• A Meal at the Playboy Mansion by Kelly Senyei
• Where to Go for Gonads by Jane and Michael Stern
• What (and How) to Eat Naked by Geoff Nicholson
• Libido-Killing Food by Lexi Dwyer

Pork belly is like the dessert of all meats. It’s rich, fattening, and utterly decadent. Hiding beneath a thick layer of fat is a belt of tender-sweet pork, so soft and melt-in-your-mouth you’ll want to make sure any marinade that dare touches it is only an afterthought.  The Hungry Giant keeps the sauce simple and secondary with a balanced salty-sour marinade of white cane and apple cider vinegars, peppercorns, and a splash of fish sauce.

Photo: Kemp Minifie

Succulent nuggets of eggplant are the key to a good Pasta alla Norma, the iconic Sicilian dish that, while it consists of only four main ingredients—pasta, tomato sauce, eggplant, and ricotta salata cheese—manages to taste far more complex than the sum of its parts. The classic way to deal with the eggplant is to cut it into cubes and fry it. Some authorities salt it first to draw out any bitterness, but plenty of others don’t. My job was to streamline a recipe for Gourmet Easy Dinners, available on newsstands June 12, so salting was out.

So was frying: It turns the cubes into little sponges of oil. Roasting was an alternative I found in several cookbooks, and the results were better, but I still wasn’t entirely happy.

Luckily, I stumbled upon Jamie Oliver’s recipe for Pasta alla Norma in Jamie’s Italy. He quarters large eggplants lengthwise and cuts out the “seedy fluffy centers,” leaving shells, which he slices crosswise into “fingers.” For me, cutting the eggplant into eight wedges made it even easier to get rid of the seedy parts.  If it freaks you out to remove so much of the innards—the shell you’re left with is about ½- to ¾- inch thick—don’t worry. The flesh that’s left is firm and meaty. When tossed with some olive oil and roasted in a very hot 475°F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, the eggplant turned out meltingly tender and not at all greasy—the best I’d ever cooked.

What about the pile of eggplant innards left hanging out on the cutting board?  Surprisingly, Oliver tells you to “chuck them away.” I can’t bear to toss out food, so I steamed the eggplant until it was really tender, then mashed it into a pseudo baba ghanoush with some tahini, lemon juice, and smoked paprika.  Voila!  One nifty trick yields two eggplant treats.

Location: Edgartown, Massachusetts

What is the first meal you ever cooked?
I don’t recall a first meal exactly, but I do recall my first cake. And who can say that cake isn’t a meal all on its own? It was a simple chocolate cake and I remember my mom making the Italian meringue for me to use to cover the cake, so you can imagine the sticky mess!

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day for a year, what would it be?
It would definitely be rice in all its varieties and with a world of possibilities for add-ins, as well as liquids to cook it in. But I’d never make rice pudding, which brings me to the next question…

I will never eat:
Neither rice pudding nor Okra. Ever.

What’s your favorite restaurant and what do you order there?
Since I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, I’d have to say Adrian’s Tropical. Set on the waterfront, this place has the best mofongo (garlic mashed green plantains with pork rinds) and it’s a tradition to eat sancocho, a rich and hearty seven-meat stew, on New Year’s Day morning after the celebrations have ended.

Is there a food you used to hate, but now love?
Berenjena, which is Spanish for “eggplant.” It was always presented to me steamed, which made it a brown, mucky color and odd, soft texture. Now, I’m in love with it! One of my favorite casseroles is composed of layers of roasted eggplant, fried sweet plantains, cheese, and marinara sauce.

What’s your go-to quick and easy dinner?
Orzo. Its shape is comforting already, and quickly tossed with any leftover meats (grilled chicken, ground beef from burgers, etc.) and vegetables available. Topped with butter, it’s such a quick dinner.

Who would you love to have over for dinner?
Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. I fell in love with Amanda’s writing before entering culinary school through her book, Cooking for Mr. Latte. Not having Merrill at that dinner would be like having food52, without the 52!

When I was a child, every Mother’s Day I would wake up before dawn and whip up a “surprise” breakfast in bed for my mom. This proved challenging since I had to make breakfast in such a hurry before she was lured awake by tantalizing smells from the kitchen. I remember several years where I had to order Mom back to bed just so I could bring up her a perfectly set tray. At first the tray only featured a bowl of cereal, but then I quickly moved onward and upward to eggs, toast, and pancakes.

This year when my mom visits, I’m making a special brunch in her honor. I’m starting with her favorite: waffles.  I’m choosing to make Cardamom Sour-Cream Waffles topped with generous spoonfuls of lingonberry preserves and dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Then I’m turning to something savory and substantial with Kemp’s Eggs on Toast with Dandelion Greens, which is the perfect rendition of the classic eggs on toast I used to make for Mom. I’m finishing Mother’s Day brunch with a “dessert” of Cherry-Apricot Yogurt Sundaes, in which cool, creamy Greek yogurt is topped with a fragrant cherry and apricot syrup.

What’s your favorite Mother’s Day breakfast?

