While fresh corn on the cob is bountiful in markets, this is a great way to enjoy it. This risotto is delicious with just the shrimp and fresh cherry tomatoes if you don’t live where fresh corn is in season. Heck, you can even eliminate the cherry tomatoes and make it a strictly shrimp risotto. I prefer to use yellow corn, rather than white, since it adds a prettier contrast to the rice. But markets here in New Jersey seem to have decided everyone wants white corn, and it’s unfortunately difficult to find the yellow, so I have to be content with white most of the time. I used shrimp from the ..read more

When I’m in Italy, pistachio gelato is one of my top favorites. It looks nothing at all like the fake-green pistachio ice cream you get in the U.S, but it is a more muted green or even beige-y colored. The pistachio gelato in the photo (or ice cream if you want to call it that) was made with no artificial coloring or flavoring, but was made using  a jar of pistachio paste I brought back from a recent trip to Sicily. If Italy isn’t in your immediate travel plans, you can buy pistachio paste online from many sources, although I can’t vouch for any particular brand. Just make sure you buy p ..read more

Almonds, pistachios and tomatoes are ubiquitous in Sicily, so it’s no wonder that recipes abound using these ingredients. This pasta dish was the primo piatto we made and enjoyed in the cooking class we attended in Palermo in April, at the beautiful palace home of Duchess Nicoletta and Duke Gioacchino Lanza Tamasi, (sadly, he died May 10, 2023). I brought back some Sicilian pistachios (the town of Bronte is known for its prized pistachios) and I put them to good use making this pesto. I bought some really wonderful sun-dried tomatoes in Philadelphia’s Italian Market that were soaked in olive ..read more

Erice is a hilltop, medieval town in Sicily with narrow cobblestone streets, a Norman castle and a fabulous bakery called Maria Grammatico. The eponymous bakery has plentiful Sicilian treats including these pastries known as “Genovese.” While staying in Erice last month, I was perplexed by the name of the pastry, which refers to the town of Genoa, nowhere near Sicily. After returning home, I found a couple of explanations in La Cucina Italiana : “The name of this delicacy – which is not at all Sicilian – probably comes from its shape, which resembles the cap of Genoese sailors who stopped at t ..read more

On my recent trip to Sicily, I had the good fortune to cook with literary nobility. Let me explain. The above recipe from the cooking session appears at the end, so if you’re here just for the food, skip to the bottom of this post. But then you’d miss learning about a slice of Sicilian history. One of my all-time favorite books is “The Leopard” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. I first read it in Italian (“Il Gatttopardo”) more than 30 years ago, and have read it in English twice since. It’s a masterpiece of literature and considered one of the 100 greatest books ever written, chronicling ..read more

I’m just back from Sicily where I ate fish almost every day (sometimes twice a day) but I also indulged in too many pastas, prosciutto and pastries. The scale doesn’t lie and it told me I gained six pounds in the three weeks I was gone. The older I get, it seems the harder it is to lose weight, despite all the walking I did on my trip — most days at least 12,000 steps and one day even 21,000 steps (or 7 miles)! It’s all about what goes in the mouth, and I’m paying for it now, but I don’t regret one cannolo or plate of busiate. But I need to do a detox or I’ll look like a cannolo myself. This ..read more

Spring is finally here and that means a return to all the leafy green vegetables associated with the changing season — including spinach. This recipe takes the humble spinach up a few notches, and would make the perfect first course to your Easter or Passover meal. Plus it can be made ahead of time (actually it’s easier to unmold if you do make it ahead of time). I used two boxes of frozen spinach, but you could substitute fresh spinach if you prefer. The sformati get baked in small ramekins in a bain marie (water bath) to ensure even cooking. This recipe makes anywhere from six to eight ser ..read more

Whenever I’m in London (where my daughter and her family live), I try to get to one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s restaurants, which are scattered throughout the city. On my most recent visit a few weeks ago, we ate lunch at his Marylebone location — a fun neighborhood not just for eating, but for good shopping too and home to the fabulous Wallace Collection. It was a cold March day and this soup, with warm spices and topped with feta cheese, was the perfect antidote to the chill outside. I tried recreating it at home, but couldn’t find the exact recipe in any of his cookbooks. So I searched a bunch ..read more

I served this stew to my book club during the monthly dinner we hold in conjunction with our book selection. We try to prepare food that has a connection to the book, and in this case, it was Amor Towles, “A Gentleman In Moscow.” It’s a book that I’ve read twice now, and could read it again and again, for its witty, elegant style and its urbane central character, a Russian count who is confined by the Bolsheviks in Moscow’s famed Metropol Hotel, and is relegated to a tiny garret from his opulent suite. The book is filled with myriad references to food and wine, as well as history, music, poli ..read more

These enticing little bundles of goodness are plin, sometimes called agnolotti del plin — a filled pasta from the Piedmont region of Italy that I ate plenty of when I visited there this fall. It’s pronounced “pleen” and the name originates from the Piemontese dialect word for “pinch,” which is what you need to do to shape this pasta. There are many variations for the filling, but the traditional ones contain a variety of ground meats, cabbage and parmesan cheese. I wasn’t so ambitious to start cooking two or three roasts from scratch, but after making chicken soup, I froze some of the leftove ..read more