Tag Archives: Recipes

Zitella's Favorite Recipes

Summer Brunch

In February 2016, in a blog post titled “Let’s Do Brunch!” I suggested that the cure for the frigid temperatures, along with a case of the winter blues, was to host a weekend brunch.  What could be better than a delicious array of warm comfort foods, all displayed on a brightly decorated table?  Besides, you don’t have to get up early; you get to eat bacon; and you have permission to pour some prosecco in your OJ or vodka in your tomato juice even though it’s not quite noon-time.  Brunch remains, in my opinion, a highly underrated meal.

Now it’s August, and the heat is on, so the fare is light and fresh, and the table set in cool, tranquil hues.

Here’s my idea of an easy-peasy summer menu:  a pitcher of iced coffee, a fresh fruit salad of juicy melons and red and blue berries, Greek yogurt, a simple egg frittata made with fresh herbs and garden tomatoes, and one of my all-time faves, lemon-poppy seed muffins.

Decorate your table in rich shades of cobalt and turquoise.  And, if you can, dine al fresco.  Invite a few friends, sit back and relax on your deck or terrace, or around the picnic table in your yard.  A simple meal, lively conversation, and good company is my recipe for a great summer brunch.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

 

Standard
Zitella's Favorite Recipes

A Recipe for the Happy Couple

When I opened the bridal shower invitation, a blue 4 by 6 index card fell out.  What is this? I thought, as I picked it up off the floor.  Then I skimmed the invitation for the who, where, and when.  At the bottom, right under the bridal registry info, was a simple request:

Please use this card to share one of your favorite recipes with the bride.

Although I have not yet met the bride, the groom is my cousin.  His mom is a very special cousin to me, and his grandmother was a lovely great-aunt.  I thought about holidays I’d spent with them when I was a child, and tried to remember some specific recipes my great-aunt had made.  But the bride would be getting those recipes from her new-mother-in-law.

While I have dozens of favorite recipes, I wanted to give the bride a recipe that the happy couple would surely enjoy.  And I had no idea what they’d like.  So I checked out the bridal registry for clues.

They’d registered for fun stuff: party platters, small plate dishes, a margarita pitcher and glasses, and cappuccino cups.  They were planning on doing a lot of entertaining.

An easy but elegant crowd-pleaser came to mind.  It looks like way more work to prepare than it actually is.  In fact, if you can separate an egg, you’ve got this.  So besides sharing it with the happy couple, I thought I’d share it with you.

Chocolate Mousse Recipe

Standard
Zitella's Favorite Recipes

Buona Pasqua!

The following is a re-post from 2016.

Easter Tulips

Buona Pasqua means Happy Easter in Italian.  Saying it evokes vivid childhood memories of Easters spent at my grandparents’ house.  I remember each and every Easter dress, coat, and hat I wore.  But mostly, I remember the food.

An Italian-American immigrant, my father’s mother was old-school when it came to holiday cooking.  For Easter, she made lamb.  A whole baby lamb.  Maybe it’s a texture thing, but I’ve never cared for it.  Despite the accompanying caramelized roasted vegetables that decorated the large oval meat platter, the lamb looked like a small dog sprawled out on the good bone china.  It was enough to make my little brother cry.  “It’s a puppy!  Don’t make me eat it…”

My reward for suffering through the lamb was the Easter bread, called “cuzzupe.”  My grandmother and her sister each made it differently.  A serrated knife was needed to saw through my grandmother’s cuzzupe, which was intentionally dry and hard, to symbolize unleavened bread, while my Aunt Theresa’s cuzzupe was moist with a subtle vanilla aroma.  Regardless of which sister you asked, getting the recipe for cuzzupe was not an easy thing.  My mother eventually pieced together this much from them:

7 ½ eggs
1 stick butter
1 ¼ tbs vanilla extract
2 ½ tbs sugar
3 ¾ tsp baking powder
Salt
Add flour, a little at a time – enough flour to knead
confectioner’s sugar and egg white for the icing

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?  Why were they so specific about the SEVEN AND A HALF eggs, yet so vague about the quantity of flour?  Did they know just how much flour was needed simply by how the dough felt in their hands?

