biscotti base

I love biscotti in just about every form, from sweet to savory. This is my go-to base for a sweet biscotti dough; you can customize it to your liking with almost any mix-in you desire. Any type of nut, dried fruit, chocolate chip, or combination will work -- just keep it to the specified amount.

You may wonder why I choose to use olive oil instead of butter. It's simple -- this recipe makes so many biscotti that it takes me a while to eat them all. Using olive oil helps them to keep longer without tasting "off" while the butter slowly goes rancid. Olive oil is also heart-healthy and brings an interesting fruity/peppery flavor to the cookie.  If you're not into the flavor of EVOO, you could sub some or all of it with canola oil (or any other oil for that matter). You could also use melted butter, but up the amount to 4 TB (since it's only 80% fat). Try browning your butter - this, too, makes a spectacular biscotti.

This recipe is for a pretty hard - but not tooth-crushing - biscotto; intended for dunking, though I eat them out of hand without a second thought.

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ratatouille lasagna

We've been trying to heed the advice of many nutritionists by cutting back on the amount of meat we're eating. Mark Bittman makes the case for "vegan before dinnertime", but we found that a little too restrictive since we like the occasional cold-cut sandwich for lunch. So we've modified the philosophy by trying to eat meat at only one meal per day; so far it has worked out pretty well.

Stuck on what to do with a boatload of veggies the other day, I realized I had everything I needed for ratatouille. As exciting as stewed vegetables sound, we wanted something a little more substantial for dinner. As it happened, I also had no-boil lasagna noodles -- hmm, would subbing ratatouille for the meat in my lasagna recipe work? As it happens, it works marvelously!

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my nephew, the baker

I'd like to think that I had a huge hand in shaping my nephew, Alex, into a KWLTC (kid who likes to cook), but his mom actually has done a great job by including him in lots of cooking activities.

My sister, Lauren, shot this video (in two parts). Enjoy watching a foodie in the making!

PS - He only bakes from scratch with me. I have to teach Lauren how to abandon the boxes :-)

The videos after the jump...

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pizza rustica (caution: this ain't pizza)

For as long as I can remember, my family has had big Sunday dinners. Singing, dancing, and plenty of eating are a common theme. Lots of antipasti are served, including this ricotta cheese pie (known as pizza rustica in Italy). The fillings are interchangeable and you can leave some of the meats out if you don't have access to them all. The dough is a little bit sweet, which makes for a great foil to the intensely salty meats and cheeses in the filling.

This pie is very traditional for the two days buttressing lent -- "Carnevale" (the day before Ash Wednesday) and Easter Sunday. I imagine that good Catholic Italians stay away from it during lent because it doesn't exactly speak to "sacrifice." We enjoy it year-round. C'est la vie. It's wonderful warm, room temperature, or even chilled.

A trick for those who are pie-averse because of the dough: just buy 9-inch deep dish pre-made pie shells. My supermarket even sells them in a sweet variety, which mimics the sweetness of this dough. However, I encourage you to try the homemade version here -- you don't have to roll it out, you just press it into a greased cake pan. What (other than the pre-made shells) could be easier?

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