Tanti Auguri!
Celebrating a year of Buona Domenica + a recipe for chocolate amaretti
Although it feels like a just a few weeks to me, a full year has passed since I shared my first recipe here on Substack for my favorite Sunday sauce, and typed out the publication’s purpose:
My aim here is to provide you with a generous helping of cooking inspiration every Sunday, with a particular focus on sharing high-quality, thoroughly tested recipes—the kind that have defined my work—along with Italian food and travel stories, interviews, and more. This idea has been ping-ponging around my head for awhile and I’m happy to be finally putting it out into the world.
Now that we’ve made that first trip around the sun, I thought it would be nice to pause for a moment and take a look back before we forge ahead into Year 2, which will see us delve deeper into Italian cooking, with more interviews and hopefully many more travel stories.
In the past 12 months, I’ve posted nearly 70 recipes (!), with links to more. As I was going through the archive the other day, I came across a few, like this one, that even I had forgotten about. For those who are new here (Welcome!) or have been too busy to keep up, I’ve picked some highlights (one from each month) for you to click on below. Be sure to also check out the full archive when you have time, including all of Daniela’s fanciful illustrations (did you notice the edible “flowers” in the one at the top of this post?). I am also putting together a Recipe Index, which will live on my Buona Domenica homepage. It will make finding recipes easier and should be done in a couple of weeks.
I am excited about the community we are building here of lovers of Italian food and culture. I enjoy connecting with you every Sunday (and sometimes in between), through comments, chats, and in other ways. A couple of weeks ago, I hosted a casual online get-together with a group of Founding Members, in which we drank Garibaldi Spritzes and made pasta. It was an uplifting afternoon and I’ve resolved to host more of these with premium subscribers.
To celebrate this one-year anniversary, I’m giving away an annual subscription to Buona Domenica. Entering is easy: just click on the little heart icon at the top of this post, and leave a comment in the comments section below. Tell me something you love about Italian food and cooking—a favorite recipe, an ingredient, a cookbook, or whatever strikes you. (The winner will be announced next Sunday.)
I’m also sharing a new recipe. Last week I promised “something sweet for all.” The recipe I had in mind when I wrote that is still in beta mode (sorry to say that many expensive and delicious hazelnuts from Piedmont are being harmed in the process but hopefully it will be worth it when it’s done). So instead, I’m sharing a cookie recipe from my new book, Everyday Italian.
For premium subscribers: On Tuesday, I’ll be sending out the recipe for a favorite weeknight pasta that I’ve been making for decades—since the 1980s—but have somehow never posted about. It comes together fast, and it’s especially welcome when temps are frigid, as they are now in parts of the U.S.
Buona Domenica Year One Highlights
2022
February: I explored the subject of Italian rice and other pantry items with Rolando Beramendi, founder of Manicaretti Italian Food Importers. He shared his recipes for Risotto al Radicchio and Budino di Riso.
March: A Siclian chef’s inspiring take on Linguine alle Vongole, plus a recipe for the classic version.
April: Short & Sweet: recipes for Strawberry Cream Crostata and Lemon Crostata; plus my foolproof recipe for Pasta Frolla (pastry).
May: A deep dive into the making of Le Virtù, a traditional spring soup from Abruzzo that contains no fewer than 40 ingredients and takes days to assemble.
June: A recipe for Rome’s iconic Maritozzo, a whipped cream-filled sweet bun.
July: It was such fun to explore Venetian cicchetti (snacks) in this Q & A with
in which she shared 3 recipes from her book on the subject.August: My favorite childhood treat (granita di caffè con panna) and how to make it at home.
September: A really good, adaptable recipe for whole-wheat focaccia.
October: My go-to dish to make when returning from vacation.
November: That time
came by and shared her recipe for Pinolata Senese.December: Christmas Calamari and other fishy dishes for Christmas Eve.
2023
January: Dipping into the Via Carota Cookbook, and a recipe for Tuscan onion soup.
And here we are! Looking back at these posts and others, I found myself thinking, “Whoa, these are all over the map.” But that’s how my brain works. I feel compelled to write about what’s on my mind and what I’m cooking in the moment. Even if things are all over the map, the map is Italy, so there is consistency after all.
Readers: What have you enjoyed most about this newsletter in its first year? What would you like to see more of? Please let me know in the comments. Thank you.
SOME LINKS
It’s been a minute since I sent out a round of links.
What I’m reading: Just started a novel called I Segreti della Villa in Collina, by Daniela Sacerdoti (great-niece of the writer Carlo Levi). Still working my way through Red Comet, the biography of Sylvia Plath. It’s both meticulously detailed and a good read but I can only take it in short stretches. She was so intense that even decades after her death, as a character on a page, she manages to consume all the air in the room.
If you’re passing through Rome and have a couple of hours to spare,
of knows just what you should do with them (it involves two confections, one of pastry, the other of marble).Speaking of Rome, the swooping formations created by the city’s starlings in the winter evening skies is a transfixing sight. But the birds also wreak havoc in neighborhoods and on the environment. (Washington Post)
Hat tip to
for linking to this piece about the anti-pasta crusade waged by fascists in early 20th century Italy and a prize-winning pasta named for one of them. (Atlas Obscura)This tasty homage to Detroit-style pizza (with a detailed recipe) from
of has me wishing I had paid more attention to it during the seven years I lived in Detroit in the 1980s and ‘90s. I see some pizza making in my near future. (Paywall)What I’m watching: Loved the Netflix adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel La Vita Bugiarda degli Adulti (The Lying Life of Adults), told through the eyes of a teenage girl growing up in 1990s Naples. I’ve read the book in English and now want to go back and read it in the original Italian.
What I’m cooking: I’ve started developing recipes for the popular website The Mediterranean Dish. You can find my detailed recipe (plus a video) for Italian wedding soup here.
I’m working on some polenta recipes, which brought to mind one that I posted awhile back on my website: Polenta Incatenata, a hearty dish composed of borlotti beans, kale, potatoes, onions, and carrots, all simmered together and then simmered again with cornmeal. As you stir and stir, the vegetables become softer and softer, eventually turning into a porridge of sorts, gentle in flavor and creamy in texture.
RECIPE: Chocolate Amaretti
Made with ground almonds, cocoa powder, sugar, and egg whites, these tender, naturally gluten-free cookies can be tossed together in minutes. I use whole blanched almonds, which I grind in a food processor. To me, they have more flavor and a better texture than almond flour for this recipe. You can substitute almond flour, but the texture of the cookies will be firmer, as the flour has less fat than ground almonds, so you may need to use less of it.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Buona Domenica to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.