It's the last day in April but it feels like mid-summer in LA, or what we call fire season. Fires are raging. You can feel the pollution in your chest and it's just too damn hot to cook. But I have to. I invited a couple friends I haven't had ...read more
Category Archives: Veg
By now I hope you're starting to figure out that I rarely make an isolated "dish" or "recipe". Nearly everything I make starts out with something I already made before. I hesitate to call it a leftover. I have a very wide definition of mise en place. It's all ...read more
Silk Handkerchief pasta or in the Genovese dialect Mandilli de Sea (Seta in Italian) are lovely floppy casual folds of delicate eggy fresh pasta draped on a plate. They are also the easiest and quickest fresh pasta to make at home. If you want to taste a template of how ...read more
Italian Jewish culinary culture is fascinating. Not Ashkenazi, not sephardi it's its own mashup of flavors and dishes. So it isn't surprising that Italian Jews actually figured out a way to enjoy pasta during Passover. Like pretty much everything Italians do, their matzo is prettier than ours, often round and ...read more
If you've been to Rome the chances are you've meandered to the ghetto to eat Carciofi alla Giudia the emblematic fried artichokes of the Jewish community there. Somehow they manage to combine several opposing elements in one simple dish. They are meaty and vegetal, crisp and yielding, subtle and sharp ...read more