A feel-good chicken and pasta dish from the Istrian part of Slovenia near the Italian border.
With colds, flu, and other viruses, not to mention the damp chill of winter upon us, who better than Italian grandmamas to make us feel better?
There’s no time like now to pick up a copy of “Pasta Grannies” (Hardie Grant, 2022), of which I received a review copy.
The cookbook is by Vicky Bennison, the creator behind the successful Pasta Grannies YouTube channel. Like those videos, this book shares the traditions and recipes of grandmothers all over Italy.
You’ll learn everything from Sperandina’s “Asparagus Lasagna from Le Marche,” Anna’s “Roman Stuffed Tomatoes,” and Adi’s “Baked Pasta from Palermo,” to the late-Teresa’s “Mussel Bake from Salento” and 93-year-old Ida’s “Chocolate Pudding from Piedmont.”
Start the new year with a taste bud journey to Ethiopia with this easy cabbage stew.
Start the new year off virtuously with loads of good-for-you veggies.
That’s easy to do with this simple and robust dish of “Ethiopian Cabbage Stew.”
It’s from the cookbook, “Enebla” (Touchwood, 2022), of which I received a review copy.
It was written by Luladey Moges, who was born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and now makes her home in Los Angeles.
It’s a collection of more than 60 recipes that Moges has made her own, after learning how to cook from her mother, grandmother, and aunts. They include dishes such as “Ethiopian Porridge” made spicy an nourishing with berbere and barley flour; the well-known “Kitfo” or beef tartare; “Lamb Broth Stew,” and a Napolean-like “Ethiopian Millefoglie Cake.”
Whether enjoyed outside, inside or as takeout, restaurant food has never felt more special.
I am so grateful to restaurants for weathering all that they have in the past few years, and managing to come through it all to keep nourishing us in body, spirit, and soul.
Here’s to them, and to all that they provide, including these most memorable eats, in no particular order, that made my Top 10 for the year:
The Tuscan mixed grill at Cotogna in San Francisco.
With festive pine cones adorning simple plywood tables, string lights festooning sidewalk trees, and blankets as soft as cashmere at the ready, Cotogna’s parklet has got to be one of the nicest around.
That’s what I found when my husband, two friends, and I dined outside last weekend when it hovered around 48 degrees. The popular Jackson Square Italian restaurant has tables outside right on the sidewalk, as well as a sizeable parklet. The latter is where you want to sit if possible because it has a canopy overhead, so if it rains, you’ll probably be fine unless the wind kicks up mightily.
Indeed, with both an overhead and tall standing heater at each table, we were as comfortable as can be. In fact, halfway through dinner, two of us even shed our coats because we were that warm.
The nicely appointed parklet.
With our server’s charming Italian accent, we almost felt like we had taken a trip to Italy during the holidays, too.
A sharp, sweet, tangy Southern-style barbecue sauce and boozy cherries make this quail dish a standout.
Chef Tanya Holland may have left behind the hustle and bustle of the restaurant industry in 2021 with the closure of her Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, whose superlative fried chicken and waffles prompted a never-ending line of diners eager to enjoy comforting soul food at its best.
Thankfully, though, her cooking and community championing continue on in her new cookbook, “California Soul” (Ten Speed Press), of which I received a review copy.
It was written with Maria C. Hunt, a California-based journalist who specializes in cultural stories about food, wine, and lifestyle; and Dr. Kelley Fanto Deetz, who holds a PhD in African diaspora studies and anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.
It’s a cookbook not just of recipes, but of stories, that reflect the struggles and triumphs of African Americans who migrated from the South to California. Holland knows first-hand that journey, being the daughter of a mother who grew up in Louisiana, and a father who hails from Virginia. As a child, Holland spent many summers in both states, immersed in the gardening and cooking traditions of her grandparents.
Her great-aunts would make their way to Oregon and Southern California. Holland, herself, would move to the Bay Area in 2001, drawn to the fact, she writes, that “California offered an openness to ambition (female and Black) thought leaders and entrepreneurs that I hadn’t experienced on the East Coast.”
