briciole

Annuncio: una pasta veloce per cena (numero 219)

Announcement: Presto Pasta Nights #219 I have the honor of hosting edition #219 of Presto Pasta Nights, the popular event created by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. Pasta comes in a myriad shapes and it is so versatile that you can make something as simple as pasta al burro e parmigiano and as complex as a pan of lasagne, every component of it homemade. Week after week, Presto Pasta Nights captures snapshots of the countless realizations of pasta dishes by food bloggers around the world. I will be delighted to receive your contribution to this week's edition of Presto Pasta... Read more →

spaghetti col tonno / spaghetti with tuna sauce

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] Spaghetti col tonno is a dish my mother prepared frequently for lunch on Friday and always for dinner on Christmas Eve, la vigilia di Natale. In the context of the Catholic tradition, fare vigilia means to abstain from eating meat the day before a particularly holy day, like Christmas. The inspiration to prepare my rendition of spaghetti col tonno came a number of years ago, when I encountered a special kind of canned tuna: Albacore by Katy’s Smokehouse. Katy’s albacore is hand packed with a little sea salt and nothing else. While... Read more →

tagliatelle con la ricotta (entrambe fatte in casa) / tagliatelle with ricotta (both homemade)

This time of the year, my aunt Lucia would get fresh ricotta from local shepherds, who used the milk from their ewes to make pecorino and then the leftover whey (siero di latte) to make ricotta. It came in the familiar shape of a truncated cone (see an example on this page), snow white and irresistible. The ricotta never had a chance of getting more than a couple of days old. First, we would use it in a beloved pasta dish: spaghetti con la ricotta. Then we would eat it as dessert, with just a bit of sugar on top or... Read more →