No, not a mispelling. I really do mean Regù, not Ragù.

They say that traditional is best and that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and traditional Ragù Bolognese certainly isn’t broken but one of our friends, Domenico decided he was going to “fix” the recipe anyway, and change the name to make it all his own. You know what? I think that his version is even better than the original. Full of big beefy flavours, with the addition of red wine, funghi porcini, smoked pancetta and peas, served with rustic hand twisted fusilli instead of tagliatelle or tortellini… Look, I even go a pic of him cooking (red letter day alert!!!)

His girlfriend Rosana also contributed with chicken in white wine and garlic, and fresh peas cooked with pancetta and dressed with olive oil.

Another friend, Mariagrazia, cooked the best Caprese cake I have EVER eaten (and it is one of my favourite Italian cakes so I have eaten a good few of them). The perfect balance of moist and light, sweet and chocolatey. Stay tuned for the recipe, she has promised me she will tell me her secret!

My contribution? Limoncello. Which, considering the amount of wine consumed by all – thanks Carlo and Isabel, for bringing three (three litres of!!!) different wines in the form of Montepulciano, Aglianico and my fave Primitivo – was probably not necessary.

Didn’t stop us finishing the bottle though.

Saturday night with good friends, good food and good wine. Can’t beat it. Thank you to all of my friends here for being so freaking awesome.

With love, from Italy