Review of Mestolando

Mestolando is produced by Claudia Baggiani, a native of Florence who has a love for food television, recipe websites, and above all, good Italian food. The site was launched in 2006.

With the help of her husband Brian, Baggiani posts video recipes of primarily tomato-based pasta sauces and meats. Most of the 3-5 minute videos are shot in Baggiani’s tidy kitchen and feature straightforward cooking techniques with surprisingly few ingredients. The only measurements she uses are “pinch” and “dash,” said in a comforting, accented voice, but she always gives a good estimate for cooking time. These are easy meals one could prepare in a very short amount of time. In addition to the video recipes, Baggiani offers a blog about her travels around Italy

, general research on the history of Italian food, and tips for things like keeping artichokes fresh and what cut of roast beef to buy.

These recipes probably wouldn’t make Italian cooking look so easy if they weren’t in video form. Just the fact that I can watch someone produce a meal in real time, without everything being prepared beforehand, makes me a lot less terrified of cooking. I recommend the Carbonara: pancetta, parmesan and egg spaghetti. With a list of seven ingredients, this dish is totally doable.