Three ingredients at their summer best, brought together with basil and a very simple balsamic dressing create this wonderful Tomato, Beet and Burrata Salad. The tomatoes that set all of this in motion came from our friends Amy and Richard and their daughter Camille, who…

A Northern Italian asparagus lasagna with salmon, shrimp, and lemon béchamel—and the Umbrian family table that changed how I’ve eaten ever since. An Italian Family Table in Assisi Taught Me That Meals Matter We had barely landed in Rome when all twenty-eight of us in…

Eggplant Parmigiano. Eggplant Parmigiano is a dish that behaves like a side but eats like a main—vegetarian, generous, deeply satisfying, and completely uninterested in being “lightened” into submission. This is Italian cooking at its most honest: fried slices layered with tomato, basil, and just enough…

THIS IS THE WORLD’S BEST LASAGNA. A symbol of Italian cuisine, this layering of an intensely flavored meaty Bolognese sauce with a silky-rich bechamel sauce, and a restrained sprinkling of cheese has made it our best lasagna recipe for years. It bears very little resemblance…

From Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy” Season 2. In Chapter 3 of the current season, Stanley made his way to Sardegna.  The first words he spoke about the place are shown here.  Sardinia has many charms. Stanley explored its bitter honey, its Pecorino cheese, its…

Crispy, spicy, and deeply tomato-ey flavor from a whole new technique for cooking Spaghetti. Our lead visual may look like an ordinary bowl of spaghetti but it is most certainly not. This is spaghetti cooked in an entirely different way. In Italian, it’s called the…

Our first Stanley Tucci Recipe of the Season: Bucatini alla Calabrese Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy” is back and it’s as irresistible as ever.  The season opener found Stanley and his parents in their native Calabria.  The toe on “the boot”, both Stanley’s maternal and…

Today we thought we’d take you along on a Wine Tour in Tuscany, bring Guanciale home and make the best Carbonara ever! Carbonara: “Hot pasta tossed with a creamy sauce of raw beaten eggs, accentuated with crisp bits of Guanciale and finished with a shower…

Polpettone in Crosta. An Italian take on Meatloaf takes the dish to another level! “Meatloaf” never looked more spectacular or tasted anything quite like Sofia’s Polpettone. Its crunchy shell of puff pastry revealed a richly seasoned pork and veal mixture greatly enhanced a handful of…

This wonderful pasta dish is a great weeknight find.  A hack makes it even better.                       I like to make pasta at least once a week. It is our go-to comfort food. This week, I…

The Bolognese Revelation from Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy – An Authentic Twist You Need to Know When it comes to Bolognese, we’ve all been in the habit of letting it simmer for hours, haven’t we? That slow-cooked, rich, meaty flavor developing bit by bit,…

Stanley Tucci’s 6-part series for CNN is an Italophile’s dream. For one hour a week, its viewers are immersed in the food of a single region of Italy.  For lovers of the Italian language, there’s a surprising amount of it spoken here. Subtitles are provided…