Laura Bonicelli's Blog

I love tomatoes, and I always use a lot of them in my menus. When I'm shopping, I really try to estimate for exactly what I need, but I usually have some left over. This is one of my favorite things to do to with the tomatoes that I didn't use and I don't want to waste. I think of it as "recycling".

dedicated to using leftover ingredients with Italian Style

THE COMBINATION OF LEFTOVER INGREDIENTS:
Potatoes, Leeks, Fennel Bulb, Tarragon, gruyere...

WHAT I HAVE ON HAND:
Garlic, Cream, Chicken Stock, Sea Salt, Freshly Ground Pepper...

dedicated to using leftover ingredients with Italian Style

THE COMBINATION OF LEFTOVER INGREDIENTS:
Two lonely zucchini, about 3 cups of cherry tomatoes (good but not for long), some slightly waning fresh basil...

WHAT I HAVE ON HAND:
Good quality olive oil, garlic, kosher salt, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper...

Ciao!
I have decided to refocus my blog towards what I cook, how, and why between my professional cooking days. I am renaming my blog "Laura's Day Off Blog".

Chef's hate to waste food. It's an easy thing to do though, especially with a business, like mine, with a concept that is based on changing menus, recipes, and clientele. My staff and I prepare 3 full days worth of food in one day. So - after delivery - we do a mandatory assessment of leftover ingredients. I take it all home. This is what we eat at home and is the basis for a lot of my recipe development.

Once I put myself out to the world as a "pro cook" for my business and videos, I naturally started getting a lot of questions about my culinary influences.

I was lucky enough to have two living grandmas while I was growing up. I never met my grandfathers as they both died before I was born. Grandma Lucy and Grandma Beau lived for most of my preteen and teen years about a block and a half apart from each other in my hometown of Chisholm on the Minnesota Iron Range. Other than being called "Grandma", they had nothing in common.