There comes a time in a home cook's life when she wants to cook a stuffed roast. I know this impulse. Even I fell victim to it one day in a year rather far from here. That happened, in fact, in the days of my youth. At that time, cooking had already made inroads into my…
Christmas
The rice bomb is a flan. And flan, in Italian sformato, is the name we used to call it at home.
It must be said, however, that it is an Emilian rather than a Romagna dish. In fact, each Emilian province has its own version of the recipe. You can find the bomb bolognese, the one from…
I just finished arranging the decorations on the veal with tuna sauce, capers, and fresh parsley leaf when I take a picture and send it to my mom.
The reply is quick.
She write me that I made her think of Christmas. She refers to Christmas lunch, veal with tuna sauce never missed, and many other festive moments.
This…
In Romagna, mulled wine was called vino caldo (warm wine). I use a form in the past tense since only a handful of memories and a few mentions in gastronomic collections of Romagna cuisine, above all dated ones, survive on that drink, which Romagna peasants used to fight winter frost and seasonal ailments. The mulled wine implies…
Rifreddo, galantina, stuffed chicken and capon are classic dishes of Bolognese cuisine. They represent one of the happiest expressions of local home cooking.
The Bolognese table is welcoming in flavor and appealing to the eye.
And recipes, even if rich in character and ingredients, never recall food porn.
On the contrary, the local gastronomic culture doesn't lack a certain…
Cri Cri are chocolate pralines of Piedmontese origin, and if you're wondering what they have to do with me recounting the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna, I'll tell you right now. On January 6 in Italy, we celebrate the Befana, which closes the festivities of the Christmas season. That day, I would wake up early while the house was…
Christmas stuffed pandoro is a preparation that takes me back to the 1980s and 1990s when I was cheerful and carefree in that light-hearted way typical of youth. Since mascarpone was a widely used ingredient in Christmas recipes, what was left over would end up stuffing a pandoro. Sometimes panettone also. In this case, one would empty…
The panpepato, or pampapato, is a skullcap-shaped cake.
Dedicated to the Pope, created in 1580 from an idea of Alfonso II d'Este, the Lord of the city of Ferrara, and still produced both artisanally and commercially.
Made from a mixture of cake flour, honey, bitter cocoa, toasted almonds, a mixture of spices (the composition is…
Loin, tenderloin, and loin with bones are three distinct parts from the same part of the pork. The tenderloin is the part near the thigh, the loin with bones is the part with the ribs, and the loin is the final part of the back of the pig. The pork loin is a lean and valuable cut…
Filled pasta evokes memories of rituals and traditions that belong to my family history. Maybe it is that the Holiday season is coming, or it's the passing of time that is to blame, but I admit, for the past few years since mid-November onward, I have started to make stock pots and tons of fresh stuffed…