Category Archives: IN SEASON

When Food = Home

Posted on November 18, 2011 by The Daily Cure

Home is a lovely warm word, isn’t it? As round and enclosing as the womb. Womb, home—the two almost rhyme, but not quite. And what is home exactly, if not, in the end a metaphorical womb? A sensation. An instinct. … Continue reading →

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Puntarelle

Posted on April 5, 2011 by The Daily Cure

I’ve been wanting to write about puntarelle since I started this blog, and today is the day. This funny vegetable, which almost defies description and which I never saw in the United States, is the basis of one of my … Continue reading →

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Happiness is foraging for dinner

Posted on March 18, 2011 by The Daily Cure

I admit to being a bit blue this week. Hence the lack of a post to the “The Daily {French-Italian} Cure” on Wednesday. Somewhere between the earthquake, the fuming nuclear plants, the continual rain and maybe the shifted axis of … Continue reading →

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Radicchio rosso di Treviso tardivo

Posted on February 1, 2011 by The Daily Cure

Radicchio rosso di Treviso tardivo. a daunting polysyllabic mouthful referring to one of winter’s finer offerings: a variety of radicchio cultivated late in the growing season, November to February, depending on the weather. Perfectly crisp, pleasingly bitter and slightly sweet … Continue reading →

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Sicilian—or is that Milanese?—slaw

Posted on November 26, 2010 by The Daily Cure

On occasion, we have lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Milan, a hole in the wall in the Chinese district called Ottimo Fiore. Excellent flower. It’s Sicilian, and its walls are covered with photos of famous diners, such … Continue reading →

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Brutta ma buona

Posted on October 25, 2010 by The Daily Cure

Ugly but good. A perfect description for the beet, that brute of vegetables. When young, I despised beets, and there is inside me still today a vestigial revulsion. But this feeling has evolved into a well-rounded love-hate tending mostly toward … Continue reading →

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Pomegranates

Posted on October 14, 2010 by The Daily Cure

It seems tedious to admit it once again, but until I moved to Italy, I’d never tasted a pomegranate. Despite, or maybe because of, the Bible’s colorful mentions of this bizarre fruit (among them, Song of Solomon 7:12) I thought … Continue reading →

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Chestnuts. Castagne. Caldarroste.

Posted on September 25, 2010 by The Daily Cure

They’re here. Falling from the trees Spilling from boxes at the fruit and veg vendor. Bursting from their spiny skins. Bulging in the rough, burlap sacks that the street vendors buy in bulk. Each one a miniature work of art, … Continue reading →

Posted in IN SEASON, ITALY, SAVORING | 2 Comments

In season: Uva Americana

Posted on September 18, 2010 by The Daily Cure

It’s the time of the vendemmia or grape harvest, and in all the markets now you can find this irresistibly, seductive fruit. A pulp, sweet at first, sour if you bite into it, which pops out of a rather thick … Continue reading →

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