When I began hosting Easter at my house, I tried making the cuzzupe.  It was a disaster.  Luckily my mother has the patience, and she continues to make it every year, adjusting the recipe here and there.

Me?  I like a sure thing.  So I make the “cassata” or Easter cheesecake.  And I’m happy to share the recipe with you.

Easter Cheesecake recipe

Standard
Zitella's Favorite Recipes

Buona Pasqua!

Easter Tulips

Buona Pasqua means Happy Easter in Italian.  Saying it evokes vivid childhood memories of Easters spent at my grandparents’ house.  I remember each and every Easter dress, coat, and hat I wore.  But mostly, I remember the food.

An Italian-American immigrant, my father’s mother was old-school when it came to holiday cooking.  For Easter, she made lamb.  A whole baby lamb.  Maybe it’s a texture thing, but I’ve never cared for it.  Despite the accompanying caramelized roasted vegetables that decorated the large oval meat platter, the lamb looked like a small dog sprawled out on the good bone china.  It was enough to make my little brother cry.  “It’s a puppy!  Don’t make me eat it…”

My reward for suffering through the lamb was the Easter bread, called “cuzzupe.”  My grandmother and her sister each made it differently.  A serrated knife was needed to saw through my grandmother’s cuzzupe, which was intentionally dry and hard, to symbolize unleavened bread, while my Aunt Theresa’s cuzzupe was moist with a subtle vanilla aroma.  Regardless of which sister you asked, getting the recipe for cuzzupe was not an easy thing.  My mother eventually pieced together this much from them:

7 ½ eggs cuzzupe
1 stick butter
1 ¼ tbs vanilla extract
2 ½ tbs sugar
3 ¾ tsp baking powder
Salt
Add flour, a little at a time – enough flour to knead
confectioner’s sugar and egg white for the icing

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?  Why were they so specific about the SEVEN AND A HALF eggs, yet so vague about the quantity of flour?  Did they know just how much flour was needed simply by how the dough felt in their hands?

When I began hosting Easter at my house, I tried making the cuzzupe.  It was a disaster.  Luckily my mother has the patience, and she continues to make it every year, adjusting the recipe here and there.

Me?  I like a sure thing.  So I make the “cassata” or Easter cheesecake.  And I’m happy to share the recipe with you.

Easter Cheesecake recipered poppy

Standard
Zitella's Favorite Recipes

Let’s Do Brunch!

Last weekend an old friend was in the city.  You may have heard it was cold here in Boston.  Frigid is not the right word.  Neither is arctic.  Try dangerously bone-chilling.  In fact, meteorologists warned that frostbite could occur after only a ten-minute exposure to the absurd temperature.  Needless to say, strolling through Boston’s Italian-American neighborhood, the North End, was no longer an option.  Likewise, shopping on Newbury Street was out of the question.  We had no choice but to chill – no pun intended – and stay in.

So I made brunch.

Brunch is, in my opinion, a highly underrated meal.  Think about it: you don’t have to get up early; you get to eat bacon; and you have permission to pour some prosecco in your OJ or vodka in your tomato juice even though it’s not quite noon-time.
orange cranberry sconesCall me the Queen of Brunch, but I like setting a colorful table.  A vase of red tulips, burgundy water glasses, and a few Marimekko red poppy plates are a great antidote for the winter blues.  A pot of strong coffee, an egg and veggie frittata, a warm fruit salad and you’ve got yourself the perfect meal for a lazy day.  And then there are the orange cranberry scones…

Are your weekdays harried and stressful?  Mine sure are.  When the weekend comes, we need to take a break, catch up with friends and family, stop texting and start talking.  What better way to do that than to stay in next weekend and make brunch?

Orange Cranberry Scone Recipe

red poppy

Standard