Lidia Bastianich and her fabulous shows on Italian cooking have always had a special place in my heart. As an Italian American originally from New York, I love to not only watch Lidia cook up a storm but hear her talk about how Italian food has influenced American culture. Watching Lidia is something my mother and I do together when she visits, and her shows invariably lead to my mother telling animated tales of enormous family meals at her Neapolitan grandparents house in the Bronx and remembrances of my own grandmother’s take on various dishes. But more than that Ms. Bastianich inspires us to get into the kitchen and cook.

When I was a kid I didn’t realize that the food I was eating on a daily basis was not actually eaten in Italy. My mother’s Sunday Gravy was a cherished weekly event and I figured Italians were eating this dish not only in New York and California, but Naples and Palermo as well. Same with her tangy vinegar pepper Chicken Cacciatore and Christmas Eve black olive pizza. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized Italian American food falls into its own special category, full of ingredients that immigrants found after my great grandparents and others traveled through Ellis Island or landed at airports later in the century.

You see, it wasn’t until recently that ingredients like farro, San Marzano tomatoes and Parmigiano-Reggiano started to appear regularly in American grocery stores. Before this, Italian immigrants and their children were limited to using ingredients that were local to their new homes and often distinctly American in taste. So America’s love for beef led to the aforementioned Sunday Gravy, a rich tomato-based sauce full of meatballs, sausages and bragiolle that isn't made in Italy itself.

I have quite a few of Lidia Bastianich’s books, but I use them a little differently than my other cookbooks. While I might open up my new "Sunday Suppers at Lucques" by Suzanne Goin or the gorgeous "Tender" by Nigel Slater to drool over the photos and feel inspired to try something new, Lidia’s books are like visiting my grandmother’s and mother’s recipe files. So much is comfortable and familiar, but with the clear difference that they also provide well-detailed instructions -- something my mother and grandmother thought was covered by phrases like “cook until done” or “add a little of this and that until it tastes right” (all said with a heavy Bronx accent).

Ms. Bastianich’s new book “Lidia’s Italy in America,” which she wrote with her daughter Tanya Bastianich Manuali, is no different. The focus here is the unique ways Italian American immigrants interpreted dishes from their homeland throughout the United States. The book is broken down into the standard sections of antipasti, zuppe, pasta, etc., but within are pages that highlight specific specialties from different areas along with descriptions of the Italian American neighborhoods that created them. So in Poultry we find a vignette about Federal Hill in Providence Rhode Island but soon after follows a recipe for Roberto’s Chicken Piccante from a chef on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx (a neighborhood dear to my heart as it’s where my father grew up). The gamut of Italian American cooking is covered with descriptions of the people who make these neighborhoods distinct and some history as well.

Although I’ve never met her, Ms. Bastianich’s is sort of like my TV culinary mother. Sweet and nurturing while also firm with her advice and directions, I trust her to help me navigate the path of Italian cookery. I will admit that I have occasionally been disappointed, as I was with the deep dish pizza in this book which was more bread than pizza. I can’t really complain, however, as the recipe says “it is a cross between focaccia and a pizza," so she warned me. My suggestion if you make it is to cut the dough in half and add more filling to the top, but remember I’m a Neapolitan-American raised on thin crusts so I’m a bit biased. More often than not, however, I have been quite happy with the results. The baked Rollatini of Sole offered a delightfully lemony take on fish cooked with breadcrumbs and the Italian American Meatloaf is, without a doubt, the best meatloaf I have ever made. My kids and husband raved about it and we all had seconds. Note, however, that the recipe is so big it makes either one incredibly large loaf, or, if you’re like me, one for your own family and one to share with the mom who took your kids for the afternoon.

"Lidia’s Italy in America" has that type of easy cookbook style I like best when reading recipes I will actually use. The recipes are laid out clearly and are easy to follow. I also enjoyed her stories on American neighborhoods and their Italian citizens. My only criticism is that there are hardly any pictures of food (most are of the people in the neighborhoods she visited). I love recipe photos in cookbooks because it’s reassuring to know what dishes are supposed to look like when you cook them and I felt this book could have used a few more. But that is a minor criticism. As she’s done many times before, Lidia Bastianich has provided a solid compilation of Italian American recipes, this time with an emphasis on those that truly reflect the diverse and eclectic nature of the many types of Italian neighborhoods there are in America. So if you’re in the mood for authentic Italian American recipes from the embodiment of Italian mama-ness, pick up a copy of "Lidia’s Italy in America."

Italian American Meatloaf, salad and roasted potatoes. Photo by Denise Santoro Lincoln.

Recipe: Italian American Meatloaf (Polpettone)

One would think that meatloaf is very American, but its origins are actually in a German colonial dish of minced pork mixed with cornmeal. Italians serve it a lot as well, and in this rendition the cultures blend deliciously with the addition of a pestata, a paste of carrots, celery, and onions. Not only does the meatloaf taste delicious, but it is foolproof, moist every time. The leftovers reheat as if just cooked, and Italians love to serve it with roasted potato wedges.

