Baby artichokes are usually available in the springtime.  So, I was surprised to see them in the supermarket this time of year.  Baby artichokes are tender and delicious when braised.  The word affucati (affogati in Italian) in the Sicilian language means smothered or braised.  This is a simple braised artichoke recipe that my grandmother made. […]

Our family celebrates Christmas with a traditional seafood dinner on Christmas Eve, as most Italians do.  This year I decided to make baked scallops instead of the usual stuffed clams my kids love.  Here’s the reason why.  As I was cleaning out my kitchen drawers the other day, I found some natural baking scallop shells […]

The buccellato, also known as cuccidato, is a large pastry wreath filled with a fragrant spiced fig, raisin, and nut filling. Really, it is just a huge cookie as opposed to its smaller version of fig cookies known respectively as buccellati or cuccidati.  It’s a big tradition in Sicily to make these fig-filled sweets at […]

This is a different twist of the classic Sicilian cassata cake.  Cassata is a ricotta filled sponge cake that is typically wrapped in marzipan and has an icing glaze.  I usually skip the marzipan because it’s way too sweet for my liking.  This festive buche de Noel (aka Swiss roll) cassata is frosted with a […]