Marcella Hazan is the chef that taught me how to cook authentic Italian. She was tough and demanded authentic ingredients and no short cuts, but the recipes are timeless and still work today as well as they did 30 years ago. If you want one cookbook on Italian cooking, you can’t go wrong with her classic, “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking”.
Continue reading “Pesto Genovese Inspired by Marcella Hazan”
Gumbo can be made so many different ways and books have been written about the different combinations. However, this Chicken Gumbo is one of my favorite versions as it is smoky and dark. The flavor needs time to develop, so don’t try and rush it. The slower it cooks the better it will be.
Continue reading “Smoky Cajun Chicken and Sausage Gumbo Recipe”
If you’ve ever walked through a Thai night market, you’ve smelled Gai Yang long before you saw it. Marinated with garlic, cilantro root, fish sauce, and pepper, then grilled over charcoal on skewers until smoky and caramelized, it’s one of Thailand’s most beloved street foods—and surprisingly easy to recreate at home.
Continue reading “Gai Yang-Marinated Grilled Chicken- Thai Street Food”
Yes, stocks can be time consuming, but there are so many variations and the quality is vastly better than anything from the market. It is liquid gold indeed.
Continue reading “Homemade Chicken Stock: A Step-by-Step Guide”A roux is the fundamental base for many Continental classic sauces and is essential in Cajun and Creole cooking. It is a wonderful way to thicken a sauce and is easy to make.
Continue reading “Types of Roux: From White to Dark”
This sauce is packed with flavor. The roasted peppers complement the Italian sausage well. I like to use a mix of peppers, but I find that green bell peppers are too bitter, so I omit them.
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These jumbo pasta shells are the kind of comfort food that I really enjoy cooking. It is the kind of food your Nonna would make on Sunday, and it is both comforting and very tasty.
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There are so many options to make your own pizza. I really enjoy my 72 hour cold proof pizza dough, but sometimes I want something faster.
Continue reading “Delicious Pan Pizza with Focaccia Dough”
While this is not traditionally a dish found in restaurants around Italy, I think it’s pretty much synonymous with Italian American cuisine. My approach is to keep it simple and treat it as two dishes combined. Meatballs in a marinara sauce.
There are so many options for meatballs and so many things you can add. This is my basic recipe and feel free to experiment.
Continue reading “Homemade Italian Meatballs in Marinara Sauce”This is a traditional “mezze” dish. Baba Ghanoush is a classic. Mezze are small dishes that can be served for either lunch or dinner and can also be starters for a larger meal.
Continue reading “Traditional Baba Ghanoush- A Roasted Eggplant Mezze”