Category Archives: Primi/First Courses

This sauce is quick to make and is great comfort food. Gabriella perked right up and decided her father should teach cooking lessons at the camp because she wants to go again next year!

This is a sauce for which you either harvest your own well loved tomatoes or purchase them from a local farmers market. No watery, flavorless tomatoes will do here.

Photo by Joseph De Leo One of my favorite pasta dishes is tortelloni (the square ones, Romagna style) filled with Swiss chard and ricotta.  My fondness for the dish was […]

I sliced the king oyster mushrooms but just cut off the root of the others and used them whole. I sautéed them with olive oil, onions, garlic, and parsley, then cooked the risotto. It was a hit and thoroughly enjoyed by the entire family along with a Morellino di Scansano (for Lael and me, of course).

Usually truffles are eaten very simply. Either shaved over sunny side up eggs or egg pasta. They are often eaten only at special occasions like Christmas and New Year. Some people believe that truffles were the manna sent to the Israelites through Moses as they traveled through the desert for forty years.

We have come to see the Gazzani rice mill. It has been in continuous operation since 1648 and still uses the mortar and pestle method that is found in only one other place in Italy.