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Three-Nut Fingers and The Inaugural Italian Gals Cookie Exchange
A Pop-Up Cookie Event
2014 is the inaugural year of the Italian Gals Christmas Cookie Exchange. One minute Linda, Domenica, Marie and I were gabbing about food (what else?) on Facebook, and the next we were doing what we do best – getting busy in the kitchen. Linda figured out the logistics, and we all baked and packed our goodies for shipment to one another’s homes. Linda sent her spiced Italian Christmas “Brownies.” Domenica tantalized us with Cranberry-Hazelnut Biscotti, a sample from her forthcoming book, Ciao Biscotti.
Marie baked (literally) hundreds of her famous fig-filled, spicy, orange-kissed Cucidati. My Three-Nut Fingers made their way from California to Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia and into the homes of my partners in this project. We had a ball, and a tradition was born. Sweet Mouthfuls! Read the remainder of this entry »
Ricotta-Punch Abruzzo Ice Cream
One of the saddest casualties of the digital age is surely Gourmet magazine. Of course now I am kicking myself for having discarded all my old issues. I know there must be literally thousands of jewels forever lost to me. However, I remembered a recipe for Ricotta Ice Cream that I had seen in the magazine years ago. Thank heavens that recipe made it onto the digital archives. I used it as a starting point for this ice cream, making a few changes, including adding Punch Abruzzo instead of the rum originally called for.
This ice cream is rich, but not heavy, and the bittersweet chocolate is a nice foil for the citrus and sweet fruitcake notes of the Punch Abruzzo. Punch is one of my favorite liqueurs. I write about it and mention it so often, people ask if I work for the company. In case you too are wondering, the answer is no, I do not work for them. I just love the stuff. Read the remainder of this entry »
Brown Butter Hazelnut Madeleines – French cakelets with an Italian Accent
I can hear it now. What’s a French cookie doing in a site devoted to Italian food? Well, the answer is they are good, and I was having a craving, and so I am sharing. Besides, with almond flour from Piemonte and Frangelico, these Madeleines speak with an Italian accent. These small cakelets baked in shell shaped molds have a place of honor in culinary and literary history. They made the city of Comercy famous and Marcel Proust immortalized them in his “episode of the madeleine” in Remembrance of Things Past. Read the remainder of this entry »