Food & Nutrition

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...

One of the most infamous recipes from Alice B. Toklas’s 1954 cookbook describes a whole striped bass that the author cooked for Pablo Picasso. Toklas poached the fish in a peppery bouillon, then moved it to a platter and decorated the outside with piped mayonnaise and tomato paste stripes, truffles, and sieved eggs. When I first read this description, in my early 20s, it struck me as the sort of grandiose, unattainable entertaining gesture I could only dream of—one that would require extreme seafood prowess, not to mention a much better fish counter than the one at the Stop & Shop within walking distance of my apartment. Now, in 2021, cooking a whole fish as the centerpiece of a meal doesn’t seem that much more far-fetched than roasting a ch...

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...

Pepperoni gets the most guff of the cured meat family—always the Lunchables, never the crowning glory of the charcuterie plate. But these compact rounds of salumi have so much more to offer for the savvy home cook. They’re peppery, salty, and full of fat that can be rendered to turn them into crisp miniature UFOs. “It’s a quintessential Italian American ingredient—pepperoni is one of those things that people in the United States always associate with Italian food, but it’s rarely seen in Italy,” says Angie Rito, the co-owner of Manhattan’s Don Angie and the coauthor, with Scott Tacinelli and Jamie Feldmar, of Italian American. “The flavor profile of pepperoni is spicy and garlicky with a hint of smoke, and the ingredient has a familiar and nosta...