Serves 10 or more

2 cups cubes of country bread with crust
1 cup milk
2 medium carrots, cut into chunks
2 medium stalks celery, cut into chunks
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 pounds ground pork
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and chopped
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano
1 cup marinara sauce or puréed canned tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Put the bread cubes in a medium bowl, and pour the milk over them. Let the bread soak until it is soft. Meanwhile, combine the carrots, celery, and onion in a food processor, and pulse to make a fine-textured paste or pestata.

When the bread is soft, squeeze out the excess milk and put the bread in a large mixing bowl. Mix the pestata, ground meats, scallions, grated cheese, marinara sauce, parsley,salt, and oregano with the bread, using your hands to distribute all of the ingredients evenly. Oil a 10-by-15-inch Pyrex or ceramic baking dish with the olive oil. Form the meat mixture into a loaf in the oiled pan.

Place in the oven, and bake until browned and cooked through (the center of the meatloaf should read 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer), about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza. Photo: Lidia Matticchio Bastianich.

Recipe: Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza (Pizza Alta di Chicago)

One could call this dish pizza bread, and it is a cross between a focaccia and a pizza. In Sicily, they make a high pizza called sfincione, topped with tomatoes, oregano, and a few anchovies. It is sold in warm squares as street food from a cart. The idea for deep- dish pizza came from the early Sicilian immigrants that settled in Chicago, although the excessive toppings are not something one would find in Sicily.

Makes 1 pizza

FOR THE DOUGH
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 packet instant dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading the dough
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl and pan

FOR THE TOPPING
4 ounces provolone, sliced
4 ounces mozzarella, sliced
1 to 1 1/2 cups marinara sauce
2 ounces pepperoni, sliced
1/2 cup grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Pour 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons warm (90 to 110 degrees F) water into a bowl, then stir in the sugar and yeast. Let sit until the yeast begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour, cornmeal, and salt on low to combine. Pour in the yeast mixture and the olive oil to combine while still mixing. Once the dough comes together, switch to the dough hook, and knead on medium-high speed to make a smooth dough, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add a little more water or fl our as needed to make a soft dough. Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, from 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Punch down the dough, and press it into a 14-x-10-inch oiled baking pan or an oiled 12-inch cast-iron skillet, gently pressing the dough up the sides to make a shell. Fill the shell with an even layer of the provolone and mozzarella, then spread the sauce to cover the cheese completely. Top with the pepperoni, and sprinkle with the grated cheese and oregano. Cover with foil, and bake 45 minutes. Then uncover, and bake until the crust is deep golden brown and the pizza is bubbly, about 20 minutes more. Let sit about 5 to 10 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

Recipes excerpted from Lidia's Italy in America by Lidia Bastianich. Copyright © 2011 by Lidia Bastianich. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Related Programs:
• Watch Lidia Celebrates America -- Holiday Tables & Traditions on KQED TV tonight 12/20/11 at 8pm. View additional airtimes.

After two months of relishing the transient taste of summer fruit, I've reached the midsummer doldrums. Suddenly I'm not as obsessively smitten with the cavalcade of fruit available this time of year. Of course I still enjoy eating a ripe peach or crisp cherries, but after spending most of May and June smelling and caressing each peach or apricot as I pick through the lot to find the perfect one, I'm a little over it. Nope. At this point I now simply toss four or five pieces of stone fruit into a bag, cart them home with everything else, place them in a bowl on the counter and hope that someone eats them in the next day or two so they don't molder and collect fruit flies. The more I think about it, the more I find that my relationship with summer fruit is sort of like a romance. You start off all hot and bothered by the unique amazing characteristics that make you fall in love, and end up taking the object of your devotion for granted later when life returns to normal. But that doesn't mean that my time romancing summer fruit is over, because baking brings out a whole new sense of wonder.

Each summer I try to find one or two new fruit recipes. Last year I couldn't seem to make my cherry almond tea cake enough, and I still find that recipe to be very appealing. This summer it's an apricot cream tart. Like so much in life, a series of mishaps led to the creation of this recipe. I was going to make a peach tart, but then the peaches I had bought turned out to be flavorless (more evidence of my waning devotion to picking the perfect summer fruit). So with only eight apricots on hand, I stared at my blind-baked tart crust and began to imagine new possibilities.

The idea of a cream tart sounded intriguing, and so with some advice to check out Julia Child's Tarte Normande aux Pommes recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I proceeded. As with most Julia Child recipes, the cream filling in the recipe had a lot of actual heavy whipping cream in it, an ingredient I didn't have on hand. Plus I am trying to reduce the use of whipping cream in my life (and arteries). So after doubling the recipe and altering some key ingredients, I laid my apricots on top of my crust with some sprinkled sugar and then poured in the filling. After about a half hour I opened the oven door to find one of the prettiest tarts I've made in ages. But would the taste live up to the presentation? As a matter of fact, it did. The cream filling was rich and dense while the apricots nestled within offered not only sweetness, but also a welcome hint of tartness to counterbalance the flavors.

My love affair with summer fruit is now revived.

APRICOT CREAM TART

An apricot tart with cream filling inspired by the Tarte Normande aux Pommes recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Yield: One 10-inch tart

Ingredients:

1 pre-baked tart crust (recipe below)
8 medium to large apricots (you can also use peaches, apriums, pluots or nectarines)
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar for the cream filling plus 1/4 cup for the fruit
1/3 cup flour
1 cup whole milk
1 Tbsp brandy or 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp apricot jam (optional)

Instructions:

1. Line the bottom of the pre-baked tart crust with apricot jam if using.

2. In a medium bowl, whip the eggs with 2/3 cup of sugar for about one minute. Add in the milk, flour and brandy (or vanilla extract) and then whip until fully incorporated.

