Salumi Calabresi – Italian Cured Meats

It was a full day of making soppressata, salsiccia and capocollo on Saturday. It was a regular salumificio around here! Add to that my mamma’s cooking, a little homemade wine and quattro chiacchiare and it equals a good time! In about a month, we’ll be able to taste the fruits of our labor.

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Learning Italian – Italian Language Vacation

Thanks to all my readers and friends for helping me reach 50 Comments on my post, Q&A with ABC Italiano author Sonya Caruso! I ordered the 50 books Tuesday and they arrived today. With the help of Linda, Claudia, Marie and Barbara, I hope to get these books in the right hands and help some [...]

Olive Oil Shop Discount & Giveaway

The giveaways keep on coming on Italyville! I’m still looking to reach 50 comments on my previous post before giving away a copy of ABC Italiano (see below), so if you haven’t commented yet please do… every comment up to 50 comments equals a book to help a child start learning Italian: what are you [...]

Q&A with ABC Italiano author Sonya Caruso

Not too long ago, I received an email in my inbox about ABC Italiano an Italian baby book by Sonya Caruso. I went to the website and immediately thought of my nephew (who is also our godson.) It didn’t take me long to buy a book for him and email the author telling her that [...]

Italian Lentil Soup

The east coast has been been getting hit pretty hard with winter weather recently and with another major storm heading this way, it looks like winter is far from done. (Damn that groundhog!) If you’re looking for a hearty dinner for a cold winter’s night, look no further than this Italian Lentil Soup. It’s quick, [...]

Italian Fruit Juice

Italian kids around the world have grown up with these tiny juice bottles (125ml/4.2 oz) I can remember going to the “bar” with my father and the barista would bring my father an espresso and me a “succo di frutta.” I always asked for it in the bottle because it was fun to drink out [...]

Pasta con Pollo e Funghi

Ever since Linda from Ciao Chow Linda sent me some dried morel mushrooms that her brother found, I’ve been thinking about what to make with them. If you don’t know yet, I’m a huge fan of foraging for wild mushrooms. You can read about some other wild mushroom recipes here and here.

So I [...]

Cucina Povera – Gizzards

When my parents were growing up in Calabria, they didn’t have much and when it came to cooking, nothing went to waste… especially since they grew up in large families (mom is one of 8 and dad is one of 6.) Many of the foods and recipes that they made came with them to the [...]

Curing Black Olives Part II

In my last post on curing black olives I mentioned that I was making them 2 ways: sott’acqua (in a simple brine of salt and water) and al forno (oven dried black olives.) The black olives “sott’acqua” don’t take much maintenance… once you make your brine and drop them in it’s a waiting game. The [...]

San Francisco’s Incanto

I hope everyone is having a great 2010 so far! I recently got back from San Francisco for work and had the pleasure of dinning at a great Italian restaurant called Incanto. What a treat! Owner Mark Pastore and Chef Chris Cosentino have something really special going on the left coast… (for the record, they’re [...]