The first time I made Bolognese sauce in Italy, my neighbor watched me reach for the garlic. She did not say anything. She just tilted her head slightly, the way you might look at someone about to step into traffic. When I asked what was wrong, she smiled and said, very gently, that I could …
Here is a question that quietly separates people who love Italian food from people who truly understand it. When you make a pizza, which mozzarella do you reach for, the luxurious, tangy mozzarella di bufala, or the humbler fior di latte? Most people, if they know the difference at all, assume that the more expensive, …
If you love empanadas, you might already know that there are different versions of them. Although all are delicious, it’s really good to know the differences between each, as the empanada you’re going for will definitely need different ingredients and cooking styles, ultimately resulting in the unique empanada of your choice of place of origin. …
If you grew up anywhere in Spain, natillas is the taste of childhood in a small bowl. It is the soft, pale-yellow custard that always appeared on kitchen tables after a long lunch, a dusting of cinnamon on top and a single round biscuit floating like a raft. It is not a fancy dessert, and …
Many worldwide love fried chicken, but it’s made differently from place to place. In the Southern United States, fried chicken is a classic dish, often served at family meals and special gatherings. It features a crispy, golden coating with juicy, tender meat inside. The seasoning, a mix of spices like paprika and garlic powder, adds …
There are dishes you cook to feed people, and there are dishes you cook to travel through time, and pollo en pepitoria is firmly the second kind. The first time I made it in my kitchen here in Spain, I understood why it has survived for centuries, because the smell alone, saffron and toasted almonds …
Italian cuisine is known for its simplicity, and nothing embodies this better than pomarola, Tuscany’s beloved tomato sauce. Unlike heavy, long-simmered ragùs, pomarola is fresh, light, and versatile, made with ripe summer tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, onion, and fragrant herbs. This sauce is the backbone of countless Tuscan dishes, from pasta and rice to grilled …
There is something strange about marmitako. It is a hot, hearty stew, the kind of thing you would expect to eat by a fire in the depths of winter, yet its season is high summer, and its birthplace was not a kitchen at all but the pitching deck of a fishing boat in the Bay …
Walk into a trattoria in Rome, or Florence, or any small town in between, and ask for garlic bread. You will get a polite, puzzled look. The soft, buttery, garlic-drenched loaf that arrives alongside spaghetti in American restaurants does not exist in Italy, has never existed in Italy, and would strike most Italians as a …
How to build a real desayuno that tastes like Spain and keeps you steady until the late lunch hour Stand at a bar in Seville at 9 in the morning and watch the routine. A short coffee arrives, a slice of toast topped with grated tomato and olive oil, maybe a small wedge of tortilla …
Spend a summer afternoon anywhere in Greece and you will notice that almost everyone is holding the same thing. Not a phone, not a book, but a tall, frosted glass of iced coffee, sweating gently in the heat, crowned with a layer of foam. Greeks do not merely drink cold coffee in summer, they live …
There is a small culinary riddle hiding on every tapas bar counter in Spain, and most visitors walk right past it. On one plate sit little fillets of fish, pearly white, glistening with olive oil and flecked with garlic and parsley, bright and fresh and tangy. On another sit fillets of what looks like a …