When it comes to Buttermilk, I can come up with three recipes that require it: Waffles, Fried Chicken and Biscuits.  Buttermilk comes in quarts. The only recipe of the three that requires that much Buttermilk is perhaps the chicken marinade which is used to tenderize…

I love pasta in all its forms and I serve it at least once a week. Since I seem to be incapable of making two servings of sauce, inevitably we end up with a freezer full of single portions.  I do not always label these.…

Andrew’s sister Lauren and I have an ongoing contest to find people who comment on a recipe they’ve so radically altered it bears no resemblance to the original. Despite having tinkered with the ingredients, the quantities, the cooking time until the recipe is unrecognizable, you’d…

When I lived in Rome, Saltimbocca was an introduction to the cuisine of the city itself.   “Saltimbocca alla Romana” featured veal, topped with Prosciutto and Sage in a Marsala and butter sauce.   It was very good and, because of its ingredients, more expensive than most…

As often as not, Andrew volunteers to bring dessert whenever we’re asked out to dinner.  On this particular occasion, he asked our friends Bill and Peter if they had any requests.   Peter asked for ‘something nutty’.  I seemed to remember an amazing tart Andrew had…

In the Northeast, it has been below the freezing mark since Christmas Day. Literally dozens of records have been broken on an almost daily basis. Any thought of Spring is about as far away as April.   So I was taken aback when I saw a…

I love “Milanese”, which is basically what this recipe is.  Veal Milanese is its much more expensive cousin.  In Argentina, where it’s wildly popular, it’s called simply “Milanesa” and it’s made with Beef.  In neighboring Chile it’s called Escalopa.  In Mexico, it’s back to being…

I sometimes think I should have called Chewing The Fat “Chewing the Pasta”.  I have such fondness for pasta that I make it on a weekly basis.  I am well aware of how many people eschew its carbohydrates. Sorry, they’re missing one of life’s great…

Julie Richardson wrote a cookbook devoted to old-fashioned cakes, the ones you may remember your grandmother cooking or at the very least, bringing home from the local bakery.   “Vintage Cakes” (Ten Speed Press 2012) is filled with gems that are not only nostalgic but are…

Letizia Mattiaci of Alla Madonna del Piatto Lucky me!  I’ve been traveling most of the month of May.  I’ve done two almost back-to-back river cruises, one on the Rhine from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands with stops along the way in France and Germany.  A…

     A great bowl of pasta is one of my favorite comfort dishes.  I must admit that this particular variation hits the mark. The fresh asparagus and mushrooms seem made for each other and for the Italian hot sausage I combined them with. There’s cheese…

Last week, I went all the way back into the archives for Chewing the Fat.  I was astonished to see that an Orecchiette recipe that I posted very early on in the life of the blog has had precisely 40 visits. That is about 1/10th…