In the News

It’s been a roller coaster week for Aroma Cucina! On top of crazy festa doings, we’ve had some other good stuff going on.

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When to Eat A Caprese Salad

When the tomatoes are ripe on the vine and you bring them home still warm from the sun.

When the buffala mozzarella is so fresh that each slice of the cheese releases a creamy surge of goodness.

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More Mushrooms Than You Can Imagine

As I’m walking into our local grocery store, the Euro Spin, AKA “The Spin”, an elderly, hunched over lady is staggering out of the store lugging a massive flat of white mushrooms.
Of course, I’m thinking, “What the hell is she going to do with all those mushrooms??”

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A Few Hot Tomatoes

And the canning season begins.
A walk over to the orto to get some basil and I’m hit with the realization that there are a ton of ripe tomatoes that need to be dealt with…NOW.
On one hand a kitchen garden is forgiving; if you don’t need any onions, you can leave them in the ground for a few days and no harm done. On the other hand, there is a use it or lose it urgency to ripe tomatoes.

So much for a lazy Saturday afternoon.

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Cannelloni Crudo

Get your mind out of the gutter. Crudo means raw.
And no, the cannelloni wasn’t raw, the sauce was. Actually the fresh tomato sauce was almost raw or “quasi crudo” as they would say in Italy.
The story goes like this: it’s summer, no one wants to spend extra time in the kitchen, and we have tomatoes coming out of our ears.
And thus, I’ve learned inspiration and abundance make excellent cohorts.

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Kitchen Garden Lunch: Spaghetti Ortolana

Is it any wonder, when the world feels baked to a crisp, why three showers a day might not be enough, and the urge to howl at the full moon seems like a perfectly good idea, that a walk to our garden, and a chat with friends, seems like a mini-vacation after the torrid heat we’ve endured?
We’ve reached the harvesting point where lunch can be made by just visiting the orto, our kitchen garden. It’s so deliciously easy now, to walk over to the garden, with no plan in mind, just a “let’s see what needs to be eaten” attitude.

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Kitchen Independence on the 4th of July

Mark Bittman got it wrong. The 4th of July isn’t about eating meat, it’s about celebrating summer. And summer is about eating outdoors, with watermelon juice running down your chin, garden tomatoes tinting yellow and hinting at next week’s ripe red, casual dinners with friends, late night laughter in the piazza and incredibly star filled nights.

If there is ever a time to cook simply and eat simply, it’s now.

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