O’ pummarola
Posted: February 28, 2012 Filed under: General | Tags: food, Food History, Italian Food, italy, Tomatoes 2 Comments »Il pomodoro… tomatoes!
Tomatoes go hand in hand with the typical image of Italian food. You find them everywhere: on pizza, bruschetta and pasta, in lasagne, salads and sandwiches. Italy is the EU’s biggest producer of tomatoes too, both fresh and processed, and they are so important to the Italian economy that they are known as oro rosso - red gold.
cherry tomatoes... yum
Buying (and eating) tomatoes in Italy is different from in the UK. In the UK you buy lovely red looking tomatoes, and yes they taste pretty good, but something is missing… the smell. When you walk into a shop selling tomatoes in Italy you can smell the fragrance instantly, and it makes the mouth water. The only time I had smelt anything like that in the UK was in the summer, picking the cherry tomatoes my mum grows in the garden, so the scent always makes me think of idyllic summer days in the school holidays… it makes me think of the sun.
Pasta allo Scarpariello
Posted: February 19, 2012 Filed under: Campania, Regional Cuisine | Tags: Campania, food, Italian, Italian Cooking, Italian Food, italian recipes, italy, Naples, Neapolitan, Pasta, Scarpariello, Southern Italy, Tomatoes 1 Comment »Pasta allo Scarpariello from Campania
This is probably the simplest yet most quintessentially Italian dish one can think of.
It's even the same colours as the Italian flag...
The word Scaprariello may for many of you call up images of delicious bites of chicken, flash fried with garlic and white wine, rosemary and various other ingredients, but this dish, while yummy, is actually not Italian. It’s Italo-Americano! The original dish is made with pasta, tomatoes, garlic, chilli, fresh basil and lots of cheese.
When in Rome…
Posted: February 16, 2012 Filed under: Lazio, Regional Cuisine | Tags: cheese, food, Italian Cooking, Italian Food, italian recipes, italy, Lazio, Pasta, Rome, spaghetti, Vegetarian Leave a comment »…do as the Romans do.
Rome is one of my favourite cities in the world. I love to visit it, and never get tired of walking around looking at the architecture, discovering pretty corners and eating ice-cream. I swear there are more ice cream shops per square kilometer in Rome than anywhere else on the planet – there’s another one every few metres, and they all have hundreds of different flavours to choose from… I’ll have to arrange a visit to Rome so that I can take some ice cream pics!
The first time I went to Rome I don’t think I really knew what to expect. I had recently turned twenty (seems so long ago!) and it was my first trip away with the Italian boy that didn’t involve meeting with other friends. I remember sitting on the Spanish steps eating my very first Italian ice cream, already speaking the strange brand of Italo-inglese that has since practically become a language for us as a couple.
However, one of my fondest memories of Rome is of a huge plate of cheeeeeeeeesssssseeeeeeyyyyyy spaghetti and a good glass of robust red wine.
Dark chocolate and coconut bites
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: General, Regional Cuisine, Tuscany | Tags: bounty bar, broken cake, chocolate, chocolates, coconut, dark chocolate, food, Italian Food, italian recipes, italy, leftover cake 1 Comment »Morbidosi al cioccolato fondente e cocco
You might be wondering what I did with the leftover spongecake after making my Valentine’s day cupcakes… I hope that if you made them you didn’t throw the sponge out because in this recipe I use it to make soft chocolatey bites – I really hate to waste food, so I had to invent something for the spongecake, and chocolate and coconut is the Italian boy’s absolute favourite combination. In fact, he thinks that dark chocolate bounty bars are the best thing in the known, and perhaps the unknown, universe. As they say here, ne vado ghiotto… which basically means “they turn me into a glutton”! I think we all have things that do this for us (nutella, anyone?) and can relate, so as you can imagine these made him happy.
inspired by the dark chocolate bounty bar
As an aside, chocolate is quite a big deal in Italy, and aside from well known commercial names like nutella and ferrero rocher Italians also produce some of the world’s finest luxury chocolate. Tuscany, in particular is well known for chocolate, including Amadei, winners of various awards over the years. I first tried Amadei at the Italian boy’s house and fell in love with it, but I don’t eat it often as it is pretty expensive.
Valentine’s day in Italy
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: General | Tags: food in Italy, history of Valentine's day, Italian History, Italian lifestyle, italy, Romantic country, valentine's day Leave a comment »San Valentino
Valentine’s day celebrates love. Italy is the “land of love”, il Belpaese, the most romantic country in the world… So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Italy is also the home of the story of Saint Valentine, and the origin of the Valentine’s day celebrations which take place around the world on 14th February each year.
Smile for the camera!
The history of Valentine’s day is murky and vague, and there are various stories surrounding it. One legend would have it that Saint Valentine was a priest who defied a Roman emperor by wedding young couples in secret after the practice was outlawed as it was believed that single men were better soldiers. The priest then became a martyr, of course. Another story tells that Valentine was a young man condemned to death and who fell in love with his jailer’s daughter, sending the first Valentine’s message to her the morning of his execution… February the 14th of course.
