Food

Rigatoni & Ceci al Curry

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...

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Traditional Soup with a Side of Charm

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

Healthful Dishes, More Helpful Drugs

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...

Matta per la Cipollata!

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

Christmas means strufoli

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

Holidays on Slice: La Peperonata

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

My cup wonneth over nobody.

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...

For the some who like it hot

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...

Spaghetti all’Arrabbiata

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...

My New Go-to: Avocado, Tomato, and Basil Salad

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...