Summer is well and truly cooking in Italy, with temperatures temperatures of 28-38°C roasting the Italian people and anyone else brave enough to enter the Mediterranean kitchen. Now is the time to take advantage of the amazing variety of produce that the hot weather brings as well as to eat lighter, more refreshing meals …
Quick guide to Italian ingredients: friggitelli and San Daniele Read More »
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 …
Pasticcio di tortellini: tortellini pie from Modena Read More »
One of the things that surprises most English-speaking tourists, when coming to Italy for the first time, is that in restaurants main dishes don’t come with vegetables. That’s not to say that Italians don’t eat vegetables with main dishes, but you have to order them separately. You find them on the menu in a …
Finocchio gratinato: oven roasted fennel with parmigiano (recipe) Read More »
This recipe is from Puglia. To fully understand Italian cuisine, it’s important to note the major difference between it and, for example, French cuisine. French cuisine is the cuisine of the chef. Home cooks spend a lot of time trying to live up to the creations and recipes coming out of the important restaurants …
Melanzane ripiene della nonna Checchina: Puglian stuffed eggplants Read More »
Farro can refer to wheat from three different plants: triticum monococcum, triticum dicoccum, and triticum spelta. These are usually referred to as farro piccolo, farro medio, and farro grande (small, medium, and large) due to the size of their grains.
One of the things I miss most from my travels in the USA is the gourmet burger. And they are quite difficult to knock up at home. Here in mainland Europe, it’s impossible to find good burger buns. The ones sold in the shops here are weird, dry, flaky things that fall to pieces the …
