Category: Home cooking in the city

Butternut Squash Risotto

This recipe is perfect for this season. As a base I used shallots and roasted butternut squash, and added sage, nutmeg and black pepper as accents. I used extra virgin olive oil instead of butter, to make it a low-cholesterol recipe I also used home made vegetable broth, which I made in advance and kept …

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Red Beet Soup

I made this soup to keep us cozy during Sandy. It is a dense blended soup, and I kept some of the whole pieces of beets and potatoes in it.

Veal Spezzatino with Polenta

We are staying home as hurricane Sandy is approaching, and there is plenty of time for cooking. I decided to make veal spezzatino with polenta. This is my copper paiolo, the special pot to make polenta, and the trisa which is the  wooden stick used to turn the polenta as it is called in the …

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Zucchine Ripiene di Tonno

Stuffed Zucchini with Tuna. I went to the farmers market in Union Square and found these nice round zucchini, the last one of the season. They are perfect to be stuffed and baked. I decided to bake them stuffed with tuna preserved under oil. Ingredients 4 round zucchini 2 Roma tomatoes 1 garlic clove, pressed …

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Polpettone di Tacchino con Verdure

Turkey meatloaf with vegetables. This dish is one of my “comfort-food” items and I love the cheerful colors of the vegetables in it. This time I added some stems of red beats that added a brighter splash of color to it! What I like of ground turkey breast, besides the fact that is low in …

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Stuffed Cubanelle (and not) Peppers

Here I am, back to my NYaldente-kitchen after a long and beautiful summer! I made these stuffed peppers already twice as they are really delicious. The first time I used Cubanelle pepper,  and the second time I used some sweet yellow bell peppers. Both versions are very good. By the way, I made more than …

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Quick Octopus Salad

Octopus salad is a great summer dish. This is my quick version, instead of boiling the octopus I buy the marinated octopus sold in the delis (Fareway and Grace’s in New York have it, and also any Greek grocery store should have it). I then freshen up the octopus with chopped fresh vegetables and some …

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Baba Ganoush

Any time I prepare this middle eastern eggplant dip it disappears in no time, it is delicious! It can be served as an aperitivo or antipasto with fresh bread, toasted if you like, some pita, or some crudités.

Pasta with Fried Eggplant and Grape Tomatoes.

This is a variation of the Pasta alla Norma, a Sicilian recipe for pasta with eggplant, tomato sauce, and ricotta salata. Instead of making a tomato sauce I used grape tomatoes. For a lighter version of this recipe

Spaghetti al Ragu di Triglia (Red Mullet)

Today’s recipe really brings the flavor of the Mediterranean sea to the table. It is quite a while that I wanted to make a sauce for spaghetti with Red Mullets or Rougets (Triglie in Italian) and I am very satisfied with the result! Definitely a recipe to repeat!
Any time I eat Triglie I think of my favorite Italian police inspector Salvo Montalbano, from the novels of Andrea Camilleri. He lives and works in Sicily,