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Italian food

Bigoli in salsa: Venetian pasta (recipe)

by Luca Marchiori October 10, 2018October 10, 2018

Bigoli in salsa

Even if the legend of Marco Polo bringing pasta back to Italy from China weren’t disproved by the documented presence of pasta in Sicily exactly 100 years before his birth, the fact that there is only one truly traditional pasta dish from Venice might do the job. If the famous Venetian had introduced the delicacy, you’d expect it to be Venice’s national dish. Venetians are always proud of their contributions to general Italian culture and would be telling it to anyone who’d listen. But no. Bigoli in salsa, long pasta cooked in a tasty fish sauce, is the only inclusion of pasta in the city’s traditional cuisine. Sorry Marco Polo fans.

October 10, 2018October 10, 2018 3 comments

pasta recipes

Tortelli di zucca: pumpkin pasta from Modena (recipe)

by Luca Marchiori October 3, 2018October 3, 2018

written by Luca Marchiori

Zucca

It’s pumpkin season again and the shops are full of all shapes and sizes of squash ready to be made into soups, risotti, gnocchi and so on. Italians love pumpkin, or zucca as they call it, and there seems to be no end to their inventiveness in cooking them. So, I thought I’d share with you one of my (and my dinner guests’) favourite recipes: tortelli di zucca.

So what are tortelli?

Tortelli is a word used mostly in north-central Italy to describe two very different pasta shapes. In Tuscany, it’s used to describe a shape like ravioli. In the province of Arezzo, tortelli di patate, ravioli stuffed with mashed potato—eaten boiled or often deep fried (yes, you read that right)—are a local tradition. Elsewhere, such as in Emilia-Romagna, the word is used for large tortellini, which are often called tortelloni outside the region.

October 3, 2018October 3, 2018 1 comment

restaurants review Rome

Lo Scopettaro, Rome: Restaurant Review

by Luca Marchiori September 9, 2018September 9, 2018

written by Luca Marchiori

Rome

The problem with choosing a restaurant in Rome is that you are spoiled for choice. Much like any European capital you can choose from a wide variety of cuisines, including some of the best Asian restaurants in Italy, but from time to time only authentic Roman food will do.

September 9, 2018September 9, 2018 2 comments

Food

Eat like an Italian!

by Luca Marchiori June 15, 2018

written by Luca Marchiori

In restaurants around the world, Italian food is forced into the menu straightjacket of Starter, Main Course, and Dessert, a holy trinity that doesn’t exist in Italy. The result is that dishes are found on the wrong part of the menu, leading the diner to fundamentally misunderstand how Italian food is, and is meant to be eaten, as well as missing out on the much vaunted benefits of an Italian diet.

June 15, 2018 3 comments

beef cicchetti cicheti Information ingredients lunch meat recipes regions rice Veneto Venice

Polpette biscotte al finocchio: fennel meatballs (recipe)

by Luca Marchiori October 21, 2017November 25, 2017

written by Luca Marchiori

Polpette biscotte al finocchio

Italian food may be simple, but often it’s not fast: but that’s one of its charms. Good ingredients, cooked well. It’s no surprise therefore that the Slow Food movement started in Italy. Traditionally, a lot of the more time-consuming dishes would have been cooked by housewives while their husbands were out at work, and so often consist of dishes which can cook more or less unattended while you get on with other chores. A good example is the authentic ragù which would be cooked slowly for about three hours. If you’ve ever tasted a three-hour ragù, you’ll appreciate why.

October 21, 2017November 25, 2017 5 comments

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Cooking Carbonara the right way (recipe)

by Luca Marchiori October 16, 2017June 14, 2018

written by Luca Marchiori

Spaghetti alla carbonara just like it’s served in Rome.

After pizza, spaghetti alla carbonara is probably Italy’s most famous dish, but also its most controversial. Everybody knows that this plate of bacon-and-egg pasta is supposed to have a rich, creamy, sauce, but few know the real secret of how to achieve it. Outside—and even inside—Italy, people often cheat and add a little (or sometimes a lot of) cream to get the right consistency. But to purists (and even not so purists), cream might as well come in bottles with the number 666 printed on the label. They will tell you, with a stronger than religious fervour, that it is not part of the original recipe. Nor, for that matter are peas.

October 16, 2017June 14, 2018 7 comments