Eat, drink and be real Italian

MILAN — There is beauty in the absurd, fine art on the ceilings, trained truffle dogs and a network that has formed of women like Ornella Marcante of Milan, who are determined to preserve an often overlooked, underappreciated and, many believe, disappearing form of Italian culture: the culture of real Italian food.

When money matters, home cooking pays off

Dinner on a school night doesn’t have to be a grind. This year, however, the emphasis isn’t just on speed and ease; it’s also focusing on cost. With double-digit price increases for some staples and vastly higher prices at the gas pump, most of us are feeling a financial pinch as well as a time squeeze.

The Gourmet Touch: Excite young cooks with peanut butter

Recently, my 9-year-old granddaughter, Christi, was visiting me and wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She asked that I mix the two ingredients together instead of putting peanut butter on one side of the bread and jelly on the other.

Uncorked: Fun wines for the collector in you

Just about everyone collects something. Shells from the shore, baseball cards, antiques, great art, tractor seats, cookie jars, celebrity memorabilia and wine. There are many approaches to building a wine collection.

Beautiful to behold, better to eat eggplant

We first prepared this recipe for eggplant with linguine back in the early ’80s, when the idea of 'health food' meant vegetables with loads of butter and sour cream, as in the vegetable stroganoff recipe in Mollie Katzen’s 1977 Moosewood Cookbook.

In avocado heaven there’s more than guacamole

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Bill Steed used to facilitate mergers and acquisitions, working long hours that overlapped into his weekends. Carol Steed worked in real estate development, building custom homes while raising four sons.

Don’t say diet: Shrimp takes gazpacho to a new level

Gazpacho often calls for a generous amount of olive oil, but I slim this version down by adding extra red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. I prefer using V-8 in this recipe, but for those who don’t like that vegetable juice, toss in some tomato juice.

This isn’t your mother’s tuna salad

The wonderful flavor and texture of fresh tuna tops a refreshing salad of lettuce, sugar snap peas, corn and grape tomatoes. Searing tuna and leaving the inside uncooked keeps it moist and soft.

Cutlets deliver quick dinner

When you want chicken, and you want it snappy — which is to say just about every time you want chicken — these pounded cutlets are just the thing.