Swiss chard raviolis with kabocha and cheese stuffing
Honestly, I don’t get the urge to make pasta from scratch very often; but when the desire wells up, it is irrepressible! Must be my departed great-nonna, Celeste, a native of Trieste, who is scolding me and I want to please her. Well. I hope she is pleased: this...
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Shredded phyllo with clotted cream
This is a homestyle version of one of the most popular desserts served in traditional Lebanese restaurants and pastry shops in Beirut. It comes either in a large pie format or in individual servings. It is composed of a super crispy base of fried or oven-toasted shredded phyllo dough,...
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Lebanese cream (Ashta)
Ashta, our Lebanese cream is the foundation for all pastries; yet it does not contain cream. Sure, there was a time when ashta was pure cream. Nowadays, it is made with milk (frequently powdered milk in Lebanon), fresh American-style toast and flavorings! The result: a clotted cream that tastes...
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Tabouleh Gazpacho
This is a recipe from Lebanese chef Marlene Mattar; I tweaked it a bit, for a good cause (my tomatoes were tasteless). Chef Marlene took a Lebanese classic, our tabbouleh salad and converted it to a gazpacho. The result? A soup that will reconcile you with the scorching heat...
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Sesame-crusted pork tenderloin with orange blossom glaze
My mother used to cook pork tenderloin a lot when she lived in France; she would throw herbs and spices and stuff on it and it was always delicious; I figured I would try it with this jam, a typical Lebanese jam I found at the middle-eastern store; and...
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Green Pepper and olive salad
Everybody in Beirut goes to the mountains when the heat and humidity of the summer first hits, around July, and you see narrow winding mountain roads teeming with cars piled up with mattresses and all manner of odds and ends for the summer getaway trip that lasts until September. So,...
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Spaghetti with radish greens pesto
There is a mountain resort village in Lebanon where people go in the wintertime to ski. I was there one summer as a guest of my dad’s favorite cousin, Tante Marcelle. I owe her my life, in fact, because she is the one who introduced my mom to my...
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Eggplant stuffed with cheese and nuts
What kind of shopper are you? Do you go to a store with a list, and check off the list? or do you buy what you see that tempts you? These eggplants were small. They were thin. They were fresh.I could not resist. I stuffed them with what I...
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Milk and Cherry pudding
My son Nick announced he was moving to Montreal for a while; upon receiving the news I first did what any self-respecting (Lebanese) mother would have done: I told him in no uncertain terms that he was GOING TO KILL ME. When that failed to ignite the slightest spark...
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