Gnocchi
Potato Gnocchi don’t come from one particular region in Italy, but they are more of a northern thing. A sort of pasta for potato lovers. They are fairly easy, although time consuming to make. You can...
View ArticlePasta with ricotta
Pasta e ricotta. This is a very simple dish, but delicious all the same. The quality of the ricotta is very important. You can of course make this dish with ordinary supermarket ricotta and the results...
View ArticleRicotta and mozzarella pizza
Pizza mozzarella e ricotta. From Puglia. This was cooked for me last week by the mother of a student. Hers of course was better, but mine wasn’t bad either 🙂 It is called a pizza here, but it is...
View ArticleLemon granita
Granita di limone. From Sicily. This is a very easy dessert. A granita is similar to a sorbet, but the texture is rougher and more grainy. The quantities are only a guide because it depends on how...
View ArticleCoffee granita
From Sicily. After lemon, this is one of the most popular flavours of granita. It is often served with a dollop of cream on top. 150 g sugar 500 ml water 4 cups espresso coffee Make a syrup by heating...
View ArticlePuglia style meatloaf
Polpettone pugliese. This is another recipe that I cook a lot. Other recipes cook the meatloaf in a tomato sauce, but this one roasts it dry. It uses minced veal, but if you can’t find it then minced...
View ArticleAubergine parmigiana
Parmigiana di melanzane. From Puglia. This is a really common dish here. It takes a bit of time to prepare, so it tends to be a celebration dish. It’s worth the effort though. Lots of people, even...
View ArticleOnion pizza
Pizza di cipolle. From Bari. This is another “pizza” that is in fact a pie or calzone. This can be made with “long onions” which I have never seen outside Italy, but this recipe uses white onions which...
View ArticlePanzerotti
Panzerotti. From Bari. These are one of the most famous and popular dishes from Bari. They are deep fried pockets of dough stuffed with a variety of fillings. Two of the most common are mozzarella,...
View ArticleOrecchiette with cime di rape
Orecchiette con cime di rape. This probably the most well known dish from Bari. Cime di rape are known as turnip tops in British English. It’s funny, but I’ve never seen turnips in Italy. It must be a...
View ArticleBergamo style Casoncelli
Casonsei alla Bergamasca. When I lived in Bergamo we used to drive up into the mountains once or twice a year to eat polenta taragna. The starter was invariably casoncelli, or casonsei in the...
View ArticleLimoncello granita
This is a very untraditional version of lemon granita. Limoncello is traditionally made in the south of Italy in the “toe” of the “boot” and is now very popular here and elsewhere. I once looked up the...
View ArticleChocolate salami
Versions of this dish are popping up all over the place at the moment. I don’t know the exact origin, but it is definitely not traditional. I had some a while back in a local restaurant and was under...
View ArticleWatermelon granita
Watermelon season is well and truly here. This is a very nice way to use it. Don’t be tempted to leave out the sugar as it makes a big difference to the texture. 1 kg watermelon flesh 50 g sugar …...
View ArticleStrawberry granita
This is probably my favourite granita. You can top it with cream if you like. I like to use it to top fruit salad. Like all granitas, it is very easy to make. 800 g strawberries 5 heaped tablespoons...
View ArticleFried sage leaves
Salvia fritta in pastella. From Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Around Italy the styles of eating vary quite considerably for a large meal. The basic form doesn’t change, how could it? 🙂 The unalterable form is...
View ArticleSpaghetti al cacio e pepe
Spaghetti al cacio e pepe. From Rome. This is another recipe that I cook a lot, but have never got around to posting. Spaghetti (vermicelli is a synonym for spaghetti) with pecorino and black pepper...
View ArticleHalf a million hits!
The blog has reached half a million hits! The first post was Pasta with courgettes and saffron butter on November the 3rd 2007. Now I’m averaging about 750 hits a day. Still very small, but I’m happy...
View ArticleMeringues with chocolate ice cream
Meringhette al gelato di cioccolato. One story about the origin of meringues is that they were invented in the Swiss town of Meiringen by an Italian chef named Gasparini. I quite like this story as I...
View ArticleTiramisu – Original recipe
Tiramisu is ubiquitous in restaurants within Italy and around the world. The translation literally is “pick me up”. Idiomatically it means something like “make me happy”. It is quite a recent invention...
View ArticleBaked mussels
Cozze ripiene gratinate. This is quite an unusual mussel recipe. Mussels baked on the half shell are a very common antipasto here, but this recipe treats them a bit like the French scallop dish...
View ArticleFigs and ham
Roselline di prosciutto crudo su fichi. Melon and raw ham is just about ubiquitous in Italian restaurants outside of Italy, and it’s pretty common here too. When they are in season it is very common...
View Article“Caviar” Mousse
Mousse con uova di lompo. This dish doesn’t in fact use real caviar, but red lumpfish roe. Lumpfish mousse doesn’t quite have the same ring to it though 🙂 If you can only find black roe, feel free to...
View ArticleOsso bucco with risotto
Ossibuchi con il risotto. From Milan. Veal has gone out of fashion in the UK at the moment. It never did in the Italy because they don’t use the “crate” method. Italians are more practical when it...
View ArticleSpaghetti with green beans
From Puglia. This is another very simple recipe that I cook a lot when green beans are in season. The pictures have been sitting on my computer for a while, so they are no longer in season, but should...
