In 1850, pizza was the unsanitary street food of the Napoli slums.  Today every region of Italy has its own style of pizza ... and each region thinks they have the best, of course!  Rome even has two styles.

The pizza above was the first we had in Rome.  We had it, believe it or not, at a kosher pizzaria ... which had been recommended to us not because of being Kosher, but simply as one of the best pizzarias in the city.  Yovata, in the Jewish Ghetto.  Since we were eating in the Jewish Ghetto, it made sense to order pizza with a classic Jewish topping: artichoke hearts.  This pizza was soft and chewy, with generous amounts of mozzarella.

Continue reading "Pizza Romana"

I recently won the Pacific Wine Club's "Cooking With Wine" recipe contest.  My submission was an original recipe of "Smoked Steelhead and Mushroom Risotto", which you'll now have to get the PWC newsletter to read.

If you're coming here from that newsletter, welcome!  I don't post that frequently these days, due to working way too hard, but there's a pretty hefty post archive and the bulletin board has a lot of very friendly, very gourmet, people on it.

Other than that, I thought I'd take this chance to give you some tips on how to cook with wine.  Click "more" to read the tips.

Continue reading "Cooking with Wine"

When I was in Wellington recently, I found out that they have their own names for espresso drinks.  I don't know why I was surprised; it seems that, while espresso machines have conquered the world, how you order and what you get vary pretty significantly depending on where you are.  Here's what you'll get, depending on where you order it.

"A coffee"

• Starbucks: 12 to 20oz of drip coffee.
• Rome: 1oz to 1.5 oz of intense espresso.
• Wellington: a blank look.  "What kind of coffee?"

Continue reading "Coffee Three Ways"

Title: The Arab Table

Author: May S. Bsisu

Number of Recipes: more than 150

Recipe Breadth: 4.5

Recipe Quality (of those tested): 4

Extra Information: 4

Style: 4

Non-Meat Recipes: more than 50%

Overall Rating: 4.5

Category: cookbook, ethnic food

Availability: Used

Continue reading "The Arab Table: book review"

A year ago Trader Joe's stopped carrying their Roasted Garlic Oil.  I was distraught; I'd used that pungent oil for several years to accent foods with garlic, when raw garlic was too strong.  Salad dressings, crostini, scrambled eggs, soups ... now what to do?  I thought of buying some at my local grocer's, but there it was $9 for 6oz.

As it turns out, it's very easy to make your own roasted garlic olive oil, and I've been doing it since then ... (continue for recipe)

Continue reading "Make Your Own Garlic Olive Oil"