Italian Food, With Love

The other night, I flipped through my latest edition of Tastes of Italia cooking magazine. My sister turned me on to this magazine, which has easy-to-make, tasty Italian recipes. I found two recipes that I already had most of the ingredients for—a Blueberry Apricot Rustic Tart and a Spinach and Red Pepper Crustless Quiche.
There’s nothing that motivates me to cook than a meal made with ingredients already in my refrigerator. Granted, I didn’t have every single ingredient that the recipes called for, but I could confidently make substitutions for missing ingredients. I didn’t think, for example, the tart tasted any worse with strawberry preserves instead of raspberry. And the quiche was still yummy with a topping of Dubliner Cheddar cheese instead of Fontina.
I did go on a special trip to the grocery store last week for one recipe—Amaretti cookies I made my dad for Father’s day. These are my dad’s all-time favorite cookies. Any sweet made with almonds brings him back to growing up in Bitritto, Italy, enjoying cookies made with almonds from his father’s orchard.
I’m more than willing to buy almond paste at King Soopers to bring back those memories.