Broccoli rabe and Sausage

Salsicce e friarielli from Naples This is a classic “piatto povero”. A simple dish that was cooked by poor people around the capital of Campania when food was scarce. The dish has remained true to its roots in its simplicity and can be found in restaurants and in pizzerias across the region. It’s simple and…

A’mpepata e’ cozze

Impepata di Cozze (mussels with black pepper) A’mpepata e’ cozze, as they call this dish in Naples, is in my opinion one of the great unsung heroes of Mediterranean cuisine.  Considered cucina povera or the “cuisine of the poor” these molluscs were snubbed by the Godfather of Italian cuisine Pellegrino Artusi and were not mentioned at…

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…

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…

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…

Pizza!

Sorry there’s been so long between posts, work has been completely mad recently and I just haven’t had time to think. When you’re in a rush, you end up eating fast food, and in Italy that can mean only one thing: pizza!                     Credit: Free photos…

Spicy bean and endive soup

Minestra di scarole e fagioli from Campania It’s cold. It’s wet. It’s miserable and dark. Yes, even in Southern Italy, it is December after all! All of this means only one thing… Soup! When you come home on one of those horrid winter nights after a long day at work there’s nothing better than a…