Apples, Spice, Farro & Rye

Recipes for a cozy cake and homemade apple butter, from a favorite cookbook; plus details for our December Holiday Bake-Along!

There’s a lot going on inside my head these days LOL…Illustration by Daniela Bracco

WELCOME to Buona Domenica, a weekly newsletter of Italian home cooking and baking. I’m a journalist, cooking teacher, occasional tour guide, and author of eight cookbooks on Italian cuisine.

Please note the temporary schedule changes to this newsletter. I’ve scaled back slightly while I work on my book. This is a bonus newsletter for paid subscribers (free subscribers receive a preview); the next newsletter for all subscribers will go out on Dec. 1.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR FOOD WRITERS IN PIEMONTE, FALL 2025: Join Kathy Gunst and me next October for our second Food Writers in Piemonte workshop. Please send me an email at domenica@domenicacooks.com for more information.

This week’s newsletter features two recipes for paid subscribers: Apple Butter Cake with Rye and Farro Flour, and Homemade Apple Butter, both adapted from the book Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce with Amy Scattergood.

SAVE THE DATE: Coming up December 14: A holiday bake-along for our paid community. Scroll down for details.

I had planned to post my Thanksgiving menu today, but I’m still refining it so I’ll send it out next Sunday.

On to the newsletter…

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I was recently asked how many cookbooks I own. Answer: I’ve never counted. There’s a big built-in bookcase in my breakfast-family room that filled up long ago. Next to it, the overflow stacks rest on the floor against the wall. There are more cookbooks in the office bookcases down the hall. If I had to guess, I’d say there are upwards of 500. Not a massive amount for someone who started collecting decades ago, but still a lot.

Many of these books are stuck throughout with colorful little tabs marking recipes I want to make. The cruel irony here is that rarely do I get to make these recipes because I’m too busy working on recipes of my own. However, I’ve made a promise to myself that I’m going to pay more attention to them and (again) ironically, now is a good time.

I am currently immersed in testing recipes for my new book, the manuscript for which is due in mid-February.