Well it’s been a fun week making and blogging about pasta, my first official non-sweet (or baking) topic here on joepastry.com. I didn’t even come close to doing it justice, sadly, the topic is so incredibly broad. But then life is long, I’ll probably find my way back to it one day. There’s only one […]
READ ONWhich sauces go with what pastas? That there, my friend, is what you call your can of worms. A question that’ll start a fist fight in any trattoria this side of Brindisi. And in fact selecting accompaniments to different shapes of pasta is more an art than a science. The best maxim I’ve ever heard […]
READ ONI remember the first time I consciously sat down and ate an authentic Italian sugo. It was at a restaurant in Chicago and the menu entry said something like: Papparedelle in Meat Sauce: wide-cut semolina pasta served with our own hearty meat sugo. Sounded like just the thing on a cold Chicago night. I was […]
READ ONEver wonder how, in an era like the Middle Ages, an army could take over most of the known world in just a couple of decades? Well I have dammit. World events moved at a snail’s pace back then. France and England went to war for 116 years without deciding much of anything. The papacy […]
READ ONThis of course has no bearing on anything I’m talking about this week. It’s just a dessert I made the other night for a particularly fussy friend. He’s an Italian gentleman with particular tastes and strong opinions, the sort of fellow who doesn’t hesitate to say things like “This is excellent, though I would have […]
READ ONWARNING: The following post has nothing whatsoever to do with noodles. But then neither did the travels of Marco Polo, so what are you complaining about? So who exactly was Marco Polo? An explorer? Yes, but only secondarily. First and foremost he was a Venetian, which in those days meant he was a businessman, looking […]
READ ONSpeaking of China, it seems doughnuts are all the rage now in Southeast Asia and China, a very auspicious development both for Dunkin’ Donuts and the ailing Krispy Kreme. Speaking for myself I’d love to try some of the flavors chains are turning out over there: green tea, honeydew melon, strawberry and sesame. A little […]
READ ONAt long last my old categories are back up, every bit as good as they ever were. Alas the same cannot be said of my links list that was trashed last month when whoever-it-was torpedoed the site. I’ve got a few that I remembered back up there, but the list is far from complete. So […]
READ ONI maintain that the reason you see so many chefs on television nowadays is because most of them will do anything to get out of the kitchen. Work in a restaurant for a while and you’ll see what I mean. Even the “exciting” ones are incredibly redundant places. When they’re not boring you to tears […]
READ ONSally C. from Tip of the Iceberg writes: Tell your friend in “Old Towne” that’s what coops were invented for. Grandma (Aunt Della, really) had laying hens and milk cows so every morning and evening we gathered the eggs and milked the cows. Her coop was set up so you could reach for the eggs […]
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