Technique: Bacon wrapped meat roulade

I learned this technique from the Sierra Mar cook book of Craig von Foester and I have been using it for years now. It works well with any lean meat – poultry, veal, venison, rabbit, or lean pork. The bacon gives lean meats much needed juiciness and smokiness.

Agnolotti dal plin

Agnolotti dal plin (agnolotti with a pinch) are wonderful filled pasta. The “pinch” forms these pockets at both ends of the pasta that catch the sauce very nicely. As most filled pastas, agnolotti are very versatile because you can use almost anything as filling – cheese, ground meat, vegetables, chopped seafood. It is also a…

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Cauliflower soup

This soup is great comfort dish for cold winter days – especially given that your choices of fresh produce a limited. It is very quick and easy to make, and you can store it in the fridge for a few days, or freeze it.

Octopus on patatas bravas

This dish can be served as canapés, as an appetizer or even a main course. I use it mostly as canapés when I host large groups of people for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Technique: Chopping and sautéing onions

This post is really an ode to the onion – the unsung hero of cooking. It’s the most basic and prevalent ingredient in (Western) cooking. It goes into the making of any stew, risotto, stock, broth, and sauce. There are probably many ways chop onions, but here is the one that works for me.

Brussels sprout salad with sun-dried tomatoes, almonds and feta

I copied / reverse engineered this recipe from one of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco – L’Ardoise where Chef Clement serves it with goat cheese and Balsamic reduction. My version pays homage to Bulgaria with the feta cheese. This is a perfect winter salad when your choices of fresh produce are limited. The almonds give…

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