If I mention to friends that I’m making my mother’s eggplant recipe, they instantly think of eggplant parmigiano. But we never ate eggplant parmigiano growing up. We ate stuffed eggplant (melanzane ripiene), and it is another family favorite. Melanzane ripiene can be eaten as a second dish or as a main dish. It is delicious
Read more

Cotolette are one of my favorite dishes my mother makes. I am not the only one who enjoys these crispy, golden cotolette. They are a favorite of everyone who tastes them. Here’s how she makes them. Ingredients: ~1 pound veal cutlets (or if for some reason you can find or don’t like to eat veal,
Read more

Pitta …a traditional Calabrese bread. Soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside! In Calabrese cooking, pitta dates back to ancient times. Some say it is of Greek origin while others say it is of Roman origin. This makes sense given the history of Calabria which has had inhabitants and invasions from Greece and
Read more

In Calabria Pasta e piselli (Pasta and peas) is made with tomatoes and is a soup. The peas are the star of the show in this dish and like many minestre is put together with a few simple ingredients which when cooked together are bursting with flavor. Ingredients for about 2 generous portions:: ~2 tsp
Read more

Riso e Patate is one of my all-time favorite minestre. I love it so much that to savor it I eat it with a fork even though it is a soup. Like most minestre it is quick and easy to make and is another delicious comfort food. To make this savory dish you need… Ingredients
Read more

Brodo (literally broth or soup) is one of those comfort foods…hot and tasty…ideal on cold days and a perfect meal! My mother would often make brodo on a Saturday night for dinner. This was sometimes chicken based and other times beef based. Brodo is multi-purpose. She would make it whenever someone wasn’t feeling well, or even just
Read more

In Calabria, a minestra is a soup. It’s a hearty soup, thick in consistency, more like a stew. A minestra is a first course dish. Minestre are typically uncomplicated and often made with peak season vegetables. I will be posting many minestre recipes because vegetables are more prevalent in Italian cuisine, particularly Calabrese cuisine, than most people think.  As I’ve
Read more

Although not exclusively Calabrese, Tagliatelle – or Taglierini as we called them, are one of the many homemade pastas my mother made and still makes.  She would typically make them on a Sunday morning…sometimes enlisting my sister and I to help.  She rolled the dough by hand and then cut it into strips with a
Read more