Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie. All of these orange-hued, holiday-spiced foods excite me this time of year, signaling that Thanksgiving and Christmas are near. Since most pumpkin offerings are sweet, I thought it would be fun to cook a pumpkin from scratch and...

I became very picky about risotto after cooking it day after day at Mary Elaine’s (R.I.P.) at The Phoenician. Freshly made, well-executed risotto should be pourable, not sticky or firm, and it should also be eaten immediately. There’s no way around the watchful hour...