National Pizza Month Pizza Challenge: We asked pizzeria operators to give us their best pizza recipes to celebrate National Pizza Month in October. We received recipes from across the North America. These are our interpretations of the best of the be...

If you’re in Chicago and “the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie,” you can bet that most of the time that pizza is of the deep-dish persuasion. What is this pizza called Chicago deep-dish, and what makes it so different from ot...

It’s that time of year when tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes. In Chicago, where I live, it’s not easy to get great-tasting fresh tomatoes year-round. In fact, the window around here for vine-ripened tomatoes is open for only about fo...

The white clam pizza is one of the best seafood pizzas going. But, there has always been a cloud hanging over the idea of seafood in conjunction with pizza. However, two or three really good tasting seafood pizzas can add another dimension to your al...

Gourmet toppings for pizza? Where do I begin? I suppose I could start by recounting something I read recently about a pizzeria in New York City that is big on seasonal gourmet toppings such as brussel sprout leaves, shaved porcini, black truffles and...

Simply saying the word “Mediterranean” as it pertains to pizza sets into motion a wealth of tasty possibilities. The palette of ingredients that can be used to fashion a Mediterranean pizza are as colorful and as rich in texture as the co...

Simply defined, ravioli is stuffed or filled pasta. Genoa, Italy, lays claim to the ravioli. Their dialect word “rabiole,” which means “something of small value,” derives from the idea that centuries ago on long voyages Genoes...

This is the time of year that many of us (especially those of us living in the Midwest) go bananas over fresh tomatoes. If I had the time, I would write another cookbook called “101 Ways to Use Fresh Tomatoes.” So this time of year I...

4 ounces salt pork, chopped 4 ounces olive oil 2 pounds chopped onion 1 pound chopped celery 1 pound chopped carrots 1 pound chopped green bell pepper 1 pound cabbage, cut chiffonade 6 clove garlic, minced 2 pounds fresh plum tomatoes, chopped 2 gall...

Putting together a seafood pizza can be somewhat problematic (but you can bet that once you put shrimp pizza on your menu, it will be a best-seller). In fact, there are only a few types of seafood (food cost notwithstanding) that work as a pizza topp...

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, was a piece of work himself, but the sandwich was born when he came up with the idea of putting meat between two slices of bread so he could continue to play cards without interruption or without getting the cards ...

Here’s the story: An overgrown crimini mushroom goes by the name of portobello. To put it another way, once the brown crimini gets to be around 4 to 6 inches in diameter it becomes a portobello. Here, we are dealing with a big brown mushroom wi...