"Italian Market" news and stories

• Rick Nichols visits the Philadelphia Italian Market -- home to the famous Rocky jogging montage -- and ponders the question: Can this faltering strip be saved?
• Why tailgate when you can eat and watch the game in the comfort of your own home? The Sunday Night Foodball Cookbook argues just that point.
• The Market Basket is overflowing with environmentally friendly non-stick cookware, thin, spiced Swedish cookies and a Made in Pennsylvania vodka.
• Creme Fraiche can enhance even the simplest of dishes. If the market price is too steep for you, why not make your own?
• The Rush Hour Gourmet is serving up Pork Medallions with Squash and Greens.
• Craig LaBan picks Quicke's Cheddar as the Cheese of the Month.

Over the weekend I went down to Philadelphia's Italian Market. Scott and I had brunch and then wandered through the shops and stalls. He bought himself some new knives at Fante's (the best kitchen supply store in the Philadelphia area) while I ogled the rectangular removable bottom tart pans. After that we wandered into a funky little used bookstore that has a great section of cookbooks. I picked up a copy of Marion Cunningham's Lost Recipes, and I've been reading it in snatches, as if it were a novel, in my spare moments.

I've actually wanted a copy of this book since it came out in 2003, but as is often the case, there are just so many cookbooks and so little time. But when it crossed my path for $8, I was hard pressed to say no. The thing I'm loving about this book is that it captures the essence of American cooking as it was forty, fifty and sixty years ago. It has the same intangible feeling of nostalgia that I chase after with all my old cookbooks and the contents of my grandmother's recipe box.

One of the recipes that is calling to me is the one for "A Side Dish of Onions." It calls for 2 pounds of onions, sugar, butter, mustard and spices and sounds like it would be something that would tempt me to eat it straight out of the pan. The full recipe is after the jump.

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When I was first contacted by FiberGourmet to try their fettuccine, I have to admit I wasn't really expecting anything all that different - after all, it is just pasta, right? Well, yes and no. The product itself is a lower-calorie version of standard pasta which, as I understand it, uses a reduced amount of flour that is supplemented with dietary fiber. In fact, there are only three ingredients in the pasta - durum semolina flour, modified wheat starch, and vital wheat gluten - with the addition of just tomato paste or spinach powder in the flavored varieties.

Since I received a sample package that included each of the three types - original, tomato, and spinach fettuccine - I wanted to try the pasta served several different ways to see what worked best, so I gathered up a group of people, sauces and accompaniments, and got to work. (Continued after the jump.)

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