​I have a confession to make. As much as I love pizza, pasta, salumi, cheeses and all things related to Italian food and its ingredients, I will forgo all of the above for a delicious Italian pastry or gelato. In an ideal world, which Italy often is, I’d eat both! But if asked to choose between a dish of pasta or a gelato or other desert, chances are, I’ll go for the desert.

​As you might imagine, Italy has an array of delicious gelato flavors. Hazelnut, Rum Raisin, Espresso, and Nutella are just a few of my favorite ones. There are a lot of hazelnut trees in southern Italy; we had one in our small plot of land growing up, and hazelnut gelato is one of the most consumed flavors in Italy, and for good reason! The fresh nuts are so flavorful, and while delicious plucked and eaten straight from the tree and eaten fresh and raw, the gelato made from toasted hazelnuts is just incomparable. 

​ Fruit and citrus flavored ones are also absolutely delicious.  By far, my favored fruit flavored gelato is banana. Who would think that out of such a humble, everyday fruit, such deliciousness could come out!! Southern Italy is the biggest producer of citrus fruits, and the lemon granita (slush) is very freshening and digestive, particularly after a heavy meal. 

​When it comes to pastry shops, or “pasticcerie”, Italy certainly isn’t lacking! If you’ve never had a pastry in Italy, you’ve never had a real Italian pastry.  The flavors are intensified to the extreme that even the best pastry you find here in the States from the best pastry shop, simply cannot compare. I attribute it to the fresh eggs, butter and other ingredients such as the fruits that are generally locally grown and produced. 

​Whether it’s Tiramisu, which ironically is more famous here than Italy, or a Sfogliatella from Naples, a Cannoli from Sicily, or a Rum Cake covered in real whip cream, Italians know and love their deserts. My personal favorite is the Paragina – a square pastry that is filled with pastry cream, a crunchy layer and a sponge soaked in liquor. It’s not wonder I’d forgo the pasta for the pastry. What? They almost sound alike! Living La Dolce Vita indeed! 

Nothing restores my mind, body and soul quite like a trip to the beach. There’s generally no other place I’d rather be. I have fond memories of growing up in Southern Italy and spending time at the beach with my family.  Never having learned to swim properly, my dad would dig very large holes in the sand, the size of a small bath tub really, and fill them with seawater for me to “swim” around in.  As I got older, I’d venture in the water more, but never too far out that I couldn’t touch the bottom. On some adventures days, my dad would take me further out into the vast ocean by lying on his back as he swam out. Those were by far the bestest of days, though few and far between. 

Since the others in my family weren’t really fans of the beach (the salty water! the scorching sun! and the sand, so much sand!) our visits were generally prefaced with my begging to go, pleading really, to just make a few prosciutto sandwiches and stay just a wee bit longer than we had the time before. But despite living in Southern Italy and just a few minutes away from the best beaches, we rarely spent long hours there, or at least, it never felt as such to me. Out of the four of us, I was always the one that loved the beach the most. My mom would always complain about the heat, my dad would get bored within an hour and my sister, well, my sister would be hiding under the beach umbrella, away from the water, sun, sand and anything ‘beach like’ and likely pretending to be anywhere else other than where we were.
 
Now, so many years later, those memories feel less real and more like clips of movies I saw on TV at some point.  During the long, dreary winter months of Boston, my mind sometimes slips back to those days, and I ask myself, did those days really happen? I curse time, for passing so quickly, and the aging process for making recalling such beautiful days so difficult! It’s ironic that I actually took swimming lessons in adulthood, now that I’m about 4500 miles away from the beaches I loved and still love so much! Now, I cherish the summers when I am able to return to Italy.  To swim in the same waters I did some 30 years ago. I’m immediately brought back to when I was young, when the only thing I’d question was whether we’d stop and grab a gelato on the way home! Though truth be told, to this day, a post-beach trip to the gelateria is a must! 

