Tag Archives: Italian

Recipe: Fried Calamari with Three Kinds of Peppers

  Three Vines Bistro, an establishment in my town, makes a superb fried calamari with three kinds of peppers: cherry, jalapeño and banana. I didn’t have banana peppers so I substituted some sliced pepperoncini. They were fine but the hot … Continue reading →

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Recipe: Giardiniera

Our giardiniera recipe has a perfect balance of tart/salty/a bit of sweet, so please do not change the ratios of vinegar, sugar and salt unless you want to experiment. We were inspired by some aggressive giardiniera at Palm City Wines … Continue reading →

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Ugly giardiniera

David Chang’s Ugly Delicious series on Netflix was about foods from a variety of cultures that are enjoyed for taste, not looks…. a poke in the eye to the Instagram crowd. We will put our current giardiniera explorations in that … Continue reading →

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Recipe: Best Way Eggplant Parm

Best Way Eggplant Parm uses a flour-and-egg wash when cooking the eggplant slices. This creates a barrier to keep the slices from absorbing excessive oil, plus it provides another layer of flavor that’s similar to breadcrumbs but without the grease. … Continue reading →

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Recipe: Best Way Pesto

Best Way Pesto starts with a mortar and pestle, finishes in a food processor. This creates maximum flavor because the plant cells are broken down through pounding, then chopped into an even consistency which we found was not possible without … Continue reading →

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Recipe: Restaurant-Style Italian Dressing from scratch

There’s a reason your home-made Italian dressing is not as good as the savory stuff in your favorite red sauce place. Restaurant-style Italian dressing has two secrets, one in the ingredients and the other in the technique, and we reveal … Continue reading →

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Recipe: Polpette (Big Italian Meatballs)

Polpette are the big nicely-spiced meatballs found in Italian-American pasta dishes (they are apparently not found in Italy itself, where the meatballs are much smaller) and in meatball subs. When researching this polpette recipe we came across the wonderful Nonna’s … Continue reading →

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Recipe: Italian Seafood Salad

This Italian Seafood Salad, or Insalata di Mare, was inspired by Philip Nicolas on the  Cook’s Cooks Community Forum on Facebook. It’s great if you have fresh seafood, but it’s nearly as good made with frozen because of the other … Continue reading →

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Recipe: Utica-Style Tomato Pie

Utica-Style Tomato Pie is a gooey, unctuous treat made with lots of tomatoes and very little cheese; it is traditionally served at room temperature. We started with the Sal Detraglia recipe but did a lot of tinkering to get the … Continue reading →

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Recipe: Garlic Bread

Our garlic bread is Texan, not Upstate Italian, in provenance. It’s what our mother made to serve with spaghetti or maybe a chicken in tomato sauce. It’s super easy and uses materials you probably have on hand… just what’s needed … Continue reading →

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