3. Cut the fruit in half and remove the pits and mix with the remaining sugar. Lay the fruit on the tart crust in a circular pattern.

4. Gently pour the filling into the crust, being careful not to cover the fruit.

5. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until the filling is just firm.

6. Remove tart from oven and let cool before serving.

CREAM CHEESE TART CRUST

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes
Yield: One 10-inch tart crust

Ingredients :

1 stick cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
3 Tbsp cold cream cheese
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 Tsp salt
~5 Tbsp cold water

Instructions:

1. Mix butter and salt into flour with your fingers, a pastry cutter or in a food processor while pulsing until mostly incorporated.

2. Add in cream cheese the same way you added in the butter.

3. Slowly mix in the water (being sure that it's very cold) until the flour mixture starts to hold together and then stop.

4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or dump in a large ziplock bag (I prefer the latter) and refrigerate for at least a half hour (or up to one day).

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 325 in a convection oven) while you roll out your dough and then place in a 10-inch tart plate.

6. Poke some holes with a fork on the bottom of the tart crust, line the dough with foil or parchment paper and then lay some pie weights or dried beans on top.

7. Bake for 15 minutes and then remove the pie weights/beans and foil/parchment paper and bake for another 7-10 minutes or until just barely turning golden.

8. Remove crust from oven and let cool.

My foray into homemade slushies has been fairly recent. When my kids became old enough to realize what a slushie was, I was only too happy to take them to our local mini mart to indulge. After all, I spent my childhood riding my bike through cow pastures so I could purchase my own Slurpees from 7-11. During the age of sugar innocence -- up til about age 8 by my calculations -- my daughters accepted the occasional ICEE as a little chance gift. It wasn't until last summer that they started begging for these drinks each time we drove through town, and I was relieved when the machine broke down for a while.

It finally occurred to me only this year that I could actually make my own slushies out of fresh seasonal fruit. Although I know some people use Italian soda syrups to make similar concoctions, I wanted my slushies to actually have something worth ingesting in them. So after purchasing an overly large watermelon recently, I decided to experiment with it. The recipe I used is similar to watermelon granita, except unlike that delicacy, my watermelon slushie is not frozen through. Rather I simply freeze the drink in my ice cream maker until the consistency is icy and similar to that of a slushie, and then pour and serve immediately.

Now let's be honest here. Kids aren't stupid, and when mine were faced with a homemade slushie instead of their favorite ICEE they were skeptical about how it would taste and a little irritated that I was trying to dress up frozen fresh fruit as a summer treat. But once I put the concoction in a fun glass with a straw, the complaining ceased as they quickly finished off their slushies. Will they beg for an ICEE the next time we're at the local market? Sure. But were they happy with the watermelon slushies I made? Absolutely. Plus I could eat two and not feel guilty.

Recipe: Watermelon Slushies
A frozen beverage made with fresh watermelon

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Yield: 6 cups

Ingredients:
5 cups hulled and cubed seedless watermelon*
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 juicy lime (or two semi-juicy limes)
* You can also just remove the seeds from a regular watermelon.

Instructions:
1. Heat sugar and water in a pot and simmer for 5 minutes or until the consistency of maple syrup. Let cool.

2. Place watermelon in a food processor (you may need to do this in batches depending on the size or your container). Pulse until smooth.

3. Place watermelon liquid into a bowl and add in the cooled simple syrup and lime juice. Stir.

4. Set frozen ice cream-maker containers into your ice cream machine and then pour the watermelon mixture into them (you'll need to process only half at a time if your ice-cream machine has only one container). According to your ice-cream maker's directions, process for about 10 minutes or until thick. You may need to stir about halfway through.

5. Place in fun cups with straws and serve to unconvinced children.

6. Smile when they exclaim that it's delicious and then feel smug.

Note: If you want something a little more grown up, just pop the mixture into a container and then place in a freezer until solid. After that you flake with a fork to fashion a granita.

It is time once again for my annual raspberry post. You see, early June is my time to contemplate all things raspberry. Why now? What’s stopping me from meditating on the delights of baked and fresh raspberry dishes in, say, April when spring starts, or July when everyone is making juicy fruit crisps? The answer is simple really: raspberries are actually in season now. Not in April or July. Now. Sure you can buy raspberries all year long; and if you’re a commercial grower I’m sure you can extend the season from early spring to late summer or even fall. But if you are a home gardener, this is your raspberry moment.

