Mark Bittman, “The Flexitarian” Mark Bittman calls himself “The Flexitarian”.  He writes about his food philosophy in The New York Times Dining Out Section once a month.  I am happy to report that from the start Bittman promised that, first and foremost, his new column…

Marcella and Victor Hazan, as loving and giving a couple as one could ever hope to know. If I’d never been introduced to Marcella Hazan, my cooking would have been so much poorer for it.  Marcella died last week at her home in Naples, Florida…

         Cutting down on carbs is likely the fastest way to lose weight. Candidly, cutting down on alcohol is likely even faster but since that is not going to happen, I’ll stick with cutting carbs.  But anyone who has ever lived in Italy–never mind lived,…

            Marcella Hazan just celebrated her 89th Birthday.  As a salute to this great lady, a Facebook friend of mine who has taken the time to answer many Italian food questions for me, I wanted to celebrate too. Fortunately, March 2013’s…

Scott Conant, Chef and Pasta Tester             After I’d made this dish, it came as no surprise to learn that Food and Wine had named it one of 10 Best Pasta dishes when it first appeared in 2010.  Judging the 10…

First Issue of Gourmet, January 1941          How we still miss Gourmet!  Some of my earliest childhood memories are listening to my father reading aloud as he and my mother ate vicariously at Gourmet’s table.  The magazine first appeared in 1941.  The United States entered…

Sara Jenkins as photographed by New York Magazine          There’s almost no end to what people are putting on pasta these days. The most recent issue of Bon Appetit has 7 entirely new takes on pasta sauces and a couple of pastas that are new…

         There are few dishes that are better to have on hand than lasagna. Over the years, we’ve all suffered through terrible versions of lasagna–people making the stuff with cottage cheese or ricotta, throwing in chunks of sausage instead of a proper meat sauce, jarred…

         There are certain recipes I obsess over.  I have folder marked “Re-Visit” and in it there must be at least five recipes for baked pasta dishes.  They all are fundamentally the same.  The pasta is cooked and then a sauce is mixed into it,…

         When I started cooking Osso Buco, it was a sumptuous meal on a beer budget.  The Veal Shanks at the center of the dish were afterthoughts at the butcher’s counter.  It’s hard to imagine but I think they ran about $4.99 a lb. at…

Clamming, about as Long Island as you can get I am big fan of Linguine with Clam Sauce as our recipe search feature will confirm.  So when I saw this recipe for a variation on the theme in the July 2012 issue of La Cucina…

         The local strawberries on Long Island could not be more beautiful this year—even if they’ve arrived earlier than usual due to our incredibly mild winter.  There has to be some upside to Global Warming for more than just the population of Canada!  These berries were…

           There are times when I crave a bowl of pasta. And in miserably rainy and surprisingly chilly New York, this may be one of them. But then I crave pasta no matter what the weather.         Only a few days…

         Here we have a simple pork cutlet or chop that is covered with juicy bits of golden raisin, salty, tangy capers, and rich Gran Padano cheese.   This sweet and salty, cheese-y topping is held in place by crisp slices of prosciutto.  For a pork…