I was writing a post about salads and before I knew it, I was off on a tangent about olive oil. While writing this I haven’t been able to think of a single truly Sicilian salad that does not contain oil, so it seemed to be putting the cart before the horse to talk about …
Purpetti. I wanted to begin this article with the English word, but there isn’t one. I guess I could have said meatballs. I could have said patties. I could have said rissoles (god love the British for making good food sound bad). But none of those words really get at what a purpetta is. I’ve …
Continue reading Lemon Meatballs | Purpetti i limuni | Polpette di carne al limone
Cauliflower is a funny thing. Many people claim to hate it and yet when it’s cooked properly I have yet to have anyone refuse to eat it. It’s available year-round nearly everywhere and it appears almost universally in the world’s cuisines. Even so, when I cook it, I get excited about it - maybe because …
Continue reading Pasta cu vruòcculi ‘rriminati – Pasta with Cauliflower
In the few reliable English-language Sicilian cookbooks, wild fennel plays an outsized, borderline mythic role. It’s understandable why: it’s fleeting and found only in certain places. Among the diaspora it’s a big deal, because a) it has an absolutely unique flavor b) it’s tied to arguably the most iconic dish in the Sicilian canon (bucatini …
Continue reading Wild fennel fritters – Sfingi i finocchiu sarbàggiu
Cooking is the one thread that runs throughout my life. I’ve had a lot of jobs, I’ve been a lot of places, some might say I’ve even been a few different people. But cooking is just about the only thing I’ve been able to pick up and take with me over the last twenty years. …
In Sicily, autumn is slow to make its presence known. Even as squashes appear in the markets and borage appears in the fields, the sea is still warm and beach days are common. Not in Germany. I came back from a trip to Vegas on one of the first days of September and was more …
Recipes are important, there’s no doubt about it. But at the end of the day a recipe is a reflection of an idea and a technique. All cooking involves a certain amount of judgement as do nearly all measuring techniques. More to the point, every measuring technique has its faults, even weighing in grams. How …
Mussels – people love ‘em or they hate ‘em. In my experience, there’s a direct correlation between the two previously mentioned groups and people who grew up near the ocean and people who didn’t. Mussels don’t last. They don’t freeze beautifully. They look seriously weird before they are cleaned. But there is nothing quite as …
Continue reading Pasta with Mussels & tomato | Spaghetti ca cozzuli in rossu
Cheese has a fundamental role in Sicilian cooking. Pasta & rice dishes mostly include cheese. Stuffings (and we love stuffing things) nearly always feature at least one cheese. And of course, we just eat cheese, as a snack, an antipasto, a contorno, in a salad, or as a course all on its own – maybe …
Let’s define frittata, and please, please, just pretend you don’t know anything about a frittata as you read this. It seems like every time the topic of frittata comes up (which is strangely often in my world) someone says something definitive about frittata that is just plain wrong (at least within the context of the …