Every spring, my Facebook and Instagram feeds are flooded with photos of perfect, robust, purple-tinged artichokes from markets in and around Rome. Food writer and Rome expert Elizabeth Minchilli even coined a cute and clever IG hashtag dedicated to the thistle – #carciofogram. I have a pretty uncomplicated love-hate relationship with artichokes. Love to eat […]
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Nice Lemon Cookies
I love the Italian custom of adding the word “bello” to describe a mundane action, object or food – thus, elevating “il quotidiano” – the everyday – to something special. “Prendiamo un bel caffe” – Let’s have a nice coffee. “Facciamo una bella passeggiata” – Let’s take a nice walk. “Mangiamo un bel piatto di […]

Sagne e Ceci
Whenever I teach cooking classes on homemade pasta (and for those of you in the New York area, please contact me if you’d like to book a class, demo or private event – I’d love to cook with or for you!), I make sure to stress the importance of saving the leftover scraps of dough […]

Farro Cooking Demo in NYC – Feb 15th
Farro is, by far, my favorite whole grain. It is versatile and nutty and perfect in soups, salads and or baked as a “pasticcio.” Although farro is showing up in fashionable restaurants and cooking magazines these days, this ancient grain dates back nearly 10,000 years, where it was cultivated in the Near East. Farro was […]

La Cicerchiata
Christmas is already a distant memory and Easter feels like a lifetime away. However, sometimes you don’t need an occasion to prepare a special occasion dessert. When my friend, Giulia Scappaticcio of Country House Casale Centurione in Manoppello, Abruzzo asked me to translate and convert her recipe for “la cicerchiata,” it seemed like a perfect […]
Michelle DiBenedetto-Capobianco is a corporate lawyer-turned-private chef in New York. Restless in her legal career, Michelle began to spend each summer at her family home overlooking the Majella (pronounced “mah-yel-lah”) mountain in the central Italian region of Abruzzo where she studied real Italian cooking with talented home cooks and culinary professionals. Michelle now organizes creative small group tours of Abruzzo for visitors from around the globe.
Phone : 917.583.8132
E-Mail : majellacooking@gmail.com