Tom Kitchin may be a famous Scottish Chef but this is his wife’s recipe. This is the kind of recipe I call true comfort food. The traditional lasagna element of bechamel is used here. But instead of an Italian-style filling, there’s a nod to this…

Pasta once a week is a staple at our house.   We love the endless possibilities pasta presents.  With over 50 distinct types—even more when you add in the different sizes– that number goes even higher.  Today’s recipe is a riff on one in this…

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,…

I don’t think I ever cooked a stuffed shell until I saw this recipe. This wonderful vegetarian dish is made up of a host of ingredients.  Boursin Cheese and Cannellini beans give the filling of these shells their creaminess. The subtle heat comes from Calabrian…

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…

I would be hard-pressed to find a recipe any easier than this one. As easy as it is, it delivers a wonderfully creamy rich soup so packed with cheese tortellini and fresh spinach and carrots, I’d be tempted to call it a stew.  The secret…

We could ‘fancy-up’ the name of this dish by calling it Pasta al Forno. It still wouldn’t alter the fact that this might well be called Cheeseburger Pasta. Ooey gooey, cheesy, meaty.  This is Andrew and my idea of comfort food times three. Baked Ziti…

Rome’s favorite and most famous pasta dish gets a major makeover. When I lived in Rome, I can’t count how often I would order this dish. At least once a week, I would sit down to a bowl of this pasta.  Just four ingredients made…

Sausage and Peppers, New York’s most famous Street Food, comes indoors. All Fall, New York City blocks are turned into bazaars selling everything from handicrafts to hot dogs. The most famous of these is in celebration of the Feast of San Gennaro, the Patron Saint…

How’s your Spanish?  You don’t need to speak a word to enjoy this fantastic tuna casserole. What’s in a name?  Plenty.  Today’s dish is an homage to Spain. But this dish has its roots firmly planted in the US of A.  It was a mainstay…

This Lamb Ragu is a colorful and flavorful introduction to Fall. Chef Micheal Mina’s recipe for Lamb Ragu is a keeper. It starts with a bouquet garni of fennel and cumin seeds, Aleppo pepper, and whole black peppercorns.  This gives the dish a hint of…

I am a sucker for “What to Cook This Week” from the New York Times. Here’s one reason why. Very often this email from the NYTimes is the work of Sam Sifton. Sifton is billed as the founding editor of NYT Cooking. And Sam is…

“Dinner in French”, Melissa Clark’s latest Cookbook is filled with great, easy recipes. Confession time. For some reason, I associate French food with cooler temperatures. Give me Oxtail Bourguignon in October, my first bowl of Onion Soup at first frost.  But I’ve been raring to…