Fabulous honey puffs, donuts, crepes, dessert pancakes, small pies (pitakia), and other confections, fried to perfection. Loukoumades (Loukoumathes)- Greek Honey Puffs Loukoumades are golden puffs of fried dough that are bathed in sweet syrup and sprinkled with cinnamon and walnuts. Diples Diples (THEE-ples) get their name from the Greek word for “fold.” They are thin […]

FOGATSA Makes 2 large round loaves In Corfu the Venetian influence is echoed in the island’s Easter bread, which is called fogatsa. Unlike the braided tsoureki eaten everywhere else in Greece, here the Eastern spices mahlepi and mastic are nowhere to be found. Instead, fogatsa is a dense, high, round loaf, with a cross slashed into its center and flavored with […]

Stuffed Little Meatballs POLPETES APO TIN KERKYRA Makes about 24 meatballs What the rest of Greece knows as keftedes or by the diminutive, keftedakia, Seven Islanders call polpetes, delicate little meatballs. In the Ionian area these days they are apt to be the mint-doused rendition common throughout all of Greece. This particular recipe, borrowed from Ninetta Laskari’s excellent book on Corfu, […]

ORTYKIA ME KOUKIA – ορτυκια με κουκια Quail appear in many varied dishes all over Greece, from the preserved quail so revered in the Mani to the quail-stuffed bread, also from the southern Peloponnesos. From the eastern Aegean, we find another unusual quail dish, in which the tiny birds are stuffed into eggplants (the recipe is included in my first book, The […]

Pastitsatha was the traditional Sunday meal of Corfu’s well-to-do. It was almost always made with free-range cock or with turkey, which Corfiotes hold in particularly high esteem. Thick tubular spaghetti is needed for this dish. According to island cooks, a proper pastitsatha requires no fewer than 9 spices: allspice, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, paprika, cayenne, salt, and black pepper. Makes 4 to […]

Ingredients: 15 bergamot oranges 2 kilos of sugar Juice of 2 lemons 3 cups of water 2-3 leaves of sweet- Arbaroriza – Kiouli – Scented pelargonium (optional) Juice of 1/2 a lemon for the finish Spoon Sweets Method: Wash the bergamot well, and dry with a towel. Grate the peel with a fine grater without reaching […]

Ingredients: 1 kilo of strawberries 1 kilo minus 1 cup of sugar 5 tsp of brandy 6 tbsp of lemon juice Juice of 1/2 a lemon for the finish strawberry preserves Method: Wash well and cut the stems off the strawberries. Cut in half or quarters if they are too big and place in a […]

GARIDES PILAFI ME KARI A strange and very un-Greek recipe, since this unusual dish has existed in Ithaca for the last three decades. It is the product of two historical forces—the British domination of the island from the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth and the economic circumstances that forced husbands, brothers, and sons to take […]

PASTITSIO VENETSIANIKO Ingredients: Makes 10 to 12 servings For the pastry: 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter 1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water, as needed For the filling: 1 pound thick tubular spaghetti, like bucatini 2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, […]

MELITZANES SKORDOSTOUMBI – Μελιτζάνες σκορδοστούμπι This simple dish is a paean to the robust flavors that mark so much of Greek and Ionian—cooking. Garlic and vinegar are a combination we find on country tables all over Greece, but usually it is one reserved for seasoning meat. Its use here with eggplant is what makes it unique. Makes 4 to 6 servings […]