Marisa Iocco’s Bruschetta Cannellini Dip

Previously, on tastingmenu.wordpress.com –* https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/making-bolognese/ These pandemic days have not been kind and it’s been such a while since I had to opportunity to dine at Chef Iocco’s restaurant Spiga Ristorante in Needham. Missing that experience, I made plans to make Chef Iocco’s food at home this weekend. That being said, I happened to come […]

Marisa Iocco’s Bread Pudding With Salted Caramel Sauce

Previously, on tastingmenu.wordpress.com – * https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2019/05/11/nobu-soy-caramel-banana-dessert/ Over the years, my wife and I (as well as some of my friends) have enjoyed dinner at Chef Marisa Iocco’s restaurant Spiga Ristorante (aka “Spiga”) in Needham, MA. I was looking through Chef Iocco’s Every Menu Is A Love Story, when I spied a recipe for her Chocolate […]

Marisa Iocco’s Balsamic Dressing For Salad

When making a vinegar…glaze, reduce it slowly…If you boil it too hard, the acid will remain and make the glaze too sharp -Thomas Keller, The French Laundry Cookbook I wanted to make a salad to go along with a fettucine using Chef Iocco’s bolognese for dinner this weekend. So I thought, “why not just use […]

French Laundry Lasagna With Bolognese

Previously, on tastingmenu.wordpress.com – * https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2020/12/07/beef-roasted-a-la-matignon/* https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/making-bolognese/ …Staff meal was first about fundamentals of cooking and how to work with by products, using scraps to make something tasty, eye appealing and satisfying. But the message underlying that was, “Can you be passionate about cooking at this level”. Staff meal. Only the staff sees it. If […]

Marisa Iocco’s Red Wine Poached Pear Dessert

I’d been thinking of doing another fruit dessert recently and came across Chef Iocco’s Montepulciano Poached Pears in her cookbook Every Menu Is a Love Story (p. 134). This poached pear could be used for a salad or a dessert, depending on the garnish. In this instance, I wanted to make the dessert variant and […]

Making Bolognese

It had been years since I had a bolognese with pasta. I used to have fettucine with bolognese when I was growing up and I remember having that at that wonderful Middletown, CT Italian restaurant where I went to school. Never having made it before, I decided to turn to a recipe from Chef Marisa […]

Learning about pizzas

Previously, on tastingmenu.wordpress.com – * https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2019/04/17/approaching-homemade-bread/* https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2021/09/30/annotating-legal-seafoods-marinara-recipe/ I’d been periodically watching the business news as of late. I started making note on the reports of food price inflation and realized it might be useful to know how to make pizzas from scratch. Having been motivated and inspired by the Brooklyn Rex Manor pizza recipe (see: […]