Gourmet Coffee Corner

My mother is a living museum of great Italian recipes. Although she’s well into her 80s and occasionally forgets the names of her many nieces and nephews, she has a mind like a steel trap when it comes to cooking. A conservative estimate would be that she has memorized hundreds of pasta recipes in minute detail—from how many cups of flour to the ideal number of twists from one of her pepper mills. And it seems that every time I bring my family to her house we are treated to something new.

While I definitely inherited my mother’s passion for all things culinary, my memory is nowhere near as impeccable. A missed ingredient or two won’t always spoil the dish, but it can affect the outcome so dramatically as to prove shocking at times. With this in mind, I’ve started a vast collection of Italian cookbooks and loaded each one with bookmarks for my favorite recipes. That way I can refer back to them as often as necessary and treat my family to a consistently delicious dinner experience.