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Totally Fresh Tomato Lasagna

West of Sienna, sunflowers paint the softly rolling hills as far as the eye can see. The road dips and sways through the Tuscan landscape, with shoulder high banks that rise to either side. Swallows glide on late afternoon thermals in the clear blue sky. At an opening to one field a man holds up […]

The State of British Pizza: 2010

Mauro with the woodfired oven at San Carlo on Granby Street in Leicester

The following are notes from Sortachef’s recent trip to the UK.

July 21st, Bloomsbury, Central London

While walking to Covent Garden after depositing our bags at the hotel, I spy a well-dressed man at a […]

Camping Clam Spaghetti: Dinner in the Redwoods

Ancient stands of redwood trees loom majestically, lords of the forest. Clinging to great swaths of land along California’s northern coast, they foster an astonishing density of life – birds, animals, mosses, shrubs, and wildflowers. On entering the forest, you feel exhilarated and at the same time very small. Once you have been to the […]

Antipasto Peppers with Italian Tuna

My Italian was not at all up to this. ‘Lo sportello automatico non pagare il denaro,’ I said to the beautifully tailored man across the desk from me – as close as I could get with my tourist phrase books to ‘the bank machine ate my money.’ I felt perspiration rise on the back of […]

Rome’s Best Pizza: Prosciutto with Porcini Mushroom

Our waiter was clearly worried. He guided us to a table with a view out onto the Campo, jabbed menus into our hands and headed back to confer with the indoor waiter. Standing nervously at the arched doorway, he leveled a severe look on a group of Italian tourists drinking from paper cups at one […]

Woodfired Roast Chicken

My college buddy and I huddled in darkness beside an old wooden fence, shivering and cursing the farmer who had put us up to this. A sliver of moon shone thin light upon a stone farmhouse where the farmer and his wife sat, no doubt in the glow of a roaring fire. The same trickle […]

French Flambé Pizza: Onion, Prosciutto and Comte with Cream Sauce

‘I don’t want to go bowling!’ My son stamped his foot.

‘When you’re in France,’ I said in my best, all-knowing fatherly voice, ‘you do what French people do.’ I ruffled his hair and he pulled away.

‘But bowling?’ he howled. ‘Who goes to France to go bowling?’

Well, I guess he had a point. […]

Tanzanian Safari Bread

The smoke of a thousand distant fires greets us at Kilimanjaro Airport. A tangled sleep punctuated by weird animal calls in the night is broken by the scampering of monkeys on the roof above our heads. The families gather for breakfast: eggs done several ways, bacon, cereal, fresh fruit, coffee. Any fears my kids had […]

Italian Tuna and the Antipasto Plate

Somewhere between the former hospital of San Lorenzo and the Porta Nuova we began to wilt. The sun blazed. The children whined. The paintings we’d been to see had been uninspiring. And as usual, we’d gotten a late start so we were out during the mezzojourno – that time of day when all self-respecting Italians […]

Spaghetti Carbonara with Roasted Garlic

The woman at the desk was sympathetic but unable to help. ‘Ciao, ciao,’ she said into the phone. ‘Ciao,ciao. Ciao,grazie.’ She put down the phone and looked from my wife’s tear-streaked face to our children who were languishing on an empty trolley. ‘Well,’ she said to me, brightly. ‘You’ll have to go shopping!’

Sure […]

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Etiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa.

Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan. Morbi orci magna, tincidunt vitae molestie nec, molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem, suscipit in posuere in, interdum non magna.