One thing to know about growing your own raspberries is that you can pretty much forget about the vines for most of the year. In my backyard, they sit alongside a fence near the barbecue. Throughout the summer they pretty much act as a green foliage background to cover up the fence. When summer is done, their leaves change color a bit and then start to fall, memories of their luscious fruit barely concealed by the apples that are ripening heavily above them. By the time winter arrives, I’m focused on pruning, cutting back dead wooden stalks to make room for younger shoots that will emerge soon, the skeletons of old flower buds that once housed berries now dry and sitting vacant. When spring arrives I am struck with just how lovely the small white flower buds are, peaking out of the verdant green leaves that are new and growing toward the sky. I’m always amazed at just how tall those vines then become in the span of a month or two, maturing and getting leggy like a young teenager until they reach the lower limbs of my apple tree. And then just when I’m getting ready for summer, the berries appear. It’s clandestine at first, with only a few hiding under lower leaves, their rich raspberry red peeking out. Excited and anxious to taste them, my family stands right out amidst the vines, eating as we pick, with none making their way into the house. Each day more berries ripen, until we are overwhelmed with them a week later, the vines literally drooping, laden with fruit.

It seem miraculous just how big my patch has become, and numerous the berries. After all, I planted only one lone vine in a gallon pot six years ago. Since that time, my patch has grown from a small one-foot area to 10 feet, now spanning half my side yard. Even better is that these vines are thornless, so I can let my kids romp through them on berry-picking missions without worrying about scratched arms or poked faces.

So what do we do with our haul of berries? In years past we have eaten our share of berry shortcakes and I’ve also tried my hand at making raspberry jam. This year, however, I decided to focus on making tarts. After years of purchasing expensive pastry cream and fruit tarts from La Farine, I thought it was time to get over my fear of making the perfect crust and cream filling. When all was said and done, my trusty pie crust recipe (which is really BAB blogger, Kim Laidlaw’s crust recipe) worked beautifully, and the pastry cream (a Williams-Sonoma recipe) couldn’t have been easier to whip up. My husband even said he liked the tart better than La Farine’s, although I wonder if he just liked saving the money.

So if you find yourself with some sweet ripe raspberries, try making a tart. It’s really the nicest way I can think of to bask in the season.

Recipe: Seasonal Raspberry Tart with Pastry Cream
A summer tart made with freshly prepared pastry cream, a flaky crust and just-picked raspberries.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes
Yield: 1 10-inch tart

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh raspberries (washed and air dried)
1 batch pastry cream (see recipe below)
1 batch of tart dough (see recipe below)

Instructions:

1. Fit tart dough into your pan and blind bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Be sure to set some foil or parchment paper on top of the dough and then weigh it down with either pie weights or dried beans (which will become inedible after baking) to keep the dough from bubbling up in the oven.

2. Remove tart dough from the oven and remove the pie weights/beans and parchment paper/foil. Bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool.

3. When crust is cooled, spread the pastry cream along the bottom and then nestle the raspberries on top. You can dump them all on or organize in circles for a more uniform appearance.

4. Serve as is or top with whipped cream.

Recipe: Pastry Cream
(From Williams-Sonoma Cooking at Home by Chuck Williams and Kristine Kidd, printed with permission from Weldon Owen)

Cook time: 15 minutes
Yield: 1 cup

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:
In a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk to a simmer. Meanwhile, in a heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until well blended. Slowly add about one-third of the hot milk to the bowl with the yolk-sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Then pour the combined mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 1 minute longer.

Remove from the heat and pour through a fine-mesh sieve placed over a heatproof bowl. Gently stir in the butter until melted, then stir in the vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Poke a few holes in the plastic wrap to hasten cooling. Let cool, then cover tightly and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2 hours, or up to 3 days.

Recipe: Flaky Pie or Tart Dough
(Adapted from a recipe by Kim Laidlaw)

Prep time: 10 minutes + 30 minutes refrigeration
Cook time: 30 minutes
Yield: Enough for one 10-inch tart

Ingredients:
1 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
6 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup ice water + 1 tablespoon

Instructions:
1. To make the crust, in the bowl of a food processor, stir together the flour, and salt. Sprinkle the butter over the top and process for a few seconds, or just until the butter is slightly broken up into the flour but still in visible pieces. Sprinkle the water over the flour mixture evenly, then process until the mixture just starts to come together.

2. Dump the mixture out of the bowl onto 2 large sheets of plastic wrap. Press the dough together into a mound and then wrap with plastic and press into a flat disk. Refrigerate the dough until chilled, about 30 minutes or up to 1 day, or freeze for up to 1 month.

With Memorial Day just around the corner, it's time to talk about burgers (again). Yes, I know I just wrote about all-beef patties, but you don't need meat to make a tasty burger. Veggie burgers can be just as delicious as their beef counterparts, and healthier too.

Now when I say veggie burgers, I do not mean garden burgers. Just like any mass-produced food, frozen garden burgers are a quick commercially-made alternative to a true veggie burger. Making homemade vegetarian burgers is not much more difficult than preparing beef burgers (especially if you have a food processor) and you can modify the recipe for your own tastes and preferences. Plus they aren't full of sodium (unlike the frozen varieties).

There are numerous ways to make veggie burgers. Whether using mushrooms, vegetables, tofu or beans as a base, each recipe has something different to offer. I like making my burgers with beans because the texture, when pulsed in a food processor, is really perfect for shaping into patties. I also just like the flavor of beans. Other ingredients I tend to use are walnuts (which provide both substance and flavor), spinach (which helps bind the burger), carrots and onions. You'll also need to mix in a dry ingredient or the burger will disintegrate into the pan when you try to fry it (trust me on this as I've had it happen). The good news is that you can really use whatever you'd like, from bread crumbs to oatmeal, rice, bulgur or couscous (which is what I used when preparing the recipe below this week as I had some leftover from dinner the night before).

