Hello Domenica. Can you please tell us a little about yourself, where you live and your Substack publication, Buona Domenica?
A: I am a former journalist who long ago turned my reporting skills to food writing. I am the author of nine books on Italian cooking and baking. My latest book, ITALIAN COOKIES: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region, was published this past April. I split my time between suburban D.C. and Abruzzo, Italy, though I travel throughout Italy for work and inspiration.
My Substack is Buona Domenica, a weekly recipe-focused newsletter published every Sunday. In it, I share stories, recipes, and Italian cooking and baking inspiration. I currently have nearly 200 recipes in my growing archive—it’s like having an ever-expanding Italian cookbook at your fingertips. Each newsletter is beautifully illustrated by Daniela Bracco, an Italian graphic artist who is from Sicily and lives in Rome.
Q: Can you please describe the layout of your kitchen, how much of a role does it play with your family, when writing for your substack publication ‘Buona Domenica’?
A: My kitchen in Virginia gives the impression of being large because it’s an open space, but it’s actually not that large. It’s the perfect size for me. It’s a U-shaped layout, with an island in the middle, and countertops and appliances (fridge, range, cabinets & drawers, sink) forming the U around the island. We had it redone about a dozen years ago, and though there are some things I would probably change now, I still love it. My great loves are the green tile backsplash and the Lacanche range, which was a splurge but which I use literally every single day.
My kitchen in Abruzzo also feels larger than it is. It has very limited counter space and is one of those modular kitchens that are standard in Italy. Nothing is fabulous but everything works, and I love cooking in it. Its best feature is that it opens onto a postage stamp-sized terrace where I hang laundry to dry and can gaze over the hills all the way down to the Adriatic Sea.
Q: What are your most used kitchen gadgets that you cannot live without?
A: I have several medium and large Le Creuset and Staub Dutch ovens that I use all the time—for soup, sauces, stews and braises, etc. I use a bench scraper for scooping up everything from diced vegetables and doughs to cleaning up spilled wet coffee grounds off the floor (I actually had to do this and it worked perfectly).
I’m a big fan of “unplugged” tools and gadgets. I love my hand-crank pasta machine, which is more than 30 years old; and all my other pasta tools: wooden dowels and brass rods, ravioli stamps, my mother’s chitarra, to cut noodles, and my mortars and pestles, which I use not only for pesto, but also for other sauces, and pounding nuts, spices, and other ingredients.
Q: You teach cooking classes, online and IRL. Can you tell us how this all came about and how people can get involved?
A: I started teaching classes when I was promoting my first cookbook, The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy, and really took to it. I started teaching online classes during the pandemic. At first, I wasn’t sure the format would work. How, for example, would I be able to tell people whether their pasta dough was the right consistency if I couldn’t touch it for myself? Especially with pasta classes, newcomers can be quite timid when it comes to making fresh pasta.
But what I found was that people really rose to the challenge. For one thing, everyone was in their own kitchen, so there is a level of familiarity there. And since everyone was on their own, even as we were all together on Zoom, people had no alternative but to roll up their sleeves and just do it.
I’ve taught a variety of pasta classes, from simple semolina and water cavatelli to complicated stuffed pastas and showstoppers like lasagne di crespelle. I’ve also taught homemade cannoli, gnocchi, menu classes, and aperitivi classes. At the moment, classes are on hiatus while I am working on my book, but I hope to resume them in the spring, and will announce details in my newsletter, Buona Domenica.
Q: You occasionally host culinary tours and workshops in Italy. Can you tell us about these and some of the places they are held?
A: I host tours just once or twice a year, and food writing workshops also once or twice a year. For several years I co-hosted tours in Abruzzo, which is where my family is from and where I spend much of my time in Italy. However, my collaborators (who handled logistics) no longer run tours, so for the time being the Abruzzo tour is on hiatus. I do, however, still host tours in northern Italy, specifically Liguria, Piemonte, and Emilia-Romagna, in collaboration with a small, woman-owned tour company. We share the same philosophy in that we like to keep our tours small and sustainable (no big buses!) and we do our best to steer clear of places that are overrun with tourists, like Cinque Terre.
Meeting food artisans and exploring lesser-known places is really the focus of the tours. The workshops focus on various aspects of food writing, everything from voice to interviewing skills to recipe writing, and how those skills can be applied, whether you’re writing a newsletter, a book, articles, or a private journal.
Q: How would you describe the regional cuisine where you live in Italy? Are there fresh food markets, or farmers’ markets available? What are they like?
