Comfort Food, Holiday Edition
Two recipes that are both cozy and celebratory; plus links to more festive recipes
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.
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This week’s newsletter features two comfort food recipes for paid subscribers: Soupy Rice with Celeriac and Chestnuts, from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook Cook, Eat, Repeat; and Cipolle Ripiene, (Baked Stuffed Onions), from Gennaro Contaldo’s new book SLOW. Plus links to more holiday recipes.
We have Buona Domenica prints available! Daniela and I have chosen three of her newsletter illustrations to offer for sale as prints. They are printed in Italy on high-quality paper and make great holiday gifts. (Scroll down for details).
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.
Click here to browse through the newsletter archive. If you’re looking for a particular recipe, you’ll find all Buona Domenica recipes—178 and counting—indexed here, ready to download and print—a function for paid subscribers. If you are able to do so, please consider supporting my work by becoming one.
There has not been much cooking going on at my house since Thanksgiving. Plenty of baking—for the book I’m working on, not the holidays—and most of what I’ve been making gets squirreled away in the freezer ahead of next month’s photo shoot so is off limits. Except for the failures; any and all are welcomed to those.
On the savory side, there’s been lots of takeout (Indian, Lebanese, pizza, Thai), some easy pastas, frittatas, and, thanks to my husband, a chicken rotisseried on the grill. Still, I have managed to squeeze in a couple of slightly more ambitious home-cooked dinners. I’ve found cooking to be oddly therapeutic after long days of precise measuring (by weight and volume), batter folding, dough kneading, cookie stamping, and fussy (and not so fussy) decorating.
One of the recipes I’m sharing—a comforting rice-based vegetable soup—comes from British supertar food writer Nigella Lawson. I was reminded of it a couple of weeks ago when my friend and fellow food writer Jenny Linford* posted a photo of the soup on her Instagram account. As soon as I saw it, I pulled Nigella’s book Cook, Eat, Repeat from my shelves and—wouldn’t you know—when I flipped to the page I found that I had already bookmarked the recipe. This soup is a good end-of-day dish to make, as the prep work of chopping up a celery root and leek is straightforward and gives you a chance to slow down a bit as you dice and then and simmer everything together in a pot.
* I’ve mentioned Jenny’s work before in this newsletter. She’s an accomplished food writer and author of numerous books, and also host of a delicous and informative podcast called A Slice of Cheese.
Coincidentally, the second recipe—mortadella-stuffed onions slowly baked in the oven—comes from another Londoner, the perennially popular Britalian chef Gennaro Contaldo (perhaps best known as mentor to Jamie Oliver). It is published in his new book, SLOW: Easy, Comforting Italian Meals Worth Waiting For. (I’ve bookmarked quite a few recipes in this book, including a lamb and butternut squash stew and a sweet almond ciambella).
Both of these dishes are excellent for those days in between holiday feasts, when you want something nourishing and not too fussy but still just a little special. But it occurred to me as I was typing up the recipes that both would also be right at home on the holiday table. The soup, which brings together soulful winter ingredients—celery root, leek, and chestnuts—would make a fine first course if you happen to be cooking a roast of any sort, whether turkey, ham, prime rib, or salmon. The onions, richly stuffed with minced mortadella, chopped walnuts, and a generous quantity of grated Parmigiano cheese, could themselves be a main course. But if you swap in smaller onions for the large ones called for in the recipe, you will have a first-rate holiday side dish.
Scroll down for both recipes, available to paid subscribers.
What recipes are you cooking in between holiday feasts?
BUONA DOMENICA PRINTS FOR SALE!
A friendly reminder that three of Daniela’s original Buona Domenica prints are available for purchase! They are:
TORTA CAPRESE
BOMBSHELL SPAGHETTI
RADICCHIO
(Click on the titles above to see the original posts with which the prints are associated.)
DETAILS
QUANTITY: We are offering limited quantities (25) of each print
SIZE: Each print is 12 x 15.75 inches (30 x 40 cm), including the white border. They are printed in Italy on high-quality paper.
PRICE: $50 (USD) per print, plus $10 shipping, but paid subscribers receive a $10 discount ($40 plus shipping).