Seasonings are really whatever you want. If using black beans, try a tsp of cumin and 1/2 cup cilantro. If you want something with an Italian flavor, use cannellini beans and then add in some sun dried tomatoes and basil. Other flavorings could be chili powder, turmeric, curry powder, ginger, soy sauce or a variety of herbs. It's your burger, so mix in whatever sounds good.

Keep in mind that veggie burgers need to be cooked and prepared a little differently than meat burgers. Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind:
• Don't over process the ingredients or else the burger will fall apart
• Cook in a nonstick pan (I use my cast-iron pans)
• Fry your burgers in a little bit of oil
• Handle your burgers carefully as veggie burgers are more fragile than meat burgers and tend to fall apart
• Chill your burgers before cooking (if time allows) as they will maintain their shape better
• Start off cooking in a hot skillet and then reduce the heat
• If you accidentally over process the beans, just add more dry ingredients
• Taste the bean mixture before adding the egg so you can determine if you have seasoned everything to your liking

Following is my bean burger recipe along with some links to other types of veggie burgers that you may find interesting. Some are vegan, some vegetarian and all worth considering.

*Apparently Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies (who knew?) so if you'd like to keep this vegetarian or vegan, you can substitute soy sauce.

Other Veggie Burgers That Look Good

Here's a list of recipes for veggie burgers that I haven't yet tried, but plan on preparing in the future.

• Moosewood's Mushroom Pecan Burgers from the venerable and reliable Moosewood Restaurant
• Summer Veggie Burger Made to Order by Mark Bittman
• The Simplest Bean Burgers from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything
• Tofu Burgers by 101 Cookbooks
• Cracked Wheat Burgers with Pickled Onions and Lime Slather from Better Homes and Gardens
• Greek Spinach Veggie Burgers from Better Homes and Gardens
• Bean Burgers from Alison Holst from Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Life
• Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger from Meatless Monday
• Mushroom Burgers With Almonds and Spinach from the New York Times Recipes for Health
• White Bean Burgers from the New York Times Recipes for Health

Every family has its own version of comfort food. For us -- an Italian American clan that immigrated 100 years ago from Naples and Sicily -- vegetable pasta dishes have supplied not only nourishment for each generation, but a sense of well being. The continuity of eating something your great-grandparents, grandparents and parents ate is both reassuring and calming. The premise for these dishes all starts with the same idea: take whatever vegetables are in season and fresh, sauté with olive oil, garlic or onions, and maybe throw in some tomatoes for good measure. Mix with pasta and you have a meal.

Pasta Piselli is one of those dishes. A dish made with peas, tomatoes, herbs and onions, it is simple and forthright. There is nothing showy about this dish. Yet the mix of fresh spring onions and just-shelled English peas makes it not only the perfect family meal, but also elegant enough to serve to guests.

Now I need to confess that my use of fresh peas is unique in my family. Somewhere along the way -- I'm guessing during the Depression -- canned peas were employed as the main ingredient. My grandmother made the dish with canned peas, as did my mother. Yet although I adored this dish as a child, I have always made it a little differently, using fresh or frozen peas instead. This is probably because I really don't like canned vegetables. Plus fresh peas are only available for a short while in the spring, which means I need to take advantage of their wonderful verdant sweet flavor while they last. Prepared with small spring onions, and, if you're lucky, some nice early tomatoes, and you have a dish that celebrates the end of winter.

I made this pasta dish earlier this week after finding some crispy English peas and spring onions at the market. I wasn't lucky enough to stumble upon heirloom tomatoes, so used my standard can of San Marzano plums that I rely on so much throughout the year. And, because the day was rainy and cold, I added in some pasta water to make the dish soupy. If it had been warm out, I most likely would have left it out. But that's the great thing about a dish like this; its innate simplicity allows you to easily transform it for whatever mood you're in. Like all good simple foods, it is malleable, which, I suspect, is why it's been around for so long.

Happy National Hamburger Month! In honor of this made-up celebration of all things burger, let's get to the meat of the matter. When the weather is nice -- usually sunny, but let's be honest about where we live and include mildly foggy -- it's time to grill. And although you can get fancy on your Weber, nothing is easier or more satisfying to cook outside than an all-beef burger (unless of course you're vegetarian, in which case this post isn't for you). Plus after a winter of braises and stews, nothing inaugurates summer like a perfectly grilled burger sitting on a fluffy bun.

But not all hamburgers are made equally. There is an enormous difference between handmade burgers and the patties you find in a grocery store freezer section, which are really nothing short of inferior-grade beef hockey pucks. Plus making truly fine burgers takes only about five to ten minutes longer than preparing the frozen variety (depending on if you grind your own meat), and the time spent is well worth it. And if you're still not convinced, you can read this great piece in the New York Times called Anatomy of a Burger which details the process meat corporations go through to produce their ground meat. Just saying...

