Tag: Array
-
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…
-
Panettone: Why I Don’t Dare To Make It At Home
Why I haven’t had the courage to make panettone at home Panettone is a wonderful, fluffy, sweet, fruit-laden cake-like bread that is eaten in Italy at Christmas time. I just had the good fortune to be able to attend a weekend course on how to make it run by a fabulous baker called Marco…
-
Salame Dolce di Nonna Benedetta
A sweet recipe passed down over generations This recipe for Salame dolce comes from my mother-in-law, who used to make it with her grandmother when she was a little girl. And who knows where her grandmother got it from…….she probably made it with some relative or other when she was small, so we…
-
Broccoli and Spinach Flan
Green makes you grow muscles This is a broccoli dish that even all those broccoli-haters out there love (well at least are prepared to eat under coercion). I can attest to this through vigorous scientific “blind” taste tests….i.e.. not telling my broccoli-disparaging husband and kids what was in the flan. I only told…
-
Grissini (Homemade Breadsticks)
Home-made bread-sticks are so much tastier than store-bought ones! So, I know you’re going to say, “But, why make grissini (bread sticks) when I can buy perfectly good ones at the supermarket?”……why, indeed…..well, fresh homemade grissini are infinitely more delicious than store-bought, and anyway, it’s coming into Winter and on one of…
-
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…
-
Torta Sbrisolona: Sweet, Crunchy Almond Delight from Beautiful Mantova
Sbrisolona: the cakey-biscuit from Romeo’s Mantova in Italy Is it a cake? Or is it a biscuit? Or shall we just not care about the semantics and gobble it all up?!! This is a delicious cake/giant biscuit called sbrisolona, which is a specialty from the beautiful city of Mantova, which I have written…
-
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…
-
Pasta alla Norma (Pasta with Eggplant and Tomato)
Just when you thought it was safe to start reading my blog again, I decided to jump out from behind the door and yell, “SICILY!!!!!!” in your face. Ha! And you thought that I’d finished waxing lyrical about that wonderful island! 🙂 I wanted to share another recipe with you that is a staple…
-
Caramelized Onion Frittata
The frittata recipe that only mother-in-laws know This recipe is a favourite of my mother-in-law, who learnt it from her mother-in-law. Who knows….maybe it’s a secret recipe passed down only by mother-in-laws. In which case, I shouldn’t be sharing it with you and will probably be struck by lightening as soon as I…
-
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…
-
Pizza Dough: Make It Like an Italian!
The dangers of eating Italian pizza When I was a kid my mother would let me choose what we were going to have for dinner each year when my birthday rolled around. I always, but ALWAYS chose pizza: every single birthday for years and years and years (if you don’t believe me,…
