cacio e pepe

Wisconsin triumphed in American Cheese Society awards

Wisconsin triumphed in American Cheese Society awards

As one of America's big dairy states, Wisconsin takes special pride in its cheeses. Even the fans of the Green Bay Packers NFL football team call themselves ‶cheeseheads.″ They wear ridiculous hats that look a bit like a Swiss cheese, complete with plenty of holes in their heads. The cheese industry's promotional arm brags that the state makes ‶more flavors, varieties, and styles of cheese than anywhere else in the world.″ We do wish that Wisconsin cheese companies wouldn't appropriate cheese names that obviously belong to other places in the world. Wisconsin parmesan, for example, is a fine grating and flaking cheese in its own right. If it were called something else, it wouldn't invite comparison to Parmigiano-Reggiano, to which it displays only a distant...Read More
Tucci’s Roman pasta experience was a déjà vu

Tucci’s Roman pasta experience was a déjà vu

Watching Stanley Tucci sample the classic pastas of Rome was a déjà vu experience for us—especially when he showed up at a restaurant on Piazza della Rotondo to launch the episode. We had a similar experience just a few years ago, also in front of the Pantheon at Ristorante di Rienzo. It's now Bistrot al Pantheon di Rienzo (Salita de’ Crescenzi 3, 06-687-7404, www.bistrotalpantheon.it) and in one incarnation or another dates back to 1952. Thanks to an introduction by an Italian chef friend, the daughter of the founder invited us to come back at dinner time so the chef could show us how to prepare some classic Roman pasta dishes. When we returned around 6 p.m., chef Alessandro Sillani and his assistant Tsatsu Nicholas Awuku...Read More