Chestnut and Chocolate Calzoncelli

Calzoncelli are traditional Christmas pastries from Southern Italy stuffed with a cream of chestnuts and dark chocolate and fried… Incredibly calorific and incredibly delicious! They tend to be made in batches and fortunately they keep for quite a few days. You will need (makes 50) For the pastry… 1kg of plain flour 300g of caster…

Ricotta and Pear

Ricotta e pera dalla Costiera Amalfitana Combining creamy ricotta, sweet pears and light fluffy nutty biscuit what could be better than a traditional ricotta and pear cake? A tradition of the Amalfi Coast this sweet delight was made famous by one of Italy’s top pastry chefs Sal de Riso – we visit his café regularly…

Fluffy fresh strawberry spongecake

Torta soffice con le fragole Sometimes (read: often) you just need cake. And a home baked cake is somehow just so much better than a shopbought one. Baking is relaxing, as long as it goes right, and fills the house with the most gorgeous smells that make it seem so much more like a home….

Pastries with ricotta

La sfogliatella from Campania If you ever go to Naples then there are a few must-tries. Obviously that includes pizza, espresso, spaghetti with clams and rum baba. There is one delicacy for which there is no translation into English however, and it is one of my absolute favourite sweets, and one of the best breakfasts…

The world’s easiest cake

Torta allo yogurt The Italian boy went to the supermarket for me on Sunday because I hadn’t been feeling well and had no food in the house. Naturally, I gave him  a shopping list. Equally naturally he… embellished it. Chocolate biscuits for example, were added. This didn’t surprise me, but I was surprised to see…