A great new spaghetti recipe thanks to Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy on CNN is a food-lovers’ delight. And if you’re Italian-American as I am, it’s also a wonderful homage to the cooking you remember as a child and to the cooking of regions of Itlay you’ve never been to as well.

I was inspired to try to recreate a dish on his recent show about foods of the Puglia region of Italy, a dish called Spaghetti all’assassina, or assassin’s pasta.

My wife and I made it just from watching the show, estimating amounts on our own. It turned out great, and was so quick to make that we plan to add it to our pasta favorites. We created a short video on how I did it, just click on it below.

And if you need a proper recipe to try it, Tucci’s show has that for you, just click here.

To save you the click,

Continue reading “A great new spaghetti recipe thanks to Stanley Tucci”

The first food predictions for 2023: complex heat, comfort food, street food will be in next year

I just saw the first of many food predictions for 2023, this from The Food Institute, a food news site, which predicts that complex heat, comfort foods and street foods will be in next year.

When I go off my post-angioplasty diet, I want it to be for amazing treats I love. Nathan's hot dogs fit that bill.
Street food anyone? When I’m in New York, I always head to Nathan’s for hot dogs.

“Spicy food has been gaining popularity over the last decade, but today’s consumers crave more than just heat—they want to learn about different peppers and the complexity of their flavors,” the Institute reports, citing a survey by Spoonshot.com which I couldn’t access directly from the link provided. This flavor trewnd, like the others, is being driven by Covid and its aftermath.

There are also cuisines that are trending, as consumers seek new experiences through food, where spice levels are more complex and at higher levels than U.S. consumers are generally used to—Indian, West African, etc.” Robyn Carter, founder and CEO of Jump Rope Innovation told The Food Institute. “As those cuisines continue to go mainstream in 2023, we’ll see more complex heat ahead.”

Nostalgia and the desire for comfort food that reminds you of happier times is a trend that has been around and will continue next year.

And consumers looking for new food experiences while trying to hold down their food costs will turn to street food, which also carries an air of authenticity for Gen Z consumers, the Institute article notes.

What will you be eating in 2023? We’d love to know, leave your comments here to tell us.

Think cereal is healthy? Think again when it comes to these not-so-magnificent seven

We blogged recently about proposed new food labeling requirements that would allow foods to be labeled “healthy” if they met certain criteria for salt, fat and sugar content, along with other requirements. Pundits already are looking at what those rules would mean for certain groups of products, like breakfast cereals.

CNBC.com recently reported that these seven cereals would not be considered healthy under the new rules:

“For a healthy stamp from the FDA, cereals have to contain three-fourth ounces of whole grains and no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of added sugars,” CNBC reports.

These are only the tip of the unhealthy iceberg, expect a lot more processed foods to be called out if these new labeling rules get enacted.

What’s healthy? New rules are coming from the FDA to help answer that question

The Food and Drug Administration has new rules proposed for labeling foods healthy, rules that go to salt, fat and sugar content. These rules will allow foods to put labels on the front instead of the back of their packaging and to call themselves “healthy” if they meet the new criteria, reports the Washington Post.

A comparison of old and newly proposed nutrition panels on food labels.A comparison of old and newly proposed nutrition panels on food labels.A comparison of old and newly proposed nutrition panels on food labels.
Expect to see nutrition claims on the front of packaging under new FDA guidelines.

“Under the proposal, manufacturers can label their products “healthy” if they contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups (such as fruit, vegetable or dairy) recommended by the dietary guidelines. They must also adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. For example, a cereal would need to contain three-quarters of an ounce of whole grains and no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of added sugars per serving for a food manufacturer to use the word “healthy” on the label.” the Post reports.

It’s good to see salt content getting more attention, maybe now we’ll start to see some meaningful reductions in salt content for processed foods.

Sadly in recent years, even food and what is healthy have become political footballs. The Obama administration was strongly behind improving school lunch menus and encouraging children especially to develop healthier diets. The Trump administration abandoned those efforts. The Biden administration seems to again be addressing America’s obesity epidemic and poor eating habits. Hopefully, that will continue even if Republicans regain control of Congress in the upcoming mid-term elections.

Low-sodium Thanksgiving recipes: it’s never too early to start planning your big meal

With Thanksgiving 2022 only about a month away, it’s never too early to start planning your low-salt menu. You can always start with our Recipe Page which has tips on low-salt side dishes and how to find low-sodium turkeys.

Time to eat all those turkeys! Happy Thanksgiving!
Time to start hunting for a low-sodium turkey.

But there are lots of other sources online as well, just click here to see the results of a search I did for low-sodium Thanksgiving recipes.

Some sites to visit and the articles they’ve posted include:

And from this blog, of course, Here’s your low-sodium Thanksgiving menu!!!

With the pandemic winding down, I expect many, many families will have their first joyous Thanksgiving gatherings in several years this fall, so be sure to serve them healthy low-sodium, offerings.

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