exact parmigiana. So, I did some research online and found a few restaurants that have good ratings and are serving allegedly great eggplant casserole. This place is 4 stars rated, but people seem not to agree whether the parmigiana is good or not.... On the other hand, this place has a great rating, appears when searching for the parmigiana, but nobody seems to write about it in their reviews. Finally, this one is said to have the best parmigiana in Naples (or in the world, for that matter), and I wanted to know if anyone had the so-called world's best? I would really appreciate if you could help me make the decision. Looking forward to your advice!

I found this article about arancino/arancina really interesting