Please note that this article has nothing to do with turkey, lamb or pork burgers, and there are no discussions on toppings or condiments. No, our attention here is solely on beef patties: how to make, season and cook them. That's all. So with that in mind, let's now focus on how making a great burger is really a fairly plain and simple endeavor. Here are 10 helpful tips to keep in mind:

10 Tips for Making Great Hamburgers

1. Purchase the best meat possible. Burgers are really all about the meat, so don't skimp. Buy the best quality beef you can find. I'm not taking about filet mignon here. Rather I mean the quality of the overall beef instead of the cut. No shock to anyone who knows me, I prefer grass-fed organic beef, preferably raised locally. Environmental and health reasons aside, grass-fed beef has a more intense meaty flavor than corn-fed commercially produced meat and can stand up to the condiments you'll add later. Yes there is a price difference, but we're talking about ground beef here so instead of paying $3.99 a pound you may pay $6.99 or $7.99 a pound, which will feed a family of four. Not a bad price.

2. If you have a meat grinder then by all means take it out of the storage closet. Use a mix of sirloin and chuck. If you don't have one then be sure to purchase high-quality ground meat from the type of place where the butchers actually grind the meat on the premises and know which cuts are used.

3. Use meat that has about 15 - 20% fat (that's 80 - 85% lean on the label). Fat equals flavor in a burger. It also prevents the meat from drying out on the grill. If you want a leaner meal, then you probably shouldn't be eating a hamburger.

4. Don't include extraneous ingredients. Avoid eggs, bread crumbs and anything else that will detract from the beef flavor. These ingredients are for meatloaf, which is a fine dish but isn't a burger.

5. Keep the seasonings simple so the taste of the beef shines through. I use only salt, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce and a little onion or shallot. You can also add some chopped herbs, Dijon mustard or onion powder. And if your meat seems a little dry, add in about 1 Tbsp heavy cream for a pound of meat to add richness.

6. Don't over handle the meat as doing so toughens the burger. The meat doesn't need to be compressed into a patty for it to hold together.

7. Shape thin patties. When you cook meat, it contracts in on itself, so thickly-shaped burgers end up resembling meatballs. It's better to include two thin patties on your sandwich then one chunky burger that is unevenly cooked. You should also make your burgers a little wider than your bun as the patty will shrink in size when you cook it.

8. Press a little dimple into the center of the burger to keep it from bulging out when you cook it. As mentioned earlier, meat shrinks when it cooks and so the center has a tendency to swell in the middle. Indenting will counteract this.

9. Grill with the cover on at medium-high heat. Do not overcook. We usually barbecue our burgers for about three minutes per side for medium-rare meat and four to five minutes per side for burgers that are cooked through for the kids.

10. Don't press on your burgers while grilling them. I really can't stress this enough. If you press on your patties with a spatula you are pushing all the juices out and you're going to end up with dry burgers.

That's it. Easy right? Now if only we can convince Mother Nature to give us a sunny summer.

Quick Cinco de Mayo quiz: Where is the margarita more popular, the United States or Mexico? If you guessed the U.S. you win. Margaritas are the number one cocktail ordered in the U.S. In Mexico, the Paloma-- a combination of grapefruit soda, tequila, salt and lime juice -- is the mixed-drink of choice. But north of the border, margaritas reign supreme and, as you might guess, there's no day where margaritas are served more in this country than Cinco de Mayo.

Cinco de Mayo is sort of an odd holiday. Contrary to popular belief, it is NOT Mexican Independence Day -- that takes place in September. No, Cinco de Mayo is simply the commemoration of a battle where the French were defeated in Puebla. In Mexico it is not an official holiday and Puebla is really the only place where the day is observed.

This is not to say you shouldn't celebrate yourself. After all, there's a solid American tradition of embracing other countries' holidays as an excuse for a good happy hour (think of St. Patrick's Day). Plus the weather is so nice in May and there are really no other good party holidays until Memorial Day (yes, there's Mother's Day, but that's really more about brunch). So if you're looking for an excuse to be festive, then today is the day to break out the chips and guacamole and make a nice pitcher of margaritas.

To learn more about this classic Mexican cocktail and tequila itself, I interviewed a couple of experts. Dave Karraker works for SKYY Spirits in San Francisco, which distributes both Cabo Wabo and Espolón Tequila (plus he's a friend of a friend), so I figured he'd be a good person to speak with. I also asked Julian Limon Nunez, a colleague of my husband's whose family owns the Tequila El Viejito distillery in Guadalajara Mexico, to tell me a little bit about tequila.

So here's a little primer on margaritas and tequila for your Cinco de Mayo holiday. Enjoy and remember to call a cab for any friends who are celebrating with you.

Agave tequilana (blue agave). Photo credit: Kurt Stüber courtesy of GNU Free Documentation License

What's the difference between the various types of tequila?
First of all, tequila must be produced in very specific regions of Mexico to be allowed the "tequila" designation. Just as you can't call a sparkling wine champagne if it's not made in the Champagne region of France, you cannot call a spirit tequila if it is not made in Jalisco or a few other designated areas in Mexico.

There are two main categories of tequila.
100% agave -- This is a spirit made entirely from the agave plant.
Mixto -- This is a mixture of agave plus other ingredients which include grain alcohols and/or sugar and food coloring. It must be at least 51% agave to qualify as tequila.