HOW TO ORDER
For now, prints are available to those residing in the U.S. or Canada, though we hope to expand availability. The prints will eventually be available to buy online through my Domenica Cooks website, which is hosted on Squarespace. This will simplify the transaction process.
For the time being, simply send me an email (domenica [at] domenicacooks.com) if you are interested in ordering prints, and I will reply directly to arrange the purchase. We accept payment through PayPal, Venmo, or check.
The colors of these prints are as vibrant as they appear in the photos above. They are truly beautiful and will make wonderful and unique holiday gifts!
RECIPE: Soupy Rice with Celeriac and Chestnuts
“You will not get blown away by this,” Nigella Lawson warns in the head note that accompanies the recipe for this wintry soup. “This is not to disparage it: it is a favorite in my house,” she adds. “There’s just something quiet and lovely about it that seems to still the air around you as you eat.”
Honestly, this is exactly what I’m looking for in a good home cooking recipe. And this one, published in Lawson’s 2020 book Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes and Stories, delivers. My family loved it—the rich, starchy rice and tender cubes of celery root—a much overlooked winter ingredient. And, chestnut fiend that I am, I adored the pairing of the starchy rice and vegetable with yet another starchy, and oft overlooked, ingredient.
And, while we are on the subject of overlooked ingredients, this soup also calls for a small amount of ground mace (the lacy outer covering of the nutmeg seed). Rarely do I see recipes that called for mace, a spice with such appealing warmth. Don’t skip it.
Click on the green button for the full, printable recipe, available to paid subscribers.
RECIPE: Cipolle Ripiene | Baked Stuffed Onions
Fat, round onions, richly stuffed with mortadella, walnuts and cheese and slowly baked in the oven. We have perennially popular Britalian chef, Gennaro Contaldo, to thank for this dream of a recipe. If you’re American, you might not be familiar with Contaldo, but he is much beloved in Great Britain. He is perhaps best known as the mentor to onetime Food Network star Jamie Oliver. But he is also a restaurateur, television host, and author of numerous books on Italian cooking.
The recipe is from Chef Contaldo’s latest book, Slow: Easy, Comforting Italian Meals Worth Waiting For. The book is filled with rustic recipes that are both easy to make and also celebratory. Indeed, these gloriously stuffed onions would make a wonderful main dish on a winter’s night, just as they would be right at home on a holiday buffet table, alongside a roast, greens, and other sides. (Recipe slightly adapted)
Click on the green button for the full, printable recipe, available to paid subscribers.
MORE HOLIDAY RECIPE LINKS
It’s likely your inbox is already filled with holiday menu ideas. Or maybe you have longstanding traditions that you like to keep to. But in case you are in need of a little inspiration during these harried weeks, here are some links to help you out.
The first is a post I wrote in 2022 and pretty much sums up my annual Christmas Eve feast. The post is archived behind the paywall, but I’ve opened it up temporarily for all because it contains recipes for my two favorite Christmas Eve dishes.
I’m also linking to a Feast of Seven Fishes menu assembled last year by Italian food writer
, to which I contributed a recipe. And, I’ve pulled together links to a few other holiday-worthy recipes from the Buona Domenica index but that might not be immediately evident, as recipes in the index are listed by course rather than occasion (most are archived behind the paywall).
Enrica’s Feast of Seven Fishes
Scrippelle 'Mbusse (Crepes in Broth)
Short Rib Bollito with Salsa Verde
Orange Salad with Radicchio, Red Onion, and Taggiasca Olives
Mostaccioli: Spiced Christmas Cookies
As always, thank you for reading, subscribing, and sharing.
Alla prossima,
Domenica
Ms Marchetti--Slightly off topic, but I wanted to express my thanks for your beautiful book, PRESERVING ITALY. It is one of the best resources I have and use it frequently when I'm preserving or teaching a preserving class. Thank you for such a beautiful resource. ~Janet, the Simmering Chef
So filled with comfort (and joy!) love everything, got my eye on the stuffed onions 🧅 can’t wait for your book, Chicago needs to be on the tour, Domenica! xx