Driven to a large degree by the desire to use the best local and seasonal ingredients, Italian cooking is highly regional. I have no doubt that if chanterelles mushrooms were widely available in Italy, Chanterelle Risotto would be a famous dish. These mushrooms are widely found in the wild in the Eastern part of...
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What do Italians know about meatballs, that I don’t? Italians can be passionate about meatballs. They do not contain exotic ingredients, it seems they are easy to make, but then there is passion about what is the right way. It seemed a little rigor was needed here. There it seemed an analysis of how...
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Not every meatball recipe requires tomatoes. In this preparation, a lemon white wine sauce provides the acidic accent instead. It seems a perfect fit for sunny day. Notes on Ingredients Made by combining Lemon with veal, pork, or a combination of the two and finished with a white wine reduction this lighter approach to...
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The Venice bar snack version of Meatballs. These meatballs are smaller and fried, made to snack on while sipping a refreshing glass of wine. Or can be used as a main course for a lighter meal as pictured above with roasted young carrots. Exploration of this sub-topic of Italian polpette reveals that these meatballs...
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Quite a few passionate Italian cooks will get indignant about the mention of spaghetti and meatballs. They insist that is not how meatballs (Polpettes) should be served. So what makes meatballs authentic Italian meatballs? In this recipe, Italian Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, the meatballs are cooked in the tomato sauce. Following the Italian line...
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With the right tart shell, pretty much anything brought home from the market can be turned into a simple but impressive main dish, a starter or a dessert. But I find myself fighting to find the right shell recipe of the right size for the tart pan I plan to use. While the basics...
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One of the advantages of purchasing from a market is that the produce found is usually younger, more tender, and of course fresher. Those qualities lead to this simple recipe for sautéed beet greens that focuses on one simple great ingredient that could easily be discarded. The beet greens are very tinder and their...
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If you are lucky enough to get an early spring Vidalia onion complete with greens, that is what you are going to use for this dish. If the greens are not available, a small to medium Vidalia onion will do. This Vidalia onion lemon chicken recipe also uses spring market vegetable stock that hopefully,...
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Fresh Vidalia Onions contain a very large amount of water and sugar. Caramelizing (browning) in a little bacon fat and butter reduces the water and releases wonderful flavors. Notes on Ingredients This recipe calls for bacon bits. These are the leftover hunks of bacon that cannot be sliced into traditional bacon slices. Usually more...
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This variation uses two of the most common items from spring and summer markets — turnips and chard. Using the perfect savory tart dough these are formed into an excellent light dish. It can be made ahead of time and is frankly better at room temperature. Notes on Ingredients Turnips seem to arrive before...
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