Close

Although Christmas Eve is when children ’round the world wait for the big guy in red to freefall down the chimney, back in the days of old in Southern Italy, December 24 was a time of commemorative waiting for the birth of Jesus Christ. This more holy vigil, or La Vigilia, was observed by abstaining from meat and indulging in what was plentiful in...

363

The Week of the Italian Cuisine in the World, which concluded recently, invited us to reflect on what root cuisine truly means in the modern era. Held from November 16 to 22, the ninth edition focused on the theme“Mediterranean Diet and Root Cuisine: Health and Tradition,” a theme that not only celebrated the culinary traditions defining Italian id...

284

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American tradition as steeped in lore as it is in the saline taste of the sea. And, in classically literal Italian fashion (see also: tomato sauce; meatballs), it is also exactly what it sounds like. But, while the reasons your family partakes might differ from the reasons our family celebrates, or even t...

290

What is the Feast of Seven Fishes? It’s all in the name. Simply put, it’s the Italian American tradition of eating fish in place of meat on Christmas Eve day. It’s comparable to Thanksgiving in its dinner party grandeur and features, you guessed it, seven different kinds of seafood. Maybe the dinner consists of one fish prepared seven ways or a sev...

455

Beatrice Ughi’s Italian connection. Plus, obsessing over chicken rice, how to use extra pumpkin filling, where chefs eat on their night off and how food waste affects climate change. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes. Many people are spending Black Friday weekend on the websites of big-box retailer...

285

Ever since Chef Adam Ross and his wife Meisha opened Twisted Fern restaurant in Park City in 2017, I have been telling anyone who will listen to me to go eat there. It’s not just one of my favorite Park City eateries, but one of Utah’s best restaurants in my opinion.  And so, I was thrilled when I learned a few months ago that Adam and Meisha were...

318

Italy does a lot of things very well, but food undoubtedly ranks at the very top of its mastery. Although Italian food is mostly known for the savory classics like pizza and pasta, there are many delicious Italian desserts you should try at least once. One of them is pandoro, the star-shaped, golden-yellow sweet bread sprinkled with powdered sugar;...

238

The moment you sit down at an Italian dinner table, your journey begins with a mosaic of antipasto: olives, artisanal cheeses, cured meats, salted fish, sun-ripened vegetables, bruschetta, and crostini. This vibrant assortment of appetizers, full of color and flavor, awakens your senses and primes you for the meal to come. The Italian word antipast...

244

A name change signifies that Baci Pizza in East Naples is more than a pizzeria. It’s now Baci Trattoria & Pizza in a new restaurant space less than a mile away from its original location. “We moved away from pizza, and this location is more like a trattoria. A trattoria in Italian means homemade-style Italian food,” said Baci owner Francesco “Frank...

363

In 2019, I got an Italian grandmother for Christmas. Her name is Maria Volontà and she’ll be 100 years old in February. We’re not related by blood; and were strangers the day she first cooked me her Christmas Eve chickpea casserole, the same day she declared she was going to be my nonna now.   When Nonna Maria adopted me as her new pseudo-granddaug...

426