Category Archives: Vegetables

Fresh fava beans, also known as broad beans, are in season in May and June. They are delicious raw, dipped in sea salt, or cooked.

Italian Pasta Sauce cooking class video by Giuliano Hazan. It includes the recipes for Linguine with a Pink Shrimp Sauce, Penne with Sausage and Ricotta, and an Orange, Cucumber, and Red Radish Salad.

Fortunately, though not the same as fresh, dried porcini mushrooms can deliver a rich porcini flavor. One of our favorite ways to use them is in a risotto. It is important to use very good quality dried porcini so we always used to pack some in our luggage when we returned from Italy. Just recently, we have started importing one of the best brands available in Italy, which, together with an extraordinary Carnaroli rice we also import from Italy, make an incomparable risotto.

The Marcella bean has gotten great press, including a feature in the New York Times. In our house we prepare them in multiple ways, and Giuliano often uses them in recipes that he teaches to our students. Perhaps my favorite preparation is the first way I remember Marcella serving beans. Simple and delicious, so that the flavor of the bean was the center of the dish, the recipe, known as Assunta’s Beans came out of Victor’s request to eat a dish they had not tasted in 45 years.

Puntarelle is also the name of the traditional preparation, a salad that is famous from Rome. It is a rich tasting, beautiful salad that will have you and your family and friends transported back to the eternal city of Rome. A dish fit for Caesar himself.

Fresh tuna, a bland, almost neutral-tasting meat can’t compare with the irresistible flavor of good Mediterranean tuna packed in olive oil.

We prepared them simply, boiled with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil and a dash of truffle salt. They were delicious and tender, I looked at Giuliano and said,“ It’s a pity that potatoes don’t get more respect”. I know I will never take a potato for granted again.

Cooking barley is just like rice, yet the grain has a nutty flavor that gives depth to the dish. Add the tomato, parsley and onion to the dish and you are set with an easily transportable dish that all will enjoy.

A wonderful way of preparing endive is to grill it, which gives it a deep, nutty flavor and sweetens it. Last week Giuliano grilled some and the children liked it so much it was gone in an instant.