-
Join 449 other subscribers
Welcome to Ericademane.com
I am a chef, food writer, and herb lover who specializes in improvisational Italian cooking. I am the author of The Flavors of Southern Italy and Pasta Improvvisata, as well as Williams-Sonoma Pasta, which is available at Williams-Sonoma stores. A member of the Association of Culinary Professionals, The New York Women's Culinary Alliance, The New York Culinary Historians, The Herb Society of America, and the Italian-based International Slow Food Movement, I live in New York City.
For more about me, see About Erica De Mane.
Buy a copy of The Flavors of Southern Italy.
Buy a copy of Pasta Improvvisata.
Buy a copy of Williams-Sonoma Pasta.Buy a copy of my ebook, Pasta Improv
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Erica De Mane 
I’ve always used dried bay leaves. Do you prefer them to be fresh? Very interested in perhaps getting a bay bush. Is it bay laurel?
We planted a bay years ago…it’s now 8′ + tall. When it was a baby we took it to my Mom’s to overwinter in her greenhouse until the spring. That must be 30 years ago. Now we have it in a very large pot outside out back door where it gets a little heat coming from the furnace room slightly open window behind it. Erica, have you ever gone outside and brushed snow off a bay tree…well let me tell you, it’s absolutely intoxicating! You’d love it! A couple of years ago, when we had lunch at a friends’ home in Rome she brought out Amaro at the end of the meal including one she’d made from bay leaves…it was wonderful!. My mom also used a lot of bay leaves in her cooking….you’re right, they are so beautiful and so useful…don’t know what we’d do without them!
Maggie, I don’t use dried anymore. I find them musty. And now I can almost always find packages of fresh ones at supermarkets.
Phyllis, I have never brushed snow off a bay bush. It sounds wonderful, but I’m too afraid to leave my bay out in the winter. I have though made bay leaf amaro, or something sort of like it. It’s excellent.
Hello Erica – I don’t know how cold it gets where you live but I promise you it does not die easily in Winters here in Rome where it can indeed get cold, you know? It was minus 5 degrees C a few years ago and the bay trees in the garden thrived no problem. I love bay leaves too! My mother makes a nice bay leaf amaro. If you boil the leaves apparently it’s good for a dry cough. :)
Hello myhomefood, I’m in upstate New York and I don’t trust my bay plant outside so I keep it in a pot and bring it in. So far, so good. I also make bay amaro. It’s a beauty thing.
What a fun drink your experimenting has produced!