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Chiacchiere di carnevale – Carnival pastries – Italian home cooking
It is Carnevale right now and most Italians would not pass the opportunity to munch on the delectable seasonal deep fried pastries called chiacchiere (pronounced kiah-kihe-reh). They are crisp, not overly sweet, feather light and shatter as soon as you pop one in your mouth. They are insubstantial and irresistible, at any time of the day. The hallmark of good…
Strucolo de spinaze in tavaiol ovvero strudel di spinaci e patate come lo fanno a Trieste (Potato and spinach strudel from Trieste, boiled and baked) – Italian home cooking
A savory strudel from Trieste, almost an Italian hot savory pudding. A potato gnocchi-dough roll filled with spinach and ricotta, boiled, sliced, showered with Parmigiano and baked. Comfort food. It looks impressive but it is not that difficult to make. It is a dish firmly rooted in the Italian home cooking repertoire and something one is…
Mlinci, an unusual corn pasta that is grilled and boiled – Italian home cooking
One of the great pleasures of cooking Italian is that it offers an amazing array of culinary styles and it is not unusual even for the experienced cook to stumble across completely unheard of foods, recipes and dishes. Take this pasta, for example: mlinci. Before reading the recipe a few years ago in Marcella Hazan's Marcella…
Sicilia 2017: Mercato del pesce di Catania e altre sicilianità (Sicily 2017: Catania fish market and other Sicilian things) – Italian home cooking
Sicily 2017: Catania, Val di Noto (Ibla, Modica, Noto), Siracusa-Ortigia. Che dire? What can I say? Beautiful, vital, real, gutsy, honest, crumbling, excessive, generous, poor, rich - everything and its opposite. I will post some Sicilian recipes soon. I need time to readjust myself to London rhythms first.
La mia cassata (Sicilian cassata, my way) – Italian home cooking
Noto is a small, beautiful provincial town in South-east Sicily, where every street, every piazza, every facade, every balcony is an ode to the baroque and its love of spectacle, dynamism and pomp. Everything outside and inside is opulent and decorated to excess - horror vacui, fear of emptiness. The same fancifulness and richness can…
Anatra in salsa (grilled duck with chopped salame, anchovies, garlic and a little vinegar) – Italian home cooking
This is dish from Veneto. The duck should be whole, roasted and then bathed with a lively garlicky, mildly vinegary sauce. I rarely "do" whole birds and I decided to use (easily available and convenient) duck breasts instead and to cook them a la piastra, i.e. on a griddle stone. This is almost a ten minutes…
Pasta cù l’agghia (al pesto trapanese) (Pasta with garlic, almond and tomato pesto from Trapani, Sicily) – Italian home cooking
"Pesto alla trapanese" is a vibrant, intensely garlicky Sicilian pasta sauce made with almonds, tomatoes, garlic and basil - it is lesser know that its Ligurian basil and pine-nuts cousin, but equally glorious. It comes from Trapani, on the west coast of the island ,and it is generally eaten with busiate, a spiral-shaped, chewy, durum-wheat, egg-less fresh…
La genovese (Neapolitan beef and onion braise) – Italian home cooking
"La genovese" literally means "The woman/girl from Genoa". It is in fact a meat dish from Naples and it has nothing to do with Genova, the capital of Liguria, in North-West Italy. Rather confusing, I agree. A solid piece of beef is braised for hours in a huge quantity of onions - this is la genovese in…
La pastiera 2017 – Italian home cooking
This year's pastiera (ricotta and wheat Easter pie). For a change, I made a lard and butter pasta frolla (italian sweet pastry): super crumbly and a nightmare to work with, but it tastes delicious (humbly, he said). Very happy to have found the original fialetta, the extra-tiny glass bottles full of excellent and powerful orange blossom water,…
Barba di frate olio & limone (friar’s beard or agretti salad) – spring, Hip hip hooray – Italian home cooking
Finally! The daffodils in the park, the camelia & the magnolia down in the garden, the birds cheerfully chirping away in the morning.. spring!! ... AND I found barba di frate (also called agretti) at one of my local semi-posh greengrocers (Newington Green Grocers-reccomended). Barba di frate a.k.a. friar's beard or agretti, is a green, slender…
Bônet astigiano (Chocolate, amaretti and savoiardi baked caramel custard from the town of Asti, in Piedmont) – Italian home cooking
Another splendid recipe from Piemonte: Bônet, which is pronounced If you do not trust my Piedmontese accent (and you might be right, actually) check this more authentic voice.It is a caramel-topped baked custard, generally made with crushed amaretti biscuits (one of the glories of Piedmontese baking), lots of eggs and milk, with or without cocoa/chocolate…
Liptaeur, spuma di formaggio e paprika da Trieste ( a cheese and paprika mousse from Trieste) – Italian home cooking
Liptaeur is a cheese spuma (spuma means mousse in Italian cookery terms) that comes from Trieste but can also be found in other areas once belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (as Trieste did until the end of the First World War). A cheese mousse sounds a little "1970s cooking" but in fact liptaeur is much older and very traditional : this…
La pasta matta (crazy dough for savoury tarts and pies) – Italian home cooking
Italians have a soft spot for torte salate (savoury tarts/pies), particularly now a primavera, at spring time. Torte salate are not extravagant with cream and eggs in the way French quiches are, they tend to be simpler, lighter, casual dishes that lend themselves to endless improvisations and impromptu suppers: some cooked vegetables, a little ricotta and/or a couple of…
Sformato autunnale di tre verdure (layered autumn three vegetable terrine from Piemonte) – Italian home cooking
Time to change gear: autumn is here and I want to explore more of the wonderful northern Italian repertoire, which I think lends itself better to this time of the year. This vegetable terrine hails from Piemonte, or, to be precise, from this tremendous book about Piedmeontese cooking: if you read Italian, do get it. This is…
Riso e cozze (rice and mussels) – Italian home cooking
A typical example of cucina degli avanzi, leftovers cooking. I had some leftover mussels from the night before (cozze alla marinara, mussels cooked in a tomato, parsley and garlic broth) and, on the spur of the moment, I decided to transform them into a rice and mussels dish, for supper. I shelled the mussels, making…
El Riso co’la ua ovvero risotto con le uvette, cucina veneziana (risotto with sultanas from Venice) – Italian home cooking
This is one of those recipes that these days exist only in the memories of some elderly people and/or in books: a "forgotten" risotto with raisins from Venice, which is delectable, eccentric as well as easy to replicate anywhere. References in books and in the web are scarce, but all sources agree that this risotto must have…