Month: April 2018

What To Know About Olive Oil: An Interview with Charlotte Muia

What To Know About Olive Oil: An Interview with Charlotte Muia, Extra virgin olive oil expert, producer, grower, cook, and owner, with her husband Carl, of Fattoria Muia in Carmel Valley, CA.

As a cook, oils are important and knowing how to determine better from worse is important.  When it comes to the king of oils, EVOO, a bit more knowledge goes a long way.  Charlotte was kind enough to share her knowledge with me and share some photos of what really happens to put romance in a bottle.

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Fennel Seed, Fennel Frond, Fennel For Spice, And Beyond

Fennel seeds, fennel bulbs, fennel fronds–fennel is a vegetable, an herb, and a spice

Fennel seeds in various stages of maturation My mother, at some point in her cooking tenure, decided that fennel seeds were the ingredient which converted browned beef in tomato sauce from just that to pasta sauce.

To be clear, she was a Polish Catholic from Detroit and knew of Italian cooking only that which the Good Housekeeping Cookbook showed her.

I always enjoyed the fennel seeds in our pasta sauce. That licorice flavor was good and came to mean mom’s spaghetti sauce. A funny thing about regional colloquialisms: in Michigan, pasta was noodles. Always. Spaghetti, fettuccine, elbow macaroni are noodles. It is from there to ask, which kind? Like this: What’s for dinner? Noodles. Which kind? Spaghetti.

Clearance Sale

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