Erica De Mane

Could this product actually taste good? Recipe: Ziti with Calamari, Star Anise, Tomato, and Basil As you’ve heard a million times, you either cook calamari fast or you do a slow simmer. Anything in between produces rubber. But it also depends on what you’re working with. Huge calamari will never respond well to flash-cooking. It’s [...]

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Sicilian eggplant from Migliorelli Farm in the Hudson Valley. Recipe: Rigatoni with Eggplant, Marjoram, and Cinnamon Ricotta You’ve got to get over to your local Greenmarket right now and see if you can find these gorgeous Sicilian eggplants. Migliorelli Farm in the Hudson Valley grows them and trucks them down to the Union Square market [...]

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Recipe: Bucatini with Swordfish and Basil Almond Pesto I always feel a little guilty when I get creative with pesto. In Liguria, where traditional basil pesto was born, it’s served only with pasta, usually trofie, a twisty shape from the region, and with the addition of string beans and cubed potatoes. To use it as [...]

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Recipe: Chicken Cutlets with Chanterelle and Chicory  Salad Finferli. I first heard this word in Sicily, in the Madonie mountain area where my husband, Fred, and I were staying on our first trip to that fantastic island, around 1990. Women were foraging in the woods for finferli. I took a look in their baskets and [...]

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A very deep yellow. Recipe: Yellow Squash Soup with Saffron and Farro Color can hold great power for the cook. It’s important to me. I find it can sway me in a culinary direction I didn’t intend to go in, especially in the summer, when so many brightly colored vegetables are there at my Greenmarket, [...]

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Recipe: Summer Cherries with Red Wine, Vanilla, and Cassis As a teenager in the 1970s I didn’t have many hip Italian-American gal role models to turn to. I mean, I did love Connie Francis, her voice moved me, but she was not an inspiration for what I wanted to be, for the Catholic-free, Guido-free life [...]

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Recipe: Orecchiette with Baby Zucchini, Saucisson a l’Ail, and Mint The only great zucchini is really young zucchini, the kind I’m finding right now at the Greenmarket. They’re small, skinny, and firm, like we’d all love to be forever and ever. As you all know, zucchini can rage out of control, becoming huge and inedible [...]

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Recipe: Farfalle with Morels, Asparagus, Shallots, and Chervil No doubt about it, pasta with morels and asparagus is a springtime classic. The little touches you give it are what make it your own. My way (at least my way last night) is to include shallots, fresh garlic, thyme, white wine, crème fraîche and chervil. This [...]

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A still life with pork fat and dead birds by Giacomo Nani (1698–1770). Recipe: Warm Potato Salad with Pancetta, Mustard, and Pistachios Improvvisata. In terms of Italian cooking, this can mean a number of things, from the highest creative impulse to just using up what you’ve got in your pantry to its best advantage. In [...]

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