Daily Loaf

(Click here to watch the video of Giuliano Hazan on the Today Show.)

Security in New York is serious business. The city is still exciting, the energy stimulating, and the pace can give you whiplash. But the access is gone. Just try and get into the Today Show set and you run a gauntlet of security that makes airport TSA feel like a walk in the park.

Giuliano Hazan, my cookbook author husband, had been invited to do a return segment for the Hot Chef segment on the Today Show on September 10th. As usual, there was a walk-through the day before to make sure that everything he might need would be on the set. Just to get to that walk-through we had to go through two buildings and run the gamut of security. First we passed through a gaggle of onlookers waiting for some star to come down from the studios. We had to give some VERY big security guys the secret code (we are here to do a segment on Today) and finally received clearance to go through the doors to the next security station to get our pictures taken. Even before we could get there we had to explain to other security people what we were doing. Finally, we stood in line to get our names crossed off an OK list, and have our pictures taken for a temporary id.

With our precious badges affixed to our lapels Read the rest of this entry »

Linguine with a pink shrimp sauce
From Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta.
(Read our interview with Giuliano Hazan.)

This is a very elegant sauce that is traditionally served with seafood-filled ravioli. A portion of the shrimp are chopped very fine, giving the sauce a consistency similar to meat sauce. Parsley at the end adds lightness and fragrance.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

¾ pound large shrimp
2 medium cloves garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup dry white wine
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound linguine
6–7 sprigs flat-leaf Italian parsley
1 cup heavy cream

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Tagliatelle with chickpeas
From Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta.
(Read our interview with Giuliano Hazan.)

One of the restaurants we enjoy going to when we are in Valpolicella, the wine country outside of Verona, is Alla Rosa Alda, in the tiny hilltop town of San Giorgio. One of their specialties is a pasta dish they call “tagliatelle embogonè” in the local dialect. It is homemade egg noodles with a sauce of fresh cranberry beans. When I was growing up, my mother made a soup with chickpeas, tomatoes and rosemary that I loved. Taking inspiration from Alla Rosa Alda’s dish, I’ve adapted that chickpea soup here, into a pasta sauce that is now one of our favorites at home.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

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Every year I obsess about the first few weeks of school. Not because I’m worried about my children’s teachers — I’m more concerned about lunchtime.

My kids do purchase the stuff made at school, but there are also times when they’re fortunate to have fabulous food prepared for them by their gourmet cook father. Yes, we do send leftovers and those wonderful Thermos containers that keep food hot are a godsend. But all too soon there will be days when a quickly made sandwich ends up in the bag.

What causes me consternation is not that my kids will get odd looks when they bring a frittata or curry soup that might not appear on a regular school lunch menu; rather it is that the kind of sandwich my children prefer always gets a comment from a new teacher or another child in class who isn’t familiar with our sandwich filler choices.

My kids like Nutella. For those not familiar with it, Nutella looks like a chocolate spread, so to the untrained eye my children are eating a chocolate sandwich. In these days of hyped up healthy eating-isms, chocolate is bad!

At some point, early in the year, I find myself explaining: Read the rest of this entry »

Summer is the traditional time to travel, and what could be more fun than traveling with your entire family? OK, I heard that! Traveling with kids can be: exhilarating, anxiety-producing, joyous, excruciating, eye-opening, fearful and downright fun! Recently, my family and I spent a marvelous day in Venice. The other one. The one in Italy.

My family had a mission on this trip: to eat and then go to the great square of Piazza San Marco and play. Venice is overwhelmingly rich in museums, churches and history. Just taking the vaporetto, the city waterbus, down the Grand Canal allows one to see the great Gothic palazzi that fill so many postcards.

Getting lost in Venice is a fabulous experience: Every turn exposes new treasures, from beautiful door handles and exquisite glass chandeliers that often hang from the decorative ceilings on the noble (second) floor, to the beautiful and intricately carved water wells that are the focal point of even the smallest square. Venice is magnificent and, if you can, plan to spend at least four days reveling in its beauty.

We only had one day for this trip. Read the rest of this entry »