How to Cook Pasta like an Italian
Is there anything better? Pasta is cheap, versatile, easy to make, filling and delicious. While gnocchi and risotto have their place, pasta is the go-to primo piatto for Italians and non-Italians alike. It’s also one of the easiest things to get wrong – or at least, to get inauthentic. Overcooked noodles with too-sweet sauces, overpowering flavors,...
Las Vegas Strip icon Frank Marino signs contract with ‘Legends’
A couple of years ago, Frank Marino was cast in a British TV reality series called “Last Laugh In Vegas.” Marino clearly feels he’s getting that as he embarks on his next full-time gig on the Strip. Marino is the new, permanent emcee of “Legends In Concert” at Tropicana Theater. Marino, along with “Legends” vice president Gina Capecci Adams and pro...
Fincantieri to build four Saudi warships in US
The US Navy has awarded a Lockheed Martin-led team including Fincantieri Marinette Marine a multi-billion dollar order to construct four Multi-Mission Surface Combatants ships for Saudi Arabia. Fincantieri will build the ships - part of the US foreign military sales programme - at the Marinette yard in Wisconsin. The contract has is worth some $1.3...
Forno Classico Opens Doors to Pizza Heaven
“I like food,” explains Giuseppe Crisa, founder and owner of the pizza oven company Forno Classico, “and that’s how everything happened.” Twelve years ago, and still new to the United States, the Sicilian-born Crisa was living in Summerland and craving a better pizza. So, like his grandfather before him, he decided to build his own oven. “My Englis...
Former legislator Lidio Rainaldi dies at age 90
Former state Sen. Lidio Rainaldi, a conservative Democrat from Gallup, died last weekend at age 90. The son of Italian immigrants, Rainaldi served two terms in the Senate – from 2001 through 2008 – after a lengthy career as both a municipal and state judge. “He was a gentleman’s gentleman,” said former Senate Democratic floor leader Michael Sanchez...
Checco Zalone in the Director's Chair
Luca Medici aka Checco Zalone presented his new film Tolo Tolo in Rome on Thursday. It will open nationwide on New Year's Day. I haven't seen the film yet, but the early reviews are intriguing. Zalone made his directorial debut with this film after a falling out with his longtime collaborator, director Gennaro Nunziante. Co-written by Paolo Virzì,...
New York’s Bottino Proves A Chef Need Not Be Italian To Cook As Well As One
It is not an idle question to ask if a non-Italian chef can truly cook Italian food, because when it comes to other national cuisines—Indian, Chinese, Turkish, Russian, Thai —few who are not from those regions ever attempt to make them. But the assumption that Italian food is easy to learn and master is a slippery slope indeed, with far too many ch...
Boys Basketball: Arletti fuels second-half effort to keep Holy Cross unbeaten
In his second year, Gianmarco Arletti sets the pace for Holy Cross Prep. An international student from Italy, the 6-foot-6 point guard dictates much of what the Lancers do. He’s more confident and comfortable on the floor than a year ago, and so far his play has shown it. "Last year was a little strong for me," the University of Delaware commit sai...
Colorado Rockies re-sign Team Italy's Drew Butera to minor league contract with invitation to Spring Training
Team Italy catcher and designated hitter Drew Butera recently re-signed a minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies with an invitation to Spring Training Camp beginning in early February in Scottsdale, Arizona. The 36-year-old veteran with a decade of MLB experience under his belt will be competing for an opening day roster spot against 24-ye...
Sicilian Culinary Students Train Navy Chefs on Traditional Pasta Preparation Techniques
If you didn’t already know it, Naval Air Station Sigonella has an extensive community relations program, and it conducts over 200 COMREL events annually throughout Sicily. Whether it’s helping to clean up a beach, painting school facilities, rehabbing churches, or practicing English speaking skills with Italian students, it’s a small way that we ca...
Seminole Heights' vegan Italian restaurant Ground Foods Cafe leaves our carnivore critic impressed
As an omnivore facing a vegan menu, I always bring in a ringer. Unlike sports when that’s cheating, in the world of food criticism it’s more like having a translator in a foreign country. I’ve studied the “phrasebook,” I know the universal design symbols so I can find the toilet, but help is needed to get the jokes. Chef/owner Greg Koodish and his...
A 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Could Fetch $7 Million
A 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet owned by a California collector for more than two decades will highlight RM Sotheby’s annual sale in Arizona in January, with a presale estimate of between $6 million and $7 million. The car will be one of the most desirable early open Ferraris to be publicly offered, the auction house said Monday. The Ferrari was o...