While I was hanging with the family in Tuscany, a kitchen renovation was underway back at the house in Fossacesia. That's where I headed...

This unusual and simple pasta dish is one of my favorites. There’s a bit of Moorish influence in the Italian kitchen, and the Abruzzo...

Dense, flavorful, and comforting sagnette e fagioli is the Abruzzo region’s take on the better-known pasta e fagioli (or pasta fazul in...

After my night in Rome, I headed to Fossacesia. As I wrote in my last post, I’d arrived in Italy feeling pretty crummy. By the time I got...

I love homely contadino food. Always have. Show me a garlicky tomato sauce or thick bean soup or almost any mashup of humble ingredients...

Most of us have favorite foods from childhood —and particularly from childhood holidays — whose deliciousness probably is more about the...

In Lancianese cooking, one of the esteemed cuisines near me, peppers both hot and sweet figure heavily. This dish is made of the sweet...

Coffee is, of course, a serious thing in Italy. And it’s all about quality versus quantity. Those espressos are one mouthful, but it’s a...

The Abruzzese palate has a high tolerance for heat. At local restaurants, meals often are served with a dish of hot pepper on the side so...

A lotta Americans gotta gotta gotta have arrabbiata when they’re in Italy. I’m one of them. A good arrabbiata is very possibly my...

This last August, the heat wave across central Italy was intense. One evening toward the end of my stay, when my fresh blow-out from the...