Erica De Mane

Strawberries, Elizabeth Wilson, 2010. Recipe: Strawberries with White Wine, Vanilla, Basil, and Orange Flower Syrup Strawberries are my favorite fruit. I find it amazing that I can say a particular fruit is my absolute favorite, since in my opinion all fruits are unique and delicious, but the strawberry, with its aroma, taste, its crimson color, [...]

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Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria 53 Great Jones Street (near Bowery) New York, NY 10012 (212) 837-2622 Recipe: Bruschetta with Il Buco Lardo and Sautéed Escarole The cliché about ingredients being the key to good Italian cooking is, like most clichés, partly true. Contemporary Italian has few hiding places (it’s been several hundred years since [...]

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Recipe: Chicken Soup with Farro, Fennel, and Escarole About two years ago I wrote a letter to Mona Talbott, the chef then presiding over the American Academy in Rome’s newly revamped kitchen. The Rome Sustainable Food Program, as this revitalization is called, was conceived by Alice Waters in 2007. Miss Waters placed Mona Talbott, a [...]

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When I first moved to the Village, in the late 1970s, it was very different from now. Union Square, a block away from my apartment, was a creep-infested hellhole you wouldn’t set foot in even in daylight. The now famous Greenmarket was just starting, a few truckloads of old hippies selling sprouts and cat grass. [...]

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Cleaning ricci in Sicily. Recipe: Spaghetti with Sea Urchins, Hot Chilies, and White Whine Maybe you’ve noticed, or maybe not, but it’s sea urchin season again, at least at Citarella (actually has been for more than a month now). They’ve got piles of these beautiful spiky things, trucked down all the way from Maine to [...]

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Sardines at the Campo de’ Fiori Market, Madeline Sorel, 1980. Recipe: Sarde in Agrodolce I love whole fried fish, especially very little ones, like sardines. They’re excellent pan fried in breadcrumbs and served hot with fresh lemon, or dredged in flour and deep fried. But I also love some of the more elaborate takes on [...]

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A mosaic of lemons from the Piazza Armerina, eleventh-century Sicily. Recipe: Swiss Chard with Yellow Raisins, Lemon Zest, and Pine Nuts You may have noticed that I’ve lately had a renewed interest in Sicilian flavors. Not that culinary Sicily is ever far from my mind. I routinely let my head travel through the south, working [...]

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Recipe: Bucatini with Swordfish, Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Sweet Breadcrumbs I have a habit of seeking out and falling in love with dishes that include raisins and pine nuts, dishes from Spain, from Provence, and from Sicily. Historians pretty much agree that this culinary pairing was invented by Arabs and transported to places they invaded, [...]

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Making ricotta in Sicily. Recipe: Ricotta Cake with Orange Flower Water and Honey I really, really like sweetened ricotta. Give me a choice between a cannoli and a slice of chocolate cake, and I’ll take the cannoli. But give me the choice between a cannoli and a slice of ricotta cake, and, although highly tempted [...]

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Recipe: Rigatoni with Sausage, Cauliflower, and Almonds I find that improvising with pasta is always a little harder in the winter months. Without all the summer Greenmarket vegetables that can transport my head to the Amalfi Coast, especially the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants (the Southern Italian triumvirate), I can strain to come up with something [...]

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