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Netflix Announce Roberto Baggio Documentary With Mediaset Partnership

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Fans of Serie A football have reason to get excited as Netflix announced a partnership with Italian company Media set, an agreement which will bring a documentary on Roberto Baggio to worldwide subscribers next year. The legendary forward and 1993 Ballon d’or winner made 56 appearances for Italy, scoring a total of 27 goals. In 2002, he became the first Italian player in over 30 years to score more than 200 times as he starred in the number 10 role for both Milan clubs, Fiorentina, Juventus, Bologna and Brescia. If it wasn’t for a series of knee problems, this player could have been even more successful, and he is also remembered for a penalty miss in the 1994 World Cup final versus Brazil. “I still don’t sleep well because of my mistake from the spot,” Baggio told Sky Sport Italia earlier this year.  “It’s an unpleasant situation, which can serve as a lesson. I’d always dreamt of playing a World Cup Final against Brazil and making up for the one lost in 1970. However, dre...
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apricot and walnut vareniki

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You know, I had great plans for tonight.   As promised, I was going to tell you all about the recipe that didn’t make the cut for my   dumplings article on NPR. We’d talk about the history of vareniki, their texture, the process of making them and what a scandalously good meal it was when we had these apricot and walnut vareniki for dessert. But then, well, instead I went to the opening of a friend’s new gallery and like the eternal college student I am in the face of an open bar, I had several glasses of champagne and now here we are and eloquence, as well as grammar/sentence structure/coherent story telling escape me. Sad but true. So let me just cut to the chase of it, shall I? Alex, though technically Russian was actually born in the Ukraine, and Ukranians, you see, have their own version of dumplings, and I think they are fantastic. Varenyky (Ukrainian) or vareniki (Russian) are derived from the word varenyk, which simply means “boiled thing,” but prefer to thi...
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spaghetti with chorizo and almonds

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I cooked dinner Wednesday night for the first time in over a week. I blame the   babka. Oh, and also the   red velvet cake, and since we’re pointing fingers, that   noodle kugel   is looking a little guilty too, isn’t it? And three-hour   tortillas? Busted as well. Here’s the thing with taking on more ambitious cooking projects: when I’m done, even the though of a quick dinner of salad and couscous seems outrageous. I mean, we just worked our way through a pile of dishes that could rival that of the diner on the corner after the leather bars let out, and now you suggest I chop some green onions? Are you mad? Bring on the baigan bharta! Eventually, however, I cave. I miss controlling what goes down our gullets. A recipe piques my interest, and in this case it was a chance to revisit fideos after   my last fairly disappointing experience. This beauty from the July Gourmet didn’t include the original combination that wowed me at The Little Owl, but ...
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red velvet cake

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There are so many things I don’t get about red velvet cake: One, that despite all claims of acid plus baking soda reactions to the contrary, that a color created by food dye is considered so exciting. It could just as easily be blue, and oh,   it has been. The second thing I don’t get is that it is considered chocolate cake, when a good lot of the better-known recipes hover around one or two tablespoons of cocoa (and never over a half-cup), a barely distinguishable flavor distributed over a three-layer stack. The last thing I don’t get about red velvet cake is, if at least according to my husband, the frosting is the very best part, why that same vaunted cream cheese frosting couldn’t just be put on another cake, one with a distinguishable flavor and absence of egregious amounts of food dye. Obviously, I am way too analytical and quite probably, no fun at all. Nonetheless, I do know one thing well: People go ape shit over red velvet cake, and I aim to please. Thus, with ...
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lemon layer cake

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I know people are prone to wild disagreements over Food Network personality Paula Deen. Sure, some   gush   that she is a “ hot-damn   pistol” and exactly like their “favorite aunt, who doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her” even at the expense of their readership and others think she’s just hated on   because she’s a successful woman, most people cast a far less sympathetic glance in her direction, if not for her   Big Pork connections, then for her Fried Butter Balls, seen as her obvious attempt to   “kill us all.” Much like my take on the ever-raging   Rachael Ray hate-athon, I really can’t imagine why– offensive labor practices aside–people feel the need to be so all-caps in their condemnations. Call me vanilla, but fact is, in the very first show of hers that I saw, she was teaching her newlywed son some recipes she thought everyone should know how to make, and I instantly longed for a big ol’ Southern grandma to teach   me ...
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hoisin barbecue sauce

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If there are any structural flaws to the standard backyard barbecue event (or as we do it in NYC, the standard rooftop barbecue event) it is that plates, forks and standing don’t go well together, especially if you are carrying a beer, or say, a Pimm’s cup, and let’s be honest–when am I not? Sure, we’ve overcome this issue with various bunnage, from hotdogs to burgers and kielbasa, but outside the meat, veggie burger and   salads-that-can-be-scooped   departments, you’re still   SOOL   if you crave vegetables while standing. Alex and I have been getting around it this summer with the not-exactly-revolutionary use of skewers, but this doesn’t mean they have to be boring. We’ve done kielbasa slices with peppers and onions, smothered in spicy mustard and mixed vegetables with my mom’s balsamic/soy/garlic marinade. Should the summer ingratiate itself to us for a little longer, I’ve been dreaming of a speared version of   this salad, replete with cubed p...
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