Ah, to love~
~ The Love Apple ~ (Heirloom Tomato, Onion, Basil and Mint Tart Recipe) When the tomato was first introduced to Italy from South America – yes, the tomato is not indigenous to Italy – it was thought to be poisonous. Its odd, sometimes ugly shape and varying color really made people nervous. Eventually, as it caught on and became more …
It’s Child’s Play~
Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe On my most recent trip to Italy I stayed with the Stefanis (the family in my book) and learned a new and very simple recipe ~ Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe. This recipe is one of the hundreds of classic Italian dishes were you prepare the sauce for the pasta in the time it takes you to …
Let’s Bake a Cake~
La Torta di Stefano ~ Coconut Yogurt Cake with Nutella Frosting In honor of World Nutella Day, February 5, here is my Coconut Yogurt Cake with Nutella Frosting recipe. In true Italian fashion, this is a dense and not overly sweet cake. The cake’s “sweetness” is based on the Nutella frosting, so the cake itself does not add yet another …
Pizza ~ Pizza
Hmm, Rome had a Caesar, too ~ Pizza – so much for starting the year off on the healthy side, right? Hmm, well, it may not be as bad as you think. If I were to ask you, “What is your favorite Italian food?” I have a feeling I could place a sure bet that you’d say, “Pizza!” And why …
A New Year ~ A New Diet
Got Fruit? With the ever increasing popularity of my book Beyond the Pasta, I have been getting a lot of response from people wanting to know about the Italian diet. Am I a dietitian? Nope, not by a long shot. But having just returned from Italy, where I spent more time with the Stefani family, I have to admit that …
Back to the Future ~ Viterbo bound
~ Returning to my now Italian home ~ Writing a book about real people and the real time you spent with them can be stressful – especially when you wrote it without them ever pre-reading a single syllable. Add to that the fact that there is a language barrier between everyone involved and you might start to understand why I …
New Year’s Greetings from Viterbo, Italy~
Start off the New Year reducing your waist ~ Italian-Style As an American I think we sometimes have the false idea that every Italian meal involves large volumes of food – nothing could be farther from the truth. Yes, Italians do eat multiple courses, but the portion size of each of those courses is rather small. It is the New …
My bags are packed and I’m ready to fly~
What will 2011 bring? Ah, the last post of 2010 and what a year it has been! It started off with our house being published in House Beautiful’s Feb 2010 issue. With that came a huge designer-blog interest and led a publisher to my then manuscript of Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language & Life with an Italian Family. On the …
Cookies for Santa? Maybe he’ll share~
Biscotti Natale It’s Christmas time and that means COOKIES! Have to have something to put out for Santa, right? Here is Nonna’s recipe for Biscotti Natale. I have taken the liberty of slightly altering the shape of her original by preparing this version in as round cookie. Watch the above video to see how these are prepared – in my …



















