Olio di Oliva Olive oil is not just olive oil here. Nope. You don’t just get standard and Extra Virgin. You get different classifications according to flavour, colour, aroma, regional provenence, use, food pairing…. Sounds a bit complex, like wine, right? That’s because here it is exactly like wine. It is just as important and there are…
Tag: Italian Food
O’ pummarola
Il pomodoro… tomatoes! Tomatoes go hand in hand with the typical image of Italian food. You find them everywhere: on pizza, bruschetta and pasta, in lasagne, salads and sandwiches. Italy is the EU’s biggest producer of tomatoes too, both fresh and processed, and they are so important to the Italian economy that they are known…
Pasta allo Scarpariello
Pasta allo Scarpariello from Campania This is probably the simplest yet most quintessentially Italian dish one can think of. The word Scaprariello may for many of you call up images of delicious bites of chicken, flash fried with garlic and white wine, rosemary and various other ingredients, but this dish, while yummy, is actually not Italian. It’s…
When in Rome…
…do as the Romans do. Rome is one of my favourite cities in the world. I love to visit it, and never get tired of walking around looking at the architecture, discovering pretty corners and eating ice-cream. I swear there are more ice cream shops per square kilometer in Rome than anywhere else on the…
Dark chocolate and coconut bites
Morbidosi al cioccolato fondente e cocco You might be wondering what I did with the leftover spongecake after making my Valentine’s day cupcakes… I hope that if you made them you didn’t throw the sponge out because in this recipe I use it to make soft chocolatey bites – I really hate to waste food,…
Valentine’s day cupcakes
Pasticcini di San Valentino I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s day. Don’t get me wrong, I like the sentiment, the meaning behind it and all of that, but I hate how commercial it has become – it takes away from the spirit of the thing. For me, Valentine’s day is about spending time with…
Aubergine Parmesan
Parmigiana di Melanzane from Campania… no, Apulia… no, Sicily! Nobody is quite sure where this dish comes from and its origins are hotly disputed between the above regions. Some people mistakenly assume that it comes from Parma in Emilio-Romagna because of the name, but that is not the case. In fact, I lean towards the…
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…
Cuttlefish stuffed with broccoli
Seppie ripiene con broccoli e gamberetti from Campania I’ll be honest, this isn’t so much a traditional recipe as a twist on something I tried in a restaurant and liked. It is a winter version of something of a summer classic, as cuttlefish, although available all year round in Southern Italy, is mainly eaten, lightly…
Mandarinetto liqueur
Mandarinetto from Campania Most people have heard of limoncello, that sweet, tangy oh-so-mediterranean liqueur from the Amalfi Coast which just screams of summer, sun and after dinner drinks on a balcony surrounded by the scent of the sea. Yes, limoncello is deservedly famous. And easy to make… but that’s for another post. How many of…
Pasta with Chickpeas
Pasta e ceci alla romana from Lazio This is definitely a dish that is eaten regularly in Italy in winter, and it is from what is known as la cucina povera (poor cuisine) because the ingredients are so cheap and readily available. The homely roots of this pasta dish don’t make it any less tasty than…
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