Tag: Salt
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Roasted Leg of Lamb
Time for a terrible confession The flowers (and weeds) are popping up in the garden right before our very eyes, and hoards of German and Scandinavian tourists are arriving in the area, so that means it’s Spring! We had my husband’s family over from Italy during the Easter weekend. I decided to make…
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Fresh Pasta: How To Make It Easily At Home!
It’s finally time to make fresh pasta This post is way overdue! I’ve been writing for nearly two years now, and haven’t yet put up a post on how to make fresh pasta……and I call this an Italian cooking blog??!! Shame on me! I’m just lucky I haven’t had my Italian passport revoked…
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Focaccia di Leonarda
Discovering the focaccia success secret I had the pleasure of watching Leonarda, a friend of mine from Puglia, make focaccia last week. I had tried over the years to make focaccia but for some reason, no matter what I tried, the focaccia always came out hard like a plank of wood. Leonarda very…
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Sausage, Spinach and Beer Risotto
Risotto with a difference! This risotto with sausages and spinach has an extra special guest hitching along for the ride. Instead of using the usual wine to make the risotto, you actually use beer. It gives the risotto an extra depth of taste, especially if you pair it with good pork sausages. I…
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Peanut, Coconut, And Chocolate Square
A recipe from way back when This recipe for peanut square is an childhood favourite of mine from New Zealand. My mother used to make it regularly. She modified it from a recipe published in the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers Cookbook. It’s not as posh as it sounds. It was an important…
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Beef And Carrot Stew (Spezzatino )
With the nights getting colder, beef stew is very welcoming Winter’s rolling in. There’s frost on the grass in the mornings and ice on the car windows. Though, luckily where I live (at least in my opinion!), the temperature then rises to about 15 to 20 degrees C or so during the day.…
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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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Penne all’Arrabbiata
How penne all’arrabbiata got its name I’m off on holiday (great that there are so many school holidays in France!!) with the family to Venice and Padova in a couple of days. We’ve decided that our youngest is finally old enough not to try jumping (or falling!) into the canals, so it’s a…
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Artichoke Flan With Fontina Cheese Sauce
My love-hate affair with artichokes It’s coming into artichoke season! I have a love/hate relationship with artichokes. I love to eat them but hate dealing with them: from the minute I pick them up at the market and they prick me with their nasty thorns, to the time when I’m trying to pull…
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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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Apricot Cake
The best apricot cake I’ve ever made One more week of the school holidays to go. At this time of the year I always have mixed feelings: sad, as it’s so nice just to hang out with the kids and not have to rush anywhere, but also happy, because I’ll have more time…
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Cantuccini (The Original “Biscotti” from Tuscany)
What “biscotti” are called in Italy Yes, I know I just put up another almond biscuit recipe recently, but honestly, I bought a lot of almonds when I made the marzapani, so they have to be used up. This is a recipe for classic Tuscan biscuits called cantuccini or cantucce. Cantuccini are the grandmother of the…
