Category: Sides
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Summery Rocket Salad
I’m in salad mode right now, as you can see from my pasta salad post last week, and now this rocket salad post this week! The weather’s getting warmer all the time and my tiny tomato plants that my neighbour gave me are starting to actually look as though they’re not going to die, so…
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Celery And Parmesan Cheese Salad
Have you ever had white celery? I hadn’t until I came to Italy for the first time. I’d only ever seen the green stuff, with which I had a very dubious relationship. I don’t like peanut butter, so smothering it in that goop so that I could eat the celery was out of the question,…
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Zucchini and Spring Onion Fritters
What to do with all those zucchini Zucchini, zucchini everywhere and not a recipe in sight……or is there? My kids and I grew zucchini plants from seed this year. They’ve taken a while as the weather’s been all over the place, acting like a teenage girl who doesn’t know what to wear on…
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Russian Salad From Nonna Pierina (Insalata Russa)
The secret ingredient to make Russian Salad special This post on Insalata Russa is a very special one, as I am writing about it to honour a great woman who passed away this time last year. Pierina, my husband’s grandmother was a powerhouse of food production. She would make a huge bowl of…
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Oven-Roasted Pumpkin (Zucca di Arianna)
The time for roasting pumpkin is here Autumn has started to be weasel its way into my consciousness: suddenly the leaves on the trees are looking slightly brown and the mornings are getting chilly. In Southern France, it still gets hot during the day, so my boys are trying to be all macho…
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Asparagus with Parmesan Cheese
The first local asparagus has hit the shops! No, not literally….that would be very messy…and maybe dangerous. Have you ever been poked in the eye with an uncooked asparagus spear? In a stupid story that I’m not going to go into here, I have and I can tell you that it hurts! I…
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Slow-cooked Carrots (Carote di Bianca)
An amazing recipe for slow-cooked carrots! Bianca is my mother-in-law, who I’ve mentioned quite a few times before in various posts. Every so often she makes these wonderful carrots as a side dish…….I have to admit that it doesn’t happen that often as they take a long time to make and a lot of…
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Polenta: Making Polenta Was Never So Easy!
A slight dusting of snow fell on us last week to about the depth of a thin piece of paper, which caused all traffic to ground to a halt. People abandoned their cars on the sides of the roads and to walked through the forest to work, or back home. As you can probably tell, it doesn’t snow…
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Stewed Onions (Cipolline Brasate)
Sorry, I haven’t been around for a week or so. I foolishly took it into my head to replaster/paint one of the rooms in our house. I ended up putting about 40kg of plaster on the wall, which took me a week of solid work. I learnt two things from this experience: 1. that I…
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Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Why you should roast cherry tomatoes I just realized that suddenly I’m wearing jeans and a sweatshirt instead of my swimsuit and a pair of shorts (now the truth is out….I DON’T wear designer Gucci clothes at home….sorry to disappoint all of you who thought I was so….(cough)…glamorous). As an aside, I have…
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Juicy Orange Salad (Insalata di Arance) From Sicily
The orange salad you can’t ignore in Sicily When we were in Sicily, this salad was served up in every restaurant before we even looked at the menus. Deliciously sweet and tart at the same time, it gets you in the mood for the wonderful dishes that you’re about to enjoy. Is…
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Caponata: Eggplant Surprise From Sicily
All the good foods in Sicily Ahhhhhh…..Sicily, I miss you already, and I’ve only been home a day. The food, the people, the food, the scenery, the food……..oh, and did I mention that the food was good?! I was amazed to find all sorts of specialties that I’d never even heard of, and…