Both Julian and Dave suggest avoiding mixtos if for no other reason than mixed alcohols give you a hangover. Plus the flavor is more harsh and, quite honestly, not all that great. If you've ever had a tequila that made you swear you'd never drink it again, chances are it was a mixto.

There are five types of 100% agave tequila:

• Blanco (silver) -- This tequila is not aged after it's been distilled and has an earthy agave flavor.
• Reposado -- Aged between 2months to a year, reposado tequilas offer a smooth taste without a lot of bite.
• Joven (gold) -- This is a combination of blanco and reposado and is a great choice for mixed drinks.
• Añejo -- Aged between one and three years in oak barrels, this is a sipping tequila. Like a fine Scotch or other aged spirits, it has a refined taste that is best appreciated on its own.
• Extra Añejo -- Aged for three years or more in oak barrels, this tequila is the highest quality available.

Which tequila should you use to make margaritas?
Both Julian and Dave recommend using blanco, joven or reposado tequila for making margaritas. Blanco will give your margarita more of a true agave flavor while reposado is for those who want a smoother taste. Joven is a nice balance between the two.

Don't use añejo and extra añejo as they are too refined to mix with citrus or really anything else and should be appreciated on their own. Plus they're a lot more expensive so it's a bit of a waste to use as an ingredient for a mixed drink.

Why do people salt their margarita glass?
According to Dave, salt opens up the taste buds and the palate, which aids in the tasting experience. Julian thinks the salt neutralizes the sweetness of the cocktail. He says that a lot of Mexican desserts are sweet and salty (like tamarind confections), and salting something sweet is common in Mexico. Plus the salt nicely accompanies the agave and lime flavors and enhances the overall margarita experience.

When salting a margarita glass, be sure to run a lime around the edge to moisten the lip so the salt sticks. Salting your margarita glass is really a personal choice. And, if the salt bugs you, then leave it off.

Should you add other liquors to your margarita?
There are two ways to infuse sweetness into your margarita, adding an orange liquor or including agave nectar or syrup. A recipe using each method is provided below.

Triple sec, Cointreau and Grand Marnier are often used to add a sophisticated orange sweetener to margaritas. They are commonly added in restaurant and bar drinks because they provide a smooth balance to the lime; they also make the drink more expensive.

If you prefer a natural agave flavor, then you can simply use an agave syrup, which naturally sweetens the drink and heightens the agave flavor, adding a complexity that other sweeteners diminish.

Margarita Recipes

And now for the part you've been waiting for, the actual recipes so you can get down to celebrating. I've included two margarita recipes here. The first is a Classic Margarita. Recommended by Dave, who says it's the recipe that Tommy's uses, it forgoes the orange liquor and instead relies on agave syrup. With only tequila, lime and agave this is a purist's drink. The second recipe uses Cointreau for a sweeter more refined flavor. Both are a great way to celebrate the day.

As far as I'm concerned, ice cream is the perfect dessert. There's nothing more relaxing and comforting after a hectic day with kids and work than a little hillock of lush and frosty ice cream sitting in a bowl. But lately my cholesterol has been creeping a little higher, making my nightly indulgence unsustainable. So after some months eating mostly store-bought sherbet and frozen yogurt, I decided to try something new -- almond milk ice cream -- and I'm so glad I did.

Now no one would ever proclaim me a vegan -- after all, I have far too many recipes on Bay Area Bites that use pork shoulder as a main ingredient -- but I do love the idea of cutting cholesterol and fat from my diet. So, noticing refrigerated almond milk at Trader Joe's, I started to wonder how it would fare as an ice-cream base. The container claimed it was "rich and creamy" and I also saw it was free of cholesterol and saturated fat. So far so good, but would it taste like ice cream? As someone who's never really liked soy ice cream -- it has too much of an aftertaste for me -- I was skeptical but ready to give almond milk a try.

I made three types of ice cream and, no surprise to many vegans out there but sort of a surprise to me, they were all amazingly good, exceeding my expectations on every level. My ten-year old daughter Maddie even exclaimed about the chocolate version "This is better than store-bought ice cream! It's my favorite!" I have to agree. My three flavors were almond, strawberry and chocolate (recipes below). All are vegan. The first two were delightful but the chocolate was really special, and all are cholesterol and fat free. But don't make these because they're healthy for you; make them because they are creamy and luscious. Basically they are everything that ice cream should be, minus the artery clogging component.

The whole point of Google's new recipe search is to allow people to designate what they're looking for in a recipe, which in turn limits the search to recipes only. So if you're looking for information on "sardines" you will end up with just recipes instead of a Wikipedia entry plus a bunch of shopping results. Google Recipes also allows you to limit your search by ingredients (do you want to cook your sardines with fennel and without capers, just check the boxes on the left side of the page), cook time (less than 60 min.), and calorie count (any calories). Helpful and fantastic, right? Yes, but recipe blog posts that might rank high in Google's Everything search due to popularity are not likely to be there. Not yet.

Sardines search using Google Recipe View

Why I am disappointed
It appears that Google has chosen to given preference to large company recipe sites over smaller sites, newspapers, magazine, and blogs. According to The Stew, a food blog put out by the Chicago Tribune who interviewed Jack Menzel, Google's product management director for this project, "About a year ago, Google began asking food sites if they would add a snippet of code to their HTML pages which contained time and servings info." But it seems they primarily asked the larger sites, like FoodNetwork.com, to partner with them in this endeavor. The Stew then goes on to say:

"It's going to favor some of the biggest sites and those who have optimized their content to be found easily by search engines. Expect a lot of FoodNetwork.com and AllRecipes.com recipes to pop up on the first page of any search."

