Recipes from “Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees”

In Chapter Seven of Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, Silvia goes through a box of family photos to get inspiration for finishing her painting.  She comes across one from Cosmo’s Confirmation and recalls the party after the

In Chapter Six of Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, Silvia goes home to find Frank making a sausage and peppers sandwich. She pretends that she’s interested in his cooking in order to strike up a conversation with him about her

In chapter three of Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, Silvia goes to visit her older sister Angie at her house in North Jersey and while Angie is deciding what she will make for dinner, Silvia recalls the time her sister used American

In the beginning of chapter four of Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, Silvia makes this dish for her and her brother Vince, who are both vegetarian.  In the story, rigatoni pasta is used to make this dish, but of course, you can use any

In chapter two of Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, Silvia goes to visit her brother Cosmo at his apartment in Philadelphia. While there, he makes tuna fish and spaghetti. My mom used to call this dish “poor man’s crabs and

In Chapter Five of Olive Branches Don’t Grow on Trees, Cosmo surprises Silvia with some delicious homemade ricotta cookies. Enjoy the following scene and recipe below courtesy of the New York Times. As Silvia got off the old, rusty

In the final chapter of Olive Branches Don’t Grow on Trees, the Grecos are gathered for dinner eating one of my personal favorites–clams and spaghetti. Enjoy the following short excerpt and recipe.   The magic continued

Right after publishing my debut novel, Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, I began a blog with recipes from this book. I would now like to re-introduce these wonderful recipes in my new blog, with pastina being the first recipe. Pastina is