By Debra Samuels, Globe Correspondent WALTHAM — Paul Ursino, 65, is retiring after almost four decades running Salem Food Store on Moody Street. With its deli counter, freezers, and well- stocked Italian pantry items, Salem Food Store specialized in imported cheeses, cured meats, specialty pastas, coffee, Italian bread, and handmade ricotta and sausages, produced locally. …
Read moreSylvia Poggioli loves Rome’s food culture and cooking with vegetables.
Read moreI took a walk through the Campo de’ Fiori, a market with, flowers, food, spices and housewares. The spring vegetables are all shades of green from the yellow green of the Fava beans to the light green of puntarelle, chicory hearts (stems), and all the deep hues of the broccoli, artichokes and chicory. I have …
Read moreWe arrived in Rome on March 1st after 6 months in Tokyo, for the second leg of my husband Dick’s sabbatical year. I hope to catch up with a photo log of our time there. I think I had a bit of writer’s block after the publication of My Japanese Table in September, so I …
Read moreMENFI, Italy — We weave our way out of the densely packed city of Palermo at rush hour and drive south through western Sicily. The road slices through a valley surrounded by huge rocky outcroppings. The sky is a deep blue and green fields stretch ahead like a velvet patchwork bordered by a riot of …
Read morePALERMO, Italy — Nestled among the faded gray and peeling concrete buildings, some still cratered by World War II bombings, sits one of the liveliest markets in Sicily. Bright red and blue awnings cover hundreds of stalls in the colorful Ballarò, the most extensive of many markets in this charming, chaotic city. I traverse the …
Read moreROME — A nattily dressed gentleman, unlit cigar poised between his lips, studies the pastas in a soccer-field-length supermarket aisle. Signore Pino Magno is an Italian diplomat who loves to cook. He is choosing pasta to go with one of his sauces. After much consideration, Magno decides on a bag of casarecce, a delicately once-twisted, …
Read moreMAGLIANO, Italy – There you are, dining al fresco on a warm summer’s eve in the Italian countryside. Plates of the ”gastronomia tipica” (local dish) are splayed out before you, and a pitcher of hearty wine is being passed your way. You are engulfed in a lively, informal atmosphere. The flow of food and conversation …
Read moreYou would think a trip to Italy for a food lover would send her scrambling for guides to the endless trattorias, ristorantes, and osterias. When cooking is your passion, however, what can be better than staying in a house with a kitchen? My family recently took a house in the small town of Magliano in …
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