Flavia's Flavors | A taste of Italy in your home kitchen

February 14, 2017

Occhi di Bue

Happy Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, I made occhi di bue, one of my favorite Italian cookies. They are a simple sandwich-style cookie made of pasta frolla typically cut into a circle with a thin slip of fruit preserves, fruit curd, or Nutella spread in between. The top half of every cookie has a smaller circle cut out so the filling is visible. Every Italian pasticceria (pastry shop) or biscottificio (cookie shop) will almost always have occhi di bue behind their impeccably clean glass counters, lined with tray after tray of beautifully presented cookies, crostate, cakes, and pastries. We spent the last day of our […]

January 31, 2017

Polenta

Benvenuti to this year’s first Cucina Conversations post and the first “basics” post of the year! It’s been a long while since I posted a “basics” post, so I’m glad to be sharing another Italian staple recipe again. This month, we have chosen comfort food as our topic and my contribution is one of my favorites: polenta. Although comfort food is often associated with the colder months of the year, it truly doesn’t have a season, and the dishes that encompass this category are different for everyone, which makes this topic a particular favorite of mine. I enjoy learning what other people consider their comfort […]

January 28, 2017

Blood Orange Scented Cornmeal Cake

Buon anno, friends! It’s lovely to be back here writing after a much-needed break. I came back from Italy rested and refreshed. I also came home to all the things to catch up on, so it’s taken me longer to get back to blogging. I can’t believe it’s already the end of January! Now that I’m (mostly) caught up, I’ve been able to spend more time researching recipes to share here in the new year and I am excited to get cooking and writing. I love how travel gets my creative juices flowing, and after every trip to Italy, I not […]

December 20, 2016

Pizzelle

Welcome to the December edition of Cucina Conversations! This month, we made our theme a little broader and are bringing you Italian recipes that are perfect for sharing and gift-giving during the Christmas season. I love baking year-round, but I really love baking during the holidays. The Christmas music comes on Thanksgiving Day, I spend a day or two with my nose in my cookbooks deciding which recipes to make for my annual cookie gift tins, and then my kitchen turns into a cookie-making factory for a solid two weeks (or more). Gifting homemade cookies from my kitchen to our dearest […]

December 16, 2016

Parmigiano Thyme Crackers

For those of you who know me well, you know I am an Ina Garten devotee/fan/worshipper. I own all of her cookbooks, watch repeats of her show, and triple check the DVR to make sure it’s set to record her newest episodes. I admire her cooking and entertaining style, particularly her philosophy of using best-quality ingredients to cook simple and flavorful recipes. There is nothing pretentious about any of her recipes–they are comforting, familiar, and always foolproof (seriously, I have never had one of her recipes fail). I especially admire her talent for taking every recipe she makes and presenting it beautifully […]