I arrived in Florence, worked a little in my room, and then I was ready for dinner. I quickly realized that I didn't want to sit around a restaurant---I wanted to walk through this beautiful city. When I arrived at the Piazza del Duomo, I spotted this pizzeria...
...and quickly settled on this red pepper pizza prepared in what is known in New Jersey as Sicilian style. The deep-dish pizza had a crust with a nice crunch on the bottom and tender bread on the inside, with wonderfully sweet peppers on top. I enjoyed the pizza as I watched the sun set on one of the most spectacular buildings in the world.
A few minutes later, I was at Piazza della Repubblica and stopped by Gilli for a pastry. Their selection is huge. I ended up with a small ricotta and semolina tart. It was a rich, delicate dessert that I enjoyed with the last rays of the sun.
I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...





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