So, how do blogs get included? In order for a site's recipes to be indexed by Google's new recipe search they have to meet some specific and not-so-specific criteria.

Format Recipes Using Rich Snippets and Microformats
Recipes need to be formatted to generate rich snippets. For recipes, using hRecipe microformat is a good way to go especially if you are using WordPress as your blog software since there is a plugin. For those of you who aren't web designers or programmers, I should explain that rich snippets are generated by using specific tags within HTML code that allow Google to recognize data as a recipe along with the various components that comprise a recipe. Here are some good resources to understand the process:

• Google's Webmaster Tools documentation of the process for recipes, Rich Snippets Testing Tool, Rich snippets general info (microdata, microformats, RDFa)
• Google's Recipe Search and Rich Snippets Elise Bauer (simplyrecipes.com) at Food Blog Alliance. Simply Recipes recipes are showing up in the Google Recipe search so she clearly knows the scoop.
• Making Microformats Manageable: The New RecipeSEO Plugin Allison Day (recipeseo.com) at Food Blogger Forum. Here is the direct link to her WordPress plug.
• Food Bloggers: How Google's New Recipe Search Works Meathead Goldwyn at Huffington Post
• New Google Recipe Search Means Extra Coding for Food Bloggers Dianne Jacob at Will Write for Food
• How I adapted my blog to Google’s recipe search at Café Liz
• Amanda Hesser at food52: Google's New Recipe Search

Basically, you should know that recipe data now has to be marked with specific tags so Google's search engine can recognize the information as a specific content type namely, a recipe. Right now, doing this takes time and some coding knowledge, which is a pain, but doable. Hopefully, this process will get easier as more editing tools become available to bloggers.

Submit a Form to Google about Including Your Site
Google suggests you fill out this Interested in Rich Snippets? form to alert them that your site is now using the required markup code and should be indexed by Google Search. You are required to submit four examples of pages that incorporate rich snippet code and have been validated using the Rich Snippets Testing Tool but it is not clear how much of your site needs to be compliant or how long it will take in order for Google to start displaying your results.

Follow the Procedure, Validate your Recipes, No Guarantee
Once your page validates there is this message:

"Note that there is no guarantee that a Rich Snippet will be shown for this page on actual search results. For more details, see the FAQ."

This FAQ seems like an earlier version of the information displayed on the page "Rich snippets not appearing" since the FAQ page does not mention including recipe sites being eligible for rich snippets.

"Note that there is no guarantee that a Rich Snippet will be shown for this page on actual search results. For more details, see the FAQ."

So, even if you go through the process of tagging and validating your recipes you are not guaranteed that your posts will display as Rich Snippets which I am guessing means that they may or may not show up in the Google Recipe Search. So, you are left to wait and see.

Maybe I'm suspicious, but what seemed like a cool idea -- a search tool that enables readers to quickly find recipes -- now appears to be a tool catering to larger company sites and I'm concerned about what this means for food bloggers. It seems that many established recipe sites started incorporating the markup to generate rich snippets once they were aware of Google's plan to develop the Recipe Search but the urgency to start using microformats did not appear to reach the blogger community. The lack of integrated and easy to use plugins for the various blogging platforms speaks to the absence of this necessity. Elise Bauer points out the irony that Blogger, Google's blogging platform does not have tools developed for recipe markup that would help bloggers generate rich snippets.

Okay. Whine whine, gripe gripe. Poor bloggers. But what about readers and cooks? How does Recipe View change their experience? The average recipe seeker may be unaware of the filtering that is currently going on and miss out on much of the user-generated food content that has accumulated on the web over the years. On the other hand, it will provide a faster and more efficient system to access information they are seeking without having to manipulate their queries or apply advanced search techniques.

Regardless of the effect on my posts, as a reader I'm a bit frustrated that I may lose out on seeing an innovative recipe with a great story, which is why I read blogs in the first place. I love reading about David Lebovitz's various forays into Paris bakeries that end with a lovely tart recipe, or getting inspired to try making a Death in the Afternoon cocktail after giggling over one of Michael Procopio's pieces.

I should note that many major sites with extensive recipe collections (but are not exclusively recipe sites) are also not yet displaying in Google Recipe View. For instance, I haven't seen any New York Times recipes listed (by them) and I am curious about how large sites that have food as a topic area and a wealth of recipes are approaching the situation.

Maybe this will all work itself out soon. The problem, however, is that bloggers and readers alike have now come to expect immediacy. When I post a recipe it shows up without any delays and people can read it. You can twitter about it and the information is distributed without a waiting process. Perhaps we all need to just learn (or relearn) to be patient again and this post is the equivalent of Chicken Little yelling that the sky is falling on food bloggers everywhere. So although I'm finding the new Google Recipe View a bit frustrating, it may not be elitist. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it ends up being inclusive and helpful in the end.

What do you think?

(Wendy Goodfriend co-authored this post and provided research and experiential information about Google Recipe Search )