Topics
Menu Development
Detroit Style Pizza: A Guide to Detroit Pizza
Discover Detroit-Style Pizza Detroit style pizza is a square, deep dish pizza that is known for its racing stripes sauce on top, cheese crust crown and light crust. Whether you call them red tops or square pizza, Detroit-style pizza is a unique pizza style that hast become one of the hottest pizza styles and one […]
Topics
Menu Development
Seafood Ravioli
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...
Topics
Menu Development
Fettuccine with Fresh Tomatoes & Arugula
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...
Topics
Menu Development
Minestrone
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...
Topics
Menu Development
Shrimp Pizza
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...
Topics
Menu Development
Five Sandwiches Ideas
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 ...
Topics
Menu Development
Pasta and Portobello
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...
Topics
Menu Development
Shrimp Tequila Lime Pizza
28-ounce sourdough ball 4 ounces garlic ranch sauce 5 jalapeno pepper slices, finely chopped 1 teaspoon parsley flakes 1 tablespoon tequila 1 ounce parmesan cheese ½ cup chopped onions 25-30 bay shrimp, fresh or frozen 1 ½ cups mozzarel...
Topics
Menu Development
Fusilli Pasta
Probably the two words that best describe fusilli are “spirals” and “springs.” However, as it happens when Italian words are put under the microscope of translation, something else always shows up. So, for example, in the...
Topics
Menu Development
Pasta con Asiago e Spinaci
When I had my cooking school in Chicago, I had to make big batches of this pasta dish for the students because they gobbled it up pretty fast. The idea behind this dish is that the spinach gets “cooked” only from the ambient heat of the p...
Topics
Menu Development
Sicilian Pizza
Ah, the joys of Sicilian pizza. I was eating this style of pizza even before I was eye-level with the top of the table in my Mother’s kitchen, so I do know of what I write and eat. What exactly is Sicilian pizza? Before I answer that question, ...
Topics
Menu Development
Fusilli With Chicken & Pesto
This is such an easy dish to put together. The various components –– chicken, pesto sauce and toasted pine nuts –– can be prepped ahead. Making the pesto sauce takes a bit of time, but there are several very good ready-to-go p...
Topics
Menu Development
Pasta Puttanesca
To understand how best to use olives on pizza or in pasta dishes or antipasti, we must first look at the various types of olives available, their characteristics and overall usage. And then there is the question of pit or no pit. For example, some re...