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Piazza delle erbe padova

Being patient in Padua

  I think it was Woody Allen in his film Midnight in Paris who said that Paris was the only city in the world more beautiful in the rain. Well, unfortunately I wasn’t in Paris last weekend but in Padua and there was a lot of rain. Padua (or Padova as it’s called in Italian) is […]

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Zuppa Inglese: not just a small trifle (recipe)

This weekend I was invited for barbecue at my friend’s house to celebrate the finishing of some extension work. I wanted to take a dessert, and so still influenced by my trip to Modena, I decided to take the most Modenese of desserts, a zuppa inglese.

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pastciccio di tortellini

Pasticcio di tortellini: tortellini pie from Modena

Ever since I came back from Modena, I’ve been dreaming of this pie. Having grown up in England, I love big, traditional, English pies such as pork pies and the game pies you see in TV costume dramas weighing down many a seventeenth-century table. This is the closest thing I’ve found in Italian cuisine to

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Cotolete de sardele: Venetian fried sardines

    Cotolete de sardele (or cotolette di sarde in Italian) is another dish I tried for the first time in Venice while researching cichéti and discovering that I liked sardines, It’s simple, can be prepared in a few minutes and served as an appetizer, starter, or even a main course depending on the quantity.

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Hugo Spritz: elderflower and prosecco cocktail (recipe)

  At this time of year the hedgerows around Caprese Michelangelo turn white with what seem to be bunches of tiny snowflakes. Luckily they are not since subzero temperatures in May would not be welcome. They are in fact fiori di sambuco or elderflowers. As well as looking pretty, they have a sweet, delicate fragrance that you’d wish

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