passatelli with parmigiano cream & balsamic vinegar

passatelli

A pasta made from breadcrumbs?  Umm, yep!  When I was preparing this, Mr. S was dubious but one bite and all doubts were erased. Passatelli hails from Italy’s Emilia Romagna region. This frugal traditional Italian dish is made with stale bread, Parmigiano Reggiano, eggs, and lemon zest. TweetFacebookLinkedInTumblrStumbleDiggDelicious

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pasta with olive sauce and pangrattato

pasta with olive sauce

As a kid and for that matter a young adult, I despised olives!  To me, they just tasted like salt with a whole lot of bitterness.  That food memory stayed with me for a very long time.  It was only 20 years ago that I began to enjoy these fruits.  My first bite was a…

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pesto trapanese (pesto with almonds & tomatoes)

pesto trapanese

Pesto is such a versatile sauce and although perfectly suited for pasta, it’s also delicious with meat, vegetables or fish.  For more uses click here.  It also reminds me of summer which is a good thing as this winter seems to be unending and it’s only the middle of February!  But I digress.  Most are…

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tortellini bolognese soup

tortellini bolognese soup

Do you own a cookbook and if so, what was the first one you bought or were given?  The first one I purchased was the Fannie Farmer back in 1980 before I was married.  My paternal grandmother gave me The Joy of Cooking as a shower gift for my wedding.  Another I cherish is the…

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italian tonnato sauce

tonnato sauce

Well hello, 2020!  It’s taken me to the middle of this month to finally post something.  This is my fourteenth year with this food blog and lately, I have been wondering if I should stop.  And then I find a dish that reignites the foodie in me and my love for sharing recipes.  I started…

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sicilian doughnuts – light & fluffy!

Sicilian doughnuts

My paternal grandmother was the queen of doughnuts!  Hers was the precursor to what Canadian’s lovingly call timbits.  The only part of a doughnut my grandfather liked was the hole left behind from the doughnut cutter.  I can’t recall if he felt it was too much to eat a whole doughnut or he just preferred…

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stracciatella soup (italian egg drop soup)

stracciatella - Italian egg drop soup

No muss, no fuss. This soup is one of the easiest you’ll ever make and with minimal ingredients.  What’s more, you can have it ready to serve in less than 15 minutes!  Egg drop soup is a favorite in Rome and in central Italy.  Stracciatella refers to the shredding of the eggs into little rags…

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strangolapreti (bread gnocchi with spinach)

strangolatreti (bread gnocchi with spinach & Parmesan)

I enjoy reading where things originate and even more, the meaning behind it. If you’ve ever eaten light, puffy pillows of gnocchi, you’ll be surprised to learn (or at least I was) to find out that gnocchi can also be made with stale breadcrumbs. Strangolapreti is a traditional dish in the Trento area of northern…

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prosciutto and cabbage frittata

prosciutto cabbage frittata - foolproof meal

If you mention the word cabbage to your carnivore friends, the most likely response will come in the form of a scrunched up nose as they take a step backwards.  But, tell them it’s encased in a prosciutto base with Parmesan cheese and suddenly you’re all buddy-buddy with them.  This dish I am about to…

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fresh mozzarella, sweet cherry peppers and arugula pie

pizza made with no-knead dough

Flatbreads have been consumed by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks.  The humble pizza/pie (an expanded version of a flatbread), became popular in the USA in the mid-1900s when the Neapolitans came over for factory jobs.  According to history.com, the first documented pizzeria was Lombardi’s in Manhattan, licensed to sell pizza in 1905 and is…

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