Recipes

Monica’s Ricotta Mousse If you tried last month’s homemade ricotta recipe and have been looking for something to make with your fresh ricotta recipe, you might enjoy this light and versatile dessert from Monica Malpezzi Price: This is an excellent… Read full article

Parmigiano-Reggiano Cocktail Wafers Our recipe this month comes from Nancy Radke, President of Ciao, Ltd. Nancy has the enviable job of promoting Italy’s Parmesan cheese throughout the U.S. for the cheese makers’ consortium – il Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano. Nancy… Read full article

Dulce Argentino In this recipe, dulce de leche is made using sweetened condensed milk, but it can also be made from scratch or bought already prepared. A couple popular brands of dulce de leche available in Argentina are La Serenísima… Read full article

Homemade Ricotta Cheese: So Easy a Child Could Do It  If, like me, you’ve always assumed that making your own cheese is too arcane for normal folks, you should find this recipe pleasantly surprising.  It turns out that cheese-making, like… Read full article

Ratatouille – A Provençal Specialty   On the Italian side, when I was growing up in the 50’s and early 60’s, my aunt’s family at the farm used to cook the vegetables with pieces of pancetta or fresh bacon and… Read full article

Zucchini e melanzane sott’olio’ or "eggplant and zucchini marinated in olive oil" Eggplant: Use the fatter or rounder eggplants, and cut into slices about 1 inch thick. Salt them and drain them for at least half an hour. Wash the… Read full article

Renaissance Cuisine in France and Italy Italy’s Tuscany and France’s Loire Valley don’t have much in common as far as geography or climate are concerned, but they share a special place in the history of the European Renaissance. From Florence,… Read full article

Peperonata or Pepper Stew Here is a dish that is now found in every Italian region, but especially in those where sweet red and yellow peppers grow throughout the summer, like in Southern Italy and Sicily. Peperonata is a good… Read full article

Pear Clafouti Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything (Wiley, 1998). Comice Pears – the “Christmas Pear” – Unite Oregon and France Our recipe this month features the delicious comice (say "co-meese") pear from the Loire Valley of France, which readily… Read full article

Gnocchi Alla Romana Gnocco is a fun word. The first syllable is pronounced like a Spanish ñ in señor. The word means ‘a stupid person’ in colloquial Italian and in my region’s (Emilia Romagna’s) dialect it means ‘a blow,’ usually… Read full article

Sommerkylling, or Summer Chicken A delicious entree submitted by Per Schelde, ExperiencePlus! Tour Leader for Denmark. Ingredients (Serves 4 people) 1 5-7 lb chicken, preferably free range 1 stick unsalted butter 1 cup whole cream 1 ½ cups chicken stock-preferably… Read full article

Mushroom Soup or Zuppa di Funghi or Soupe aux Champignons As Paola says in her accompanying article on the tenuous connections between Tuscany and the Loire Valley, the two regions are quite different. But one thing they do have in… Read full article

Spanokopita or Greek Spinach Pie (Makes four servings) A few weeks ago I was at a potluck lunch with some colleagues from my university department and the hostess had baked this wonderful dish that was everybody’s favorite. Though this version… Read full article

Kolokithokeftethes Greek Zucchini Patties This month’s recipe comes to us from Greek tour leader (and olive grower) Yorgos Paraskevopoulos.  It’s a traditional holiday food you’ll see throughout Greece and Turkey.    This time of year zucchini squash can be found in… Read full article

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread       With the coming of Fall and cooler temperatures, I start making my own bread in order to warm my soul (and stomach) with freshly-baked bread and the house with heat from more… Read full article