Condiments + Dips

a ladle full of deep red tomato pasta sauce

How to Make Simple Classic Italian Tomato Sauce for Pasta

If you need a quick and easy tomato sauce for pasta this recipe is the most essential (and delicious) of them all.  Made with basic pantry staples — a jar (or can) of high-quality San Marzano (or Mutti brand tomatoes), extra virgin olive oil, onion, garlic, and a little carrot, […]

Homemade strawberry coulis in my old Brooklyn Kitchen

30-Minute Strawberry Coulis (Professional Strawberry Sauce)

Make this easy homemade strawberry sauce to top your favorite cheesecakes, pancakes, french toast, or add it to cocktails or make pink lemonade. I’ve been making this homemade strawberry coulis for the better part of 20 years. And it’s the only strawberry sauce you’ll ever need. Don’t waste your money […]

small Weck Jar with beautifully dark berry sauce in it

10-Minute Homemade Berry (Licious) Sauce

Make this sweet homemade berry sauce to top your favorite cheesecake, pancakes, meringues, or even yogurt. Don’t waste your money on storebought syrups or sauces that are filled with unnecessary stuff. All you need is frozen or fresh berries, lemon juice, and sugar. The best part — this sauce is […]

A weck canning jar filled with bright hot pink homemade strawberry sugar

Strawberry Sugar (With Video & Vegan Strawberry Sugar Option)

This strawberry sugar is sweet, tart, and full of real strawberry flavor! It’s the only strawberry sugar recipe you’ll ever need. With just 2 ingredients (freeze-dried strawberries and granulated sugar), this is one of my favorite flavored sugars to make.  It’s ideal for adding summer strawberry flavor to strawberry recipes […]

Mozzarella Parm Butter (Spreadable Italian Cheese Butter)

Mozzarella Parm Butter is the next best thing you don’t yet have in your kitchen. Slather it over garlic bread before you toast it, or add a dollop to your homemade pasta, mac ‘n cheese, or risotto. Fair warning, this buttery cheese mixture is pretty crave-able — fresh and sweet […]

a tall wide mouth Ball Mason Jar with silver lid and band full of dark vanilla beans covered in vodka and looking dark and beautiful like an extract on top of a wooden dining table with the white marble fireplace lined with a row of cooking books from end to end in my old brownstone in Brooklyn

How to Make Homemade Vanilla Extract

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own homemade vanilla extract it’s easy and requires just 2 ingredients plus a little time. I started my first jar of homemade vanilla bean extract in April of 2012 in my kitchen in Brooklyn and it’s traveled with me from NYC to China […]

A bowl full of pappardelle bolognese covered in meat sauce and sprinkled with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Bolognese (Authentic Bolognese Sauce : 2 Local Recipes)

There is a world where you can be in love with two Authentic Bolognese Recipes at the same time — and this is it. Bolognese sauce is one of the coziest most delicious pasta sauces you’ll ever eat. Luckily for us, we live just 1 1/2 hours from the birthplace […]

tomato stained orange vinaigrette with herbs in a glass Weck Jar on top of a decorative vintage tray with pink flowers, green leaves, and green and cream colored background

Summer Starburst Vinaigrette (a favorite salad dressing)

Freshly squeezed Sicilian lemon juice and baby Datterino grape tomatoes make up the base of this delicious vinaigrette recipe.  Add in a few fresh herbs, a little sweet onion, some dijon, honey, and extra virgin olive oil and you’re on your way to one of the best salad dressings you’ve […]

black-eyed pea hummus in the middle of white platter with a pool of extra virgin olive oil in the middle with two halves of a hardboiled egg on one side of the outer rim of hummus and another two halves opposite and on one other side a handful of green olives with pits from Puglia, Italy and on the other side a handful of mini cornichons ready to be eaten

How to Make Super Smooth Black-Eyed Pea Hummus

This easy black-eyed pea hummus recipe is delicious and an extra tasty way to get more fiber in your diet.  I’ve substituted black-eyed peas for the usual chickpeas and omitted tahini and opted to use freshly toasted ground sesame seeds instead (which you can see adds a little texture to […]

a vintage aluminum 1 teaspoon measuring spoon holding a scoop of lemon sugar above a bowl of freshly chopped deep red strawberries

Homemade Sicilian Lemon Sugar

When life gives you Sicilian lemons, make 2-Minute Homemade Lemon Sugar! If you’re a fan of using every part of a good ingredient, then this simple lemon sugar is one way to get the most out of your lemons. We use a lot of this citrus fruit around here for […]

super smooth bechamel sauce spooned over lasagna Bolognese layers

No-Fail Béchamel Sauce (Salsa Béchamel or White Sauce)

Homemade béchamel sauce is easy and delicious and you can scale it up or down depending on how much you need! This white sauce recipe is smooth, silky, and versatile. And I’ll show you how to customize the flavor by adding aromatics like fresh herbs, or vegetables like mushrooms, scallions, […]

a vintage aluminum pie tin filled with zested and juiced Sicilian Tarocco half blood oranges with a microplane filled with orange zest, an angular glass jar filled with blood orange sugar, empty orange halves stacked up in the back, with a whole orange on the left and a glass of carrot-colored orange juice on the right in a Venetian glass with polka dots on it and a tulip wide top.

Sicilian Blood Orange Sugar (Italian Sunshine in a Jar)

Whether you’re the type of person who doesn’t want to waste a single part of a really good ingredient, or you just want to add a little sunshine to your baking (or your minibar), this quick and easy blood orange sugar recipe takes less than 5 minutes to make. If you […]

a ladle in filled with asparagus bechamel in a white casserole dish with asparagus next to it on a cutting board

Italian Asparagus Béchamel Sauce (The Real Green Goddess)

If you love béchamel and are looking for an inspired take on this classic Italian white sauce, this is the recipe to make.  Not only does this sauce turn a beautiful spring green color, but it also tastes great and has a little more nutrient bang for the buck. This […]

deep red glistening prosciutto sugo pasta sauce in a navy blue Silit Brand braising pan looking so scrumptious you just want to take a big bite of it!

Prosciutto Sugo (4-Ingredient Italian Pork Tomato Sauce)

If you need a quick, easy (and really delicious) pasta sauce to feed yourself (or the whole family) at a moment’s notice, this Prosciutto Sugo tomato sauce is the perfect recipe.  It’s one of the simplest sauces to make and the ingredients (or similar ones) you may already have on […]

Strawberry Jam Sauce in a spoon

How to Make The Best 15-Minute Homemade Strawberry Jam Sauce

This quick and easy homemade strawberry jam sauce is a perfect way to top all your favorite cheesecakes, pancakes, french toast, strawberry shortcakes, scones, and ice cream sundaes.  I’ve been making this homemade strawberry sauce for as long as I can remember because it’s delicious and there’s just about no […]