Basic Tomato Sauce (for 4 – 6 people) I use a basic tomato sauce as the basis for many recipes. Whether you want to make a lasagna, an eggplant parmigiana, or a fast pasta for a group of hungry kids, use this recipe. It literally takes less than 10 minutes to prepare, especially if you […]
Category: Broths and Soups
My wife Betti makes all of the broths we use in our recipes. We always have a store of frozen chicken, vegetable, and meat broths available because the flavor of these home-made broths is much richer and more intense than that of packaged broths. If you have to buy a broth, look for an organic […]
How to Make Fish Stock Use only fish from the sea, not from rivers and lakes. You can use anything you like. For example, you can use 1 pound of sardines and/or fish heads (say salmon, grouper, Mahi Mahi, shirimp, or the “skin” of the shrimp. Always use some, say 10 or so mussels or […]

Although many recipes are very good when you use store-bought canned tomatoes (like Pomì), they reach the next level of excellence when you can use tomatoes you have canned yourself. My wife and I discovered this when we lived in the Chicago area, and found many varieties of beautiful heirloom tomatoes at a local farmer’s […]

I was in San Francisco at a famous Italian restaurant many years ago and saw a menu item called Cioppino. I had never heard of it. Out of curiosity I ordered it. It was a variation of a classic Southern Italian fish soup in a tomato base, but they had put too much tomato! You […]

This evening, I made the “pappa al pomodoro”, a simple, wonderful Italian soup that my mother used to make. It’s made with stale bread, tomatoes, basil and vegetable broth. It was great! For some reason, in the U.S., I have never seen this delicious meal in any Italian restaurant. Actually, unless I go to Florence, I cannot […]