View ArticleRice Croquettes
From Puglia. This is a puglian version of the more well known Sicilian dish arancini. It is very simple to make however. There are versions that use other chesses and cured meats, but this one uses the...
View ArticleChicken cacciatore
Pollo alla cacciatora. It is very common to find versions of this dish outside of Italy, especially in the United States, however they often bear little resemblance to dishes found here. Even the...
View ArticlePasta with beans and mussels
Pasta con fagioli e cozze. From Naples. This is a variation on the classic Neapolitan dish of pasta and beans. The pasta is cooked in the sauce which makes it very tasty. Serves 4. 700g mussels,...
View ArticleGrissini – Authentic recipe
From Piemonte. In my experience the bread you can buy from a good baker is usually a superior product to home-made, unless you have a great deal of time to invest and a very good oven. Here in Italy...
View ArticlePlum Cake
Plum Cake. You see this cake all over Italy. It is a type of sponge cake, baked in a loaf tin, similar to what is known as a loaf cake in the UK. In my opinion Italy does most things to … Continue...
View ArticleBagna cauda
Bagna caôda.From Piemonte. The rough translation of title is “hot bath” , which in my opinion is always preferable to a cold one 🙂 This dish is well known outside of Italy, but as is often the case it...
View ArticleStuffed cabbage leaves
Involtini di verza. This is a good winter dish. There are many versions, but I prefer this one because the stuffing is not so heavy as it contains rice and chopped cabbage rather than all meat. It can...
View ArticlePecorino with broad beans
Fave con pecorino. This is not so much a recipe as a serving suggestion. People tend to forget that broad beans (known as fava beans in the US) can be eaten raw. So, for that matter, can peas. Also...
View ArticleEggs mimosa
Hard boiled eggs are of course an important symbol of Easter in Italy. They are often eaten as part of an Easter antipasto. This is one of the simplest, and in my opinion best recipes. 6 hardboiled...
View ArticleTorta Pasqualina
Torta Pasqualina or Easter Monday pie is a very popular dish to have today that has its origins in Liguria. Easter Monday is traditionally a day for picnics and this is often one of the things taken...
View ArticlePotato pizza with ham and spinach
Pizza di patate e prosciutto. From Bari. This is a more complicated version of the traditional potato “pizza”. They call it a pizza here, but that name is quite confusing as it does not contain any...
View ArticleNeapolitan mixed fritters
Pasta cresciuta. From Naples. My local pizzaria here in Bari is Neapolitan and cooks what the locals regard as “thick” pizzas. The Barese go there when they want some foreign food 🙂 They also cook a...
View ArticleSwiss chard frittata
Frittata di bietole. This is one of the myriad of recipes for frittate or Italian style omelettes. If you can’t find swiss chard, fresh spinach would be a good substitute. 6 eggs 1 kg of swiss chard,...
View ArticlePettole
From Puglia. Pettole are sweet or savoury doughnuts. In the region of Campania , and I believe the US, they are known as zeppole. Here in Puglia, zeppole refers to a cake traditionally eaten on St...
View ArticleGarlic soup
Zuppa di aglio. Versions of this soup exist all over the world. I used to live in the Czech Republic and česnečka was said to be a fantastic cure for a hangover 😉 It is best made with new season “wet”...
View ArticleBellini – Authentic recipe
The Bellini is another one of those recipes which is far better known in the USA than it is in Italy. The original recipe is authentically Italian however. Barmen over the years have added various...
View ArticleInspector Montalbano’s Arancini
Inspector Montalbano is a popular fictional Sicilian police detective, created by Andrea Camilleri. The stories are set in the small town of Vigata , and, being Italian, feature food quite prominently....
View ArticleInsalata Caprese – Authentic recipe
From Campania. This salad is named after the island of Capri, in the Gulf of Naples, near to Sorrento. Versions of this dish can be now be found in “Italian” restaurants all over the world. It is...
View ArticleAngel wings – Chiacchiere – carnival biscuits
Like in most catholic countries, the start of lent is a big occasion in Italy. Carnival (carnivale) runs from “fat Thursday , giovedi grasso” until “fat Tuesday, martedi grasso”. Traditionally people...
View ArticlePolenta fritters – Sgagliozze
Sgagliozze. From Bari. They don’t generally eat polenta in the south of Italy. In fact a nick name here for northerners is “polentone” which roughly translated means “polenta eaters”. One of the...
View ArticleRabbit with polenta
From Bergamo. Polenta e cüní. This is the most common Sunday lunch in Bergamo, and is one of the dishes I miss from my time living there. The are many variations on the recipe. This one comes from Slow...
View ArticleGenovese Ragù
This dish, paradoxically, is from Naples. It is a bit of an institution there. Many families cook it for Sunday lunch. It is a type of “white” ragù, that is it is cooked for a long time without...
View ArticleCutlets alla Palermitana
A lot of people know the recipe for cotolette alla milanese. This much lighter version comes from Palermo in Sicily. It uses a lot less oil as it is baked, not fried and no egg is used. 500 g sliced …...
View ArticleSpaghetti al cartoccio (in a package)
From Puglia. This dish looks fairly impressive, but is in fact quite easy to do. Spaghetti or linguine is mixed with seafood, and baked in the oven. The pasta absorbs the flavours from the seafood and...
View ArticlePan brioche
Pan brioche. This is a nice, versatile recipe, similar to the French brioche. The sweet version is perfect for an Italian breakfast with a cappuccino, and the savoury version is good for almost every...
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