Add flavor and fun to your spread with recipes from the Our Moms’ Favorite Meals collection, now available in the Gourmet Live Store.

Make it a day full of food and fun by starting with a wedge of Raspberry Buttermilk Cake served as breakfast in bed, and then continue the celebration with Glazed Chicken with Porcini and Crisp Potatoes. One more sweet treat in the form of Chocolate Pudding Pie is guaranteed to make for a memorable Mother’s Day.

Download the free Gourmet Live app then head to the Library to access the Store for the Our Moms’ Favorite Meals collection.

• Feeding America has created the Give a Meal program. This organization, which comprises 200 food banks across the country and feeds 37 million Americans, can provide eight meals for $1. As the organization notes, for millions of mothers their biggest worry isn’t their own hunger but rather being unable to feed their children, or having to choose between rent, medicine and groceries. Make a donation in your mother’s honor and send her a personalized Give A Meal e-card letting her know the difference she’s helped to make.
• The Food Bank of New York will also send your mother an e-card if you make a donation in her name. An astonishing 75% of New York households with kids struggle to afford food, so making even a small donation will feed a family for days.
• Women for Women International, which helps mothers in war-torn countries from Afghanistan to the Sudan rebuild their lives,  has already helped almost half a million. With a donation (and an e-card) today, you can make a that number climb ever higher.
• Our sister site, Epicurious, found 10 charitable gifts for Mother’s Day, none as pretty as the handmade wavy mugs that benefit UNICEF. A set (pictured above) costs only $25 and is dishwasher and microwave safe. Even though she won’t get it in time for Sunday, she will always remember you when she takes a sip of coffee or tea.

• It doesn’t get more decadent than Strawberry Shortcake from The Candid Appetite, in which layers of sponge cake doused in boozy syrup are held together with whipped cream and fresh strawberries (pictured above).
• Strawberries meet a new companion in this adventurous Avocado, Strawberry, and Goat Cheese Sandwich from Edible Perspective.
• In Sips and Spoonfuls Strawberry and Pistachio Cake, fragrant strawberries are nestled in a bed of nutty, tender cake.
• The classic Strawberry Spinach Salad makes a comeback in Stick A Fork In It’s version tossed with a poppy seed vinaigrette.
• Chasing Delicious gives the scrumptious strawberry-rhubarb duo a crown of Italian meringue in Strawberry Rhubarb Meringue Pie.
• Strawberries lend a hint of sweetness to smoky Strawberry Barbecue Sauce from Feral Kitchen.
• Oh My Veggies creates Strawberry Mimosa Cupcakes with ingredients from our favorite extravagant pair: fresh strawberries and a bit of bubbly.

Photo: Luisa Ghetti (Fuzgu on flickr)

You’ve got to love the Italians for the whimsical nature of their pastas: Farfalle are named for the butterflies they resemble, penne for the quills of old-fashioned feather pens, and fettuccine for ribbons.  My favorite are radiatore, or radiators, because they look like the clanking radiators in my childhood home.

Gourmet Live’s Music Issue reminded me of a terrific example of the influence of music on pasta: maccheroni alla chitarra. Chitarra is the Italian name for a guitar, and maccheroni alla chitarra is ingeniously formed by forcing a freshly rolled-out sheet of egg pasta—made with hard durum wheat, not soft wheat—through tightly-spaced parallel wires, strung taut like guitar strings, along the top of a long shallow wooden box. You lay the pasta sheet on the wires and when you roll a rolling pin over the dough, the wires cut it and the strands drop onto the bottom of the box.

Not only do the wires of the chitarra box look like guitar strings, but restaurateur and author Carlo Middione surmises in his excellent book, The Food of Southern Italy, that the name chitarra probably comes from the fact that you also have to strum the strings like a guitar to loosen the strands that fail to be cut clean by the rolling pin. What you finally end up with looks like squared-off spaghetti.

Maccheroni alla chitarra is a specialty of Abruzzo, the region just below the calf on the Adriatic side of Italy’s boot, where it’s usually tossed with a smoked pork-infused tomato sauce or a meaty ragu. De Cecco makes maccheroni alla chitarra, but if you’re itching to make it yourself, you can buy your own chitarra. Who knows, maybe it will make music beyond what’s on your plate.

You can join in on the celebration with all of the latest updates on the Julia Child Facebook page, as well as on Twitter (@JC100 or #JC100). Don’t forget to check back in each week as we round up a few of our favorite posts, beginning with this week’s featured recipe for Julia’s timeless rolled omelette.

• Taste As You Go shares a kicked up version of the classic starring caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, and your choice of cheese.
• Toronto Tasting Notes discovers that butter is best for making the eggs slide straight out of the pan.
• Baked by Rachel adds chopped bacon and sharp cheddar to her light and fluffy creation.
• Knit & Nosh turns to a trusty steel pan for a perfectly pale exterior and creamy, goat cheese-filled center.
• Epicurious draws inspiration from a classic Julia Child video showcasing the star’s timeless technique.