​Like any other Italian staple dish, there are hundreds of variations to this recipe. “Cacciatore” means “hunter” in Italian and this dish is said to have been developed by the hunters (their wives really!) who would go in the fields, hunt their meal and bring their catch home to their wives to prepare for lunch. Thus, chicken hunter-style was born. Some cooks add wine; I did not in this version but have done so in the past. Olives and mushrooms are also sometimes added, I did not here but listed them in the ingredients as options, as you might want to add them when you prepare this at home for your family. 

Ingredients
1 chicken cut into 8-10 pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion – thinly sliced
2-3 garlic gloves - minced
½ sweet red pepper – diced
1 -2 fresh tomatoes – diced
1-2 tablespoons fresh parsley
1-2 tablespoons fresh basil
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1-2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
1 -2 sprigs fresh rosemary
 
Optional:
12 pitted olives of your choice
8 oz of diced mushrooms
 
Directions:
1) Prepare your herbs and add-ons by dicing up your onion, garlic, pepper, tomatoes, parsley & basil   and place them in a bowl and set aside.

2) Place your chicken and oil in a large pan and place it on the stove over medium heat. Allow the chicken and oil to simmer without any other ingredients for a few minutes.

​3) After a few minutes, add your ingredients from your bowl plus the salt, bay leaves, oregano and rosemary.  (Also add olives and mushrooms if using.) Allow these to simmer for about 15 minutes over medium heat. About 15 minutes into the cooking process, it will start to get dry, so add about 1 cup of water and continue the cooking process until the chicken is fully cooked and some of the liquid has evaporated, about 30 minutes, longer if your chicken pieces are large. 

​Is it gravy? Is it sauce? Depends on whom you ask and what region of Italy they are from. What you call it is not nearly as important as learning to make this easy and super versatile dish. Generally, if I add meat of any sort, I tend to call it gravy, if it’s simple, I call it sauce. This is the base for hundreds, perhaps thousands of Italian recipes. It’s really a foundation recipe that anyone who masters it, and it’s incredibly easy to master, will be using for their lifetime. 

​Ask any Italian and they will have their own version of this, which will vary slightly, or a lot from someone else’s version. The ingredients listed below are really all you need. Some cooks add tomato paste or juice to it, I really find it unnecessary as they not add much in additional flavor. Not to mention that they are just added ingredients that you have to worry about having in the pantry before preparing it. I also don’t add oregano; I find it far too strong for this humble sauce.  Depending on whom you ask, the cooking time will vary greatly. I’m really not sure why anyone would cook this for longer than 20 minutes. The longer you cook it, the thicker it will become, go long enough and you’ll end up with tomato paste or tomato reduction, not what I’m looking for to dress my pasta or mop up my crusty Italian bread with!
 
Great over just a simple dish of spaghetti, or any pasta shape, or adding it to meatballs, lasagne, braciola, soups, stews, pasta fagiola, and so much more, this sauce should be in everyone’s repertoire, as it will allow you to prepare endless other dishes and family meals. This also  makes a GREAT sauce for pizza!
 
Ingredients
3 Tablespoons olive oil
½  small onion, diced, if it’s about the size of a golf ball, use the entire thing
2 Tablespoon chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons chopped basil
Salt to taste – about 1 teaspoon
 
2-3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
 
1 28 Oz can of crushed peeled tomatoes (I use Pastene, no salt added Kitchen Ready ground peeled tomatoes, I’ve tried them all and this is by far my favorite one.)
1 ¼ cup of water
 
Directions
In a medium saucepan, take the first five ingredients and bring them to a simmer over medium heat, mixing them around with a wooden spoon so they don’t burn. Once the onion has taken some color, about 1-2 minutes, add the garlic. You don’t want to add this before as it might burn.  Let these simmer for another 30 seconds or so. Add the can of tomatoes. This will splatter about a bit as it hits the hot oil. Add the water. Usually, I just add about 1 ¼ cup of water to my tomato can, swirl that a bit to get every last bit of tomato and add that to the sauce. Reduce the heat to low, cover with lid and let that simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and use to dress your pasta or to complete any other dish you had in mind. Refrigerate leftovers up to 4 days. This actually freezes really well. Freeze any unused portion (or make one pot on purpose to just freeze) in a glass bowl with a lid and defrost overnight in the fridge.