Il Diplomatico

When I've read about Giuliano Hazan's (yes - Marcella's son) cooking classes, I see that he makes this dessert often.  I've always wanted to make it and I finally got around to it.   Imagine my surprise when I saw that he uses a store bought pound cake for this!  I couldn't believe it, but hey - it works.  This cake is sliced and brushed with an espresso/rum mixture, filled with chocolate mousse and finished with whipped cream.  It's really delicious.  Use whatever berries look good to you. 

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Spatchcock Chicken

I've cooked plenty of whole chickens and I think it's a great way to easily fix a whole bird. It's very simple and you can place herbs and lemons inside the chicken for extra flavor. But my favorite way to fix a whole chicken is to spatchcock it - to butterfly it. There's a couple of reason why I prefer this method. First, I love dark meat and when you butterfly a chicken, the thighs get nice and crispy. When you cook a whole bird, unless you flip the chicken, the thighs will be on the bottom of the pan and they end up never really getting brown. Also, if you are pressed for time, a butterflied chicken will cook much faster than a whole chicken. To butterfly the chicken, you simply remove the backbone, flip the chicken over, and press down on the breastbone until the chicken cracks and lays flat.

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Pasta Roll With Spinach and Tomato Sauce

My Italian blogger friends, Marie over at Proud Italian Cook and Maryann at Finding La Dolce Vita, are hosting their second annual Festa Italiana, a virtual potluck of Italian dishes. I wanted to make something really special for this, so I did a Pasta Roll, stuffed with spinach and dressed with tomato sauce.

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