Simona Carini

I take a small bite and I hear the light crackle of the crisp thin outer layer. My teeth sink into finely chopped walnuts supported by a framework of egg white and sugar. In the morsel that now takes center stage in my mouth, the sugar dissolves and creates a substrate over which the walnut […]

If I were to give to each season its own smell, fall would get the smell of chestnuts. Not only the better-known smell of roasted chestnuts (called caldarroste in Italian), but also that of boiled chestnuts. A big case of freshly picked chestnuts was one of the items my parents would get during our fall […]

Have you ever wondered about the origin of Italian food words that have gained common currency in this country? Even if your answer is no, you may find the following linguistic morsels appetizing. carpaccio I love Venice, I love everything about Venice and being in Venice in any season. And I like the painter Vittore […]

I have always loved crostata alla crema (tart with pastry cream). My mother, however, did not bake desserts of any kind. My aunt Lucia baked tarts with her homemade jam and made excellent pastry cream, but in her kitchen never the twain would meet. I feasted on her pastry cream and nibbled at her jam […]

Last year, as part of my first attempt at vegetable gardening at home, I planted a couple of seedlings of zucchini, hoping for a bountiful reward. To my dismay, the flood of zucchini that I was expecting never materialized. I know that such flooding happens — to other people:   I was still cheerful two […]

People ask me: Why do you write about food, and eating, and drinking? Why don’t you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do? … The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry. But there is more than that. It seems […]

I am glad the Arcata Farmers’ Market has started its 2008 season. My Saturday mornings are once again convivial and exciting. I have already tried two kinds of previously untasted greens (purslane and amaranth greens) as well as the hulled barley I mentioned in a previous “Table Talk” article. A round of culinary explorations is […]

A different kind of crop is currently growing on approximately 12 acres of farmland in the Arcata Bottoms. After experimenting with wheat and other grains in test plots, Kevin Cunningham decided to expand his production and established the Shakefork Community Farm and its Grain Share Program, based on the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. When […]