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It was great to be back at Italian Winterfest. This is the event where you can eat ravioli, spinach, and other Italian dishes while drinking vino and listening to the strains of Nino Rota’s “Love Theme from The Godfather.” Winterfest, held January 15th at St. Benedict at Auburndale, made its grand return in style. “First time in three years,” says...

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Foul Witch is an awful name for a restaurant. Even if you don’t know it comes from Shakespeare’s Tempest — in which Prospero calls Sycorax a foul witch from Algiers – it sounds like a dis aimed at Wiccans, who are as deserving of respect as any other religion. Besides, shouldn’t a restaurant called Foul Witch be fancifully decorated with cauldrons,...

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Every person who likes to cook will tell you that it’s not uncommon, in the kitchen, to make a lucky mistake: picking up oregano instead of basil, or hazelnuts instead of almonds can lead to interesting variations on well-known classics sometimes. Even more common is using one ingredient instead of another because that’s all we have in the pantry,...

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You no longer have to choose between Italian or ramen. pastaRAMEN, a pop-up dining experience at secret locations in Montclair, New York, Miami and Los Angeles,  is now making its permanent home in Montclair. This first-ever Italian ramen shop brings Japanese and Italian cuisine under one roof in a style called “Wafu-Italian,” which directly transl...

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One of the most famous restaurants in Arizona, Pizzeria Bianco isn’t the kind of place you can just visit on a whim. With wait times that are regularly up to several hours long, a trip here takes careful planning – but you won’t regret it. This award-winning eatery has some of the best pizzas outside of Italy, and you can rest assured you’ll savor...

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Thompson Italian Alexandria is definitely not a clone of the Falls Church modern Italian eatery, which ranks in the Top 10 of Northern Virginia Magazine’s 2022 50 Best Restaurants. The new spot is a destination-worthy restaurant with a distinctive menu illuminated by executive chef Lucy Dakwar’s Palestinian heritage. Dakwar, who has worked side-by-...

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Gladiators were the super athletes of ancient Rome, and gladiator fights were a popular diversion of the time. Most gladiators were condemned prisoners or enslaved people whose athletic prowess would be the only thing standing between life and death (per World History). The fighting was brutal and bloody. Stamina and the ability to recover quickly...

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Today’s post and recipes are a tribute to two of my favorite pizza joints, Brooklyn’s L&B Spumoni Gardens and Boston’s Galleria Umberto. While both specialize in what we collectively consider Sicilian pizza—meaning square-cut slices, baked in a pan, with a thick, close-textured crumb—neither actually originates from Sicily. In fact, as I only just...

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After lo these many years, I can’t slip anything past my clever editor. I should have known better than to try. I had no sooner submitted my column on fried mush and grits than I received a response. She wrote: “But what do you think about polenta? Your mother’s cornmeal mush strips sound a lot like polenta, except there’s usually cheese (always ma...

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Without garlic, some of our most beloved recipes — Caesar salad, garlic bread, and pesto alla Genovese — would taste totally different. The flavorful allium sometimes called the "stinking rose," is in the same family as onions, leeks, and shallots and is enjoyed raw or cooked in dishes from every cuisine. Known for its flavor and smell, the bulb ha...

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