Flavia's Flavors - Page 4 of 8 - A Taste of Italy in Your Home Kitchen

Caprese Salad

August 16, 2016

Tucked away in an old photo album somewhere is a picture of a seven or eight year-old me in long, wind-whipped pig tails and sunglasses pointing to something in the distance, a mouthed exclamation caught midway. The photo was most likely taken by my dad, who was quite the shutterbug when I was a kid. We were traveling aboard a speedboat around the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri. It’s all I remember about this photo; I have no recall of anything else–how we got there, why we went, where we stayed, or what we ate. The thought of this photo is never […]

Roasted Bell Pepper Salad

August 8, 2016

During the summer months, bell peppers are one of my favorite vegetables to have on hand. They’re practically overflowing out of the bins at the grocery store and they’re priced affordably, which gives me the perfect excuse to make this roasted bell pepper salad, one of my favorite summer side dishes. In Italian, this dish is known as peperoni arrostiti. I grew up eating this often where it was served alongside grilled flank steak, pork roast, or roasted chicken. Lately, this salad has been part of our Friday night “no-cook” dinners where I serve it with a platter of prosciutto, a refreshing Caprese salad, and […]

Pesto Genovese

July 26, 2016

I never gave much thought to the seasonality of fresh produce. I grew up eating seasonally both at home in Maryland and at the homes of my paternal grandparents, and great-aunts in Italy. There was a small garden in the back yard in Maryland, and an enormous garden in my paternal Nonna’s back yard in northern Italy, complete with fruit trees and a chicken coop. For my maternal great-aunts in Rome, apartment living only gave them room for a few pots of flowers and herbs on the balcony, but they shopped for the produce from a nearby mercato daily and it often came from a […]

Chickpea Flatbread

June 17, 2016

Emiko Davies’ Florentine: The True Cuisine of Florence arrived in my mailbox earlier this year after much anticipation. I have enjoyed Emiko’s blog for several years, and I look forward to her informative articles about Italian food, history, and culture on Food 52. She also writes a food column for the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera and did a video interview for the publication’s Le Donne del Cibo series. Her Instagram feed is one of my favorites for its gorgeous captures of her daily life in Tuscany, her travels, her food photos, and her adorable daughter whom I’m convinced is one of the cutest kids on Instagram. Over […]

Ricotta and Lemon Ciambellone

May 25, 2016

I’ve recently added several wonderful Italian cookbooks to my ever-growing cookbook shelves. One of the first cookbooks I bought for myself this year was Rachel Roddy’s My Kitchen in Rome: Recipes and Notes on Italian Cooking. I pre-ordered it as soon as it was available and then waited eagerly for what seemed like an eternity, but the wait was well worth it. I’ve been reading Rachel’s blog for several years and am also a faithful reader of her new weekly column in The Guardian. Her photos on Instagram are some of my favorites, particularly those of her now very famous sink, which is often […]

Chicken Croquettes

May 13, 2016

Hi friends! I’m so happy to be back here. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my post from a few days ago where I finally announced why this year has been just a tad crazy. If you missed it, the reason for the radio silence lately is because I’ve been helping Peter move into a new office space as he begins a new life chapter running the family business. After working alongside his father for the past eighteen years, Peter is now at the helm of the business his dad started over forty years ago, and his […]