A: Nearly everywhere I go in Italy, whenever I say I’m from Abruzzo, I invariably hear: “Ah, in Abruzzo si mangia bene!” The region is known for its rather rustic and still-genuine cuisine. Many restaurants, especially in the smaller towns and countryside, are still family-owned and run, some for many generations. Because of Abruzzo’s topography—it extends from the Apennine mountains out to the Adriatic coast—the food is quite diverse, as there are many microclimates.
There’s the mountain cuisine—grilled meats, sausages and succulent lamb skewers called arrosticini. There are the legumes and grains of the high plains: lentils, chickpeas, and farro. There are hearty pasta dishes, the most well-known being spaghetti (or maccheroni) alla chitarra, a sturdy, square-cut noodle that is formed on a rectangular wooden instrument strung with wires. The pasta is typically served with a robust ragù made with various cuts of meat—pork, lamb, beef—as well as sausages and, on special occasions, tiny veal meatballs. Big ravioli filled with fresh sheep’s milk ricotta and potato gnocchi are two other signature pasta dishes.
As you move towards the coast, there are olive groves and vineyards, the cultivation of vegetables and fruits. And then, of course, there is the wonderful fish and seafood of the Adriatic.
On farmers’ markets: Yes, there are plenty of local farmers’ markets that set up in the piazzas and covered areas in cities and towns. And there are also lots of porchetta trucks around. Abruzzo makes fantastic porchetta!
Q: Is there anything about your kitchen that you would like to change or improve on?
A: I would love a second oven!
Q: What tips can you give us that will help keep our kitchens neat and tidy and easy to manage?
A: We all know that Nature and humans abhor a vacuum. I would recommend trying not to fill up all your counter space with appliances and gadgets and bottles of oil and vinegar, even though you can plainly see from the photo of my kitchen that I myself am guilty of this.
Invest in a few good pots and pans. I mentioned Dutch ovens. I also have three stainless steel skillets of varying sizes that I use all the time. And three cast iron skillets that were my husband’s grandmother’s. I have a slow cooker but never use it. I never gave in to the Instant Pot or Air Fryer mania, and now I’m glad because I’m pretty sure they would be sitting in my basement gathering dust, even as I realize that for other cooks they are essential pieces of equipment.
Cooking tips: Salt your pasta water GENEROUSLY, and of course, save some of it when you drain the pasta for tossing with the sauce. It almost always makes for a creamier, tastier sauce.
Speaking of sauce, do not over-sauce your pasta. In Italy, sauce is often referred to as a “condimento,” (condiment), meaning that is used judiciously, not slopped on by the ladleful.
Also: Whenever I chop parsley, I always chop a bunch extra. I put it in a shallow bowl and leave it on the counter. It dries pretty quickly, and the next time I need parsley (usually within a day or two) it’s ready and waiting.
Buy the best ingredients you can afford, and let the seasons be your guide in the kitchen.
Q: How many cookbooks do you have and do you have any favourites? You have written eight cookbooks. Can you tell us about them and the type of recipes they contain?
A: I started collecting cookbooks when I was in college, mainly because I started getting them as Christmas presents. To this day, my favorite thing to do on Christmas Day is to sit in a comfy chair and page through any new cookbooks that I’ve received as gifts. I’ve never actually counted how many I have, but I would estimate somewhere in the 500 range. I have too many favorites to list, but a few sentimental favorites are The Victory Garden Cookbook, by Marian Morash, which my mom gave me many years ago; the Union Square Café Cookbook, by Danny Meyer and Michael Romano, which my dad gave me for Christmas one year; and The Italian Baker, by Carol Field. Other favorites include Casual Cooking, by the late Michael Chiarello; Alpine Cooking, by Meredith Erickson; Adriatico, by Paola Bacchia; and the Via Carota cookbook, by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi.
There are more!
Q: Do you have a favourite recipe that you would like to share with us?
A: I have to say I love every recipe I’ve shared in my newsletter—nearly 200 and counting. It’s like an ever-expanding cookbook! I’ll pick two: one is my apple crostata, which I love for its simplicity and buttery richness. The other is Spaghetti alla Claudia Cardinale, a handwritten recipe from one of my aunts that I found in my mom’s recipe files. It’s named for the actress, obviously, though I have no idea if it was her recipe. It’s so simple—just pasta tossed with butter, prosciutto cotto, and cheese—but truly delicious.
Q: Have you had any kitchen disasters that you can share with us?
A: Many years ago, I tried making vitello tonnato for my husband’s boss, who was a real gourmand. This was years before my own career in food writing and recipe development. I had never made vitello tonnato before and had no idea what I was doing, even though I was following a recipe by a trusted Italian cookbook author. It was a disaster; the veal fell apart and had no flavor. I don’t remember what we had for dessert, but I do remember it was good, so it somewhat salvaged the meal.
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Terrific interview! Thank you!
Wonderful interview! (I love your green kitchen tile, too!)