Here you’ll find everything I’m preparing in my kitchen - from veggies, to leftovers and pasta. I eat simply, and I cook for one, but love cooking for others. And no matter what, I always pause to plate pretty.
Most of my meals are often times the result of freestyle recipe free ingredient riffing and a trip to the vegetable market. Produce is my passion, and I hope that you won’t simply come here for a recipe - but that you’ll read, cook and create a new story of your own.
I believe there’s power in a stocked pantry and freezer. From traditional Italian dishes to alternative sweets, vegan and vegetarian swaps - there’s something for everyone.
Let this serve as inspiration and let’s eat!
When I was preparing salmon for dinner last week, I wanted to make a side that would have veggies and fiber but wasn’t a typical salad with a lettuce base. I love making creative salads, but I hadn’t made a grain salad in quite some time. I think grain salads are the perfect hearty but light offering to spring eating and, so, my aunt and I agreed on farro. Farro is a wheat based grain that has a nutty texture. It can be substituted with barley in many recipes,
Read MoreAt a local Greek restaurant in Astoria, Queens, sitting in their hot steam table, prepared and ready to order, they had an eggplant dish called “Imam.” I would often order the stuffed eggplant when I went to the restaurant and on days where I was too tired to cook and, so, I’d pick it up as take-out fare. Imam is bathed in onions, tomatoes and herbs and, best of all, slick with oil. I’d often approach the steam table at the restaurant intent on ordering something different
Read MoreWith Fall in full swing in New York, warming meals come to mind, but I’m not quite ready for stews. I figured I could hold on to a shred of summer by combining pasta with a hearty sausage and eggplant sauce, you know, in order to make it filling and Fall friendly. When I traveled to Rome on my own in 2016, I took myself out to a lovely and memorable dinner at a small restaurant off of the Spanish Steps. Surprisingly, the spot was not touristy and the waiters spoke to me in Italian even though I, Tina Marie Theresa Corrado of Italian heritage do not speak Italian. I speak Spanish, una mala Italiana, as I often tell my friends in Mexico. From a young age, I’ve been a lover of eggplant.
Read MorePickling eggplant, preserving tomatoes and sun-drying zucchini were signs that summer was coming to a close in the Corrado household. Late August through early September my family was purchasing and preserving fresh vegetables in an effort to stock up for cooler weather months. Even in October, my grandmother’s sandwiches held on to summer. And since I wish to do the same as my grandmother, I went wacky with the pickling in memory of her. No your sandwiches can taste like summer all year long too.
Read MoreTo my knowledge tourlou tourlou translates in Greek to all mixed up. I love saying tourlou tourlou. Roll your r’s and repeat tourlou tourlou as though conjuring up a most intoxicating spell. And, I suppose this rustic all vegetable stew could be likened to an intoxicating spell all its own. Vegan friendly and the perfect hearty crowd pleaser […]
Read MoreLittle Frankie’s in NYC makes a fantastic whole roasted eggplant, served with a giant douse of oil and warm bread - the charred skinned and soft flesh of the eggplant separate; allowing the oily eggplant goodness to be spread all over a thick slice…
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