I was in San Francisco in 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 can […]
Category: Broths and Soups
This is a wonderful, hearty soup that makes a perfect meal. As it happens, it’s also a vegan recipe. It’s best to start preparing this dish at least one day in advance, because the flavors blend beautifully once you refrigerate it and then re-heat it. I always start by cooking dried cannellini beans, which requires […]
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 […]
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 are […]
Vinaigrette Do you like a slightly-sweet vinaigrette with your salads? I do, and often I have used a bit of honey as one of the ingredients in my oil and vinegar salad dressings. Now I have a new favorite – a grape-reduction vinaigrette that has become one of the staples in my pantry. I never […]
I like to use homemade broths for all of my soup and risotto recipes. My wife, Betti, makes the broth in our household, and she always keeps fresh or frozen broth in the kitchen. Here’s her recipe for a simple vegetable broth. Ingredients 2 potatoes 2 onions 2 leeks 2 celery stalks 2 carrots 2 […]
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 […]
