Calzone: the prim & proper pizza eater’s answer to the ooze and drip of melted cheese, hot sauce, and ungainly toppings.

Let’s just call it outside-in pizza.

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Cheese bread.

Just hearing those two words together – “cheese,” and “bread” – makes your mouth start to water, doesn’t it?

Who doesn’t savor cheese? Who doesn’t love bread?

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Snap, crackle, pop! Captain Crunch. Extra crispy Kentucky fried chicken… Seems like food companies are always playing on our addiction to snap-crackle-pop-crunch-crisp in our foods. Think potato chips. Crackers. Oreos. And the whole range of “munchies” (popcorn, pretzels, granola bars, peanuts) that’ve become a serious part of our on-the-go culinary culture. When it comes to most of us, any time is crunch time. read the rest of this entry »

I’ve no doubt baked many hundreds of different recipes in the 35+ years I’ve been baking on my own. But there are certain ones that I bake over and over again: fudge birthday cake, almond puff loaf, whole wheat pain de mie, and a host of others that never fail to win accolades from whatever audience enjoys them. read the rest of this entry »

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot…”

We feel the sentiments expressed in Auld Lang Syne should apply just as easily to recipes as to friendships. How many times have you made a certain dish, enjoyed the heck out of it – then promptly forgotten it?

Plenty, right?

Thus we offer you, just in time for the New Year, an “heirloom” (2009) blog post for this tasty, crumb-topped pizza, a New Year’s Eve tradition in Sicily. Check it out: Pizza Sfincione.

Buon’Anno, one and all!

You know, I never, EVER thought I’d utter the following words:

I like panforte.

But I do; I really do.

Growing up, this classic Italian Christmas sweet fell under the heading of “icky sticky stuff with weird nuts and peels.” I mean, why put a piece of panforte in your mouth, when you could oh-so-easily munch on a gingerbread cookie or a Snickers bar?

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Doesn’t this look good? It’s Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Filled Pane Bianco, the winning recipe from the first-ever National Festival of Breads. Dianna Wara of Washington, Ill., won the gold in Wichita last year with this visually stunning and taste-bud-pleasing recipe inspired by her husband’s Italian heritage. And with the 2011 National Festival of Breads just open for entries, it seemed like a good time to share the recipe and some hints from Dianna.

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Ah, Easter! Another holiday, another occasion to make pizzelle.

I didn’t grow up Italian; I never heard of, saw, or tasted a pizzelle till after I’d married my Italian husband, and began visiting Boston’s North End – close by the Haymarket, where Rick’s family sold vegetables from their farm.

Since we lived in Maine, the trip to the North End was pretty much confined to holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. We’d make the rounds, from the meat market, with its hanging skinned rabbits; to the bread bakery, where we’d pick up light-as-air loaves showered with sesame seeds; to Trio’s, where you could get every kind of fresh pasta imaginable. read the rest of this entry »

The other day I had a discussion with a fellow about biscotti. I’d just made some, and asked him if he wanted one.

“I don’t like biscotti,” he said, wrinkling his face and pursing his lips to reinforce the point.

“Yes you do.” I countered.

“No, I really don’t,” he insisted. read the rest of this entry »