This dish is a bit of home on my plate. If you have a garden bursting with zucchini, this is your new best friend and it can be served a variety of ways throughout the week. The recipe isn’t fussy and the ingredient amounts are completely flexible. I’ve never followed a recipe, just watched my…
Category: tradition
Sweet & Spicy Mostarda
Winter in California brings citrus – lemons, oranges, tangerines and limes. This year, I am fortunate to have friends with bountiful backyards and citrus farms that have gifted me with some gorgeous lemons. So, today I shall make mostarda – which is essentially candied fruit with essence of mustard (which a friend brought me from…
Polenta Parmigiano
Last evening I made some tomato soup which, not surprisingly, always ends up more like my spaghetti sauce. So today I was faced with leftover sauce. What should I do? I wasn’t in the mood for traditional pasta and when I hunted through the cupboard I found the makings for rosemary parmesan polenta – a…
How I Experience Rome
Here are some fairly typical things to see when out and about in Rome. One of my favorite things is to just walk wherever my feet take me. Exploring tiny streets, looking in the doorways of neighborhood restaurants and experiencing the sounds of the city. I’m not a big city person, but Rome can become…
Did Someone Say Pecorino?
Many different kinds of Pecorino cheese adorn a shop in San Gimignano in Tuscany.
A Master’s Tools
Decades of tools, handed down from generation to generation outlined on the worktable of master wood carver…
All Roads Lead Up
Caltebellotta, Sicilia is an intriguing place that will steal your heart and your breath.
It’s a Caravaggio!
While in Rome, I looked up and Caravaggio paintings cascaded into my lap.
Get Me to the Church On Time.
Why did the wedding cake cross the road? Traffic stops in Panzano in the Chianti region of Toscana.
Italy....and Me 