When it comes to authentic Italian, the East Coast gets all the love. But the truth is that Italian cuisine has a longer and more established history in LA than most people think. Italian immigrants settled in LA as far back as the 1820s, establishing a noble tradition of gastronomy that continues to this day. And with 61% of Americans eating Italian food at least once a month, there are plenty of Angelenos keeping the Italian restaurant scene in business.
Stromboli, on the other hand, is one of those iconic dishes that we grab as an afterthought with our pizza order, or snag on the fly to snack on in between the day's tasks. However, as the third wave of Italian cuisine in the U.S. unfolds, homemade stromboli steps into the spotlight as more than just the stuff of our comfort food dreams.
I left Pennsylvania for Los Angeles on a sunny early October day in 1981. It took us four days to cross the country with my clothes, toiletries, and Schwinn bike hanging off the back of the trunk. My dad's light green 1971 Chevy Impala with snow tires and 100,000 miles on it made it effortlessly. Eight months later, my mom and dad flew out for their first visit to Los Angeles.
There are no strict rules for meatballs, as my 15 years of professional cooking experience at various magazine test kitchens and cooking for food photography shoots have showed me. Meatballs, in essence, are just meat, seasonings and a binder. They can be mixed delicately or vigorously, made from a meat substitute, flavored with a variety of ingredients (herbs, spices, cheeses) and cooked any number of ways. But while there's no single formula, there are a few principles for ingredients and techniques that,
Fine dining and fast food definitely have their place in the foodie world, but there's nothing that hits quite like one of those classic comfort food dishes. We'd go as far as to argue that there's something about a perfectly-made, pillowy, flavorful meatball that makes them kind of the backbone of comfort foods. Whether they're served up in a rustic Italian wedding soup or a classic Swedish meatball dish that's perfect for when the weather starts turning cold, we'll never say no.
Something's up with aperitivo. Then again, since it first washed up on our shores, something has always been up with aperitivo. There was a time, in the 2010s, when the spritz and Negroni belonged to a tiny cottage industry of bars that proudly declared themselves "aperitivo." Most, like Dante and Bar Pisellino in New York, or Americano in Portland, Oregon, remained relatively faithful to the classics, preferring to add their stamp in the light rejiggering of ingredients. The quest was to improve, rather than overhaul.