Whatever the origins of the festival, celebrate it by being with your loved ones this year, try staying at home and cooking a delicious Italian meal if your budget can’t stretch to a romantic meal out. Restaurants tend to double their prices for February the 14th and it really irritates me, so we don’t tend to go out for Valentines day at all. Treat your loved one to some special Valentine’s day treat, like strawberries dipped in chocolate, a bottle of prosecco, or some Valentine’s day cupcakes …
We probably won’t do much tonight. We went for a “Valentine’s” dinner last night, to a really nice local sushi bar… it was not crowded and good value for money. Tonight I bet they have a menu on which will cost 3x what we paid, and the place will be packed. A bowl of pasta and a glass of good red wine on the sofa at home will do fine this evening, thanks very much!
Don’t stress about what you give or receive…. In Italy, Valentine’s day is generally less commercial than it is in the UK and the US. Expectations are lower, and people just seem to relax and enjoy it. Take a leaf out of the Italian book and enjoy Valentine’s day the way it was meant to be enjoyed… And if you’re single, make a meal for yourself, enjoy a bubble bath, a nice glass of wine and a favourite move or a good book, and celebrate being you!
Valentine’s day cupcakes
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: General | Tags: berries, cakes, cheesecake, cupcakes, food, fruits of the forest, heart shaped cakes, heart shapes, Italian, Italian Food, Italian mamma, Italian mother, Italian mother in law, italian recipes, italy, mascarpone, pan di spagna, pasticcini, san valentino, sponge cake, valentine's cupcakes, valentine's day 4 Comments »Pasticcini di San Valentino
I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s day. Don’t get me wrong, I like the sentiment, the meaning behind it and all of that, but I hate how commercial it has become – it takes away from the spirit of the thing. For me, Valentine’s day is about spending time with the people you love, being grateful for them and doing something, however small, to show that. Soppy bit over… I promise!
I decided to bake something for Valentine’s day when I was rummaging through my kitchen drawers looking for something and found a heart shaped cookie cutter. I prefer cakes to biscuits and had mascarpone cheese in the fridge which I had bought with some vague intentions of making a cheesecake and some frozen berries for smoothies in the freezer, so I decided to make up a recipe, and I have to say I am rather pleased with the way it turned out:
Yes, that is a real strawberry...
These sweet little cupcakes were even good enough to pass the Italian mother test… the Italian boy’s mum actually liked these enough to take some to her mum! Trust me, that is the best endorsement you could ever hope for!
Aubergine Parmesan
Posted: February 9, 2012 Filed under: Apulia, Campania, Regional Cuisine, Sicily, Uncategorized | Tags: Apulia, Aubergine, aubergine parmesan, Campania, eggplant, eggplant parmesan, Italian Cooking, Italian Food, italian recipes, italy, Naples, parmesan, parmigiana di melanzane, Puglia, Sicily, Southern Italy, Vegetarian 2 Comments »Parmigiana di Melanzane from Campania… no, Apulia… no, Sicily!
Nobody is quite sure where this dish comes from and its origins are hotly disputed between the above regions. Some people mistakenly assume that it comes from Parma in Emilio-Romagna because of the name, but that is not the case. In fact, I lean towards the idea that the dish was originally Sicilian because one explanation for the name could be that it comes from the dialect word for “shutters”, parmiciana, due to the way the slices of aubergine (or eggplant, as you wish) overlap.
Parmigiana di Melanzane
I also think it might be Sicilian because of the number of aubergines I ate when I first visited Palermo in 2007 – parmigiana, stuffed aubergines, aubergine pizza (called siciliana, appropriately), aubergine pasta bake, pasta with aubergines, aubergines with fresh tuna… they really like their aubergines in Sicily.
The world’s easiest cake
Posted: February 8, 2012 Filed under: All regions, General, Regional Cuisine | Tags: baking, breakfast, butter free, cake, cake with olive oil, chocolate chips, comfort food, desert, easy baking, food, Italian Food, no butter cake, plumcake, snacks, yogurt cake 2 Comments »Torta allo yogurt
The Italian boy went to the supermarket for me on Sunday because I hadn’t been feeling well and had no food in the house. Naturally, I gave him a shopping list. Equally naturally he… embellished it. Chocolate biscuits for example, were added. This didn’t surprise me, but I was surprised to see a bag of flour among the shopping. I picked it up and looked at him, puzzled. “Cake?” he pleaded. Oh all right then.
Now one bag of flour and some chocolate chips (he wanted these in the cake too) does not a cake make. And I didn’t have any butter. Not a problem! This has got to be the world’s easiest cake to make. Simple ingredients, no measuring needed and, thankfully for me, no butter necessary. The only fat you need is a little olive oil… I think I used too much and my cake broke, as you can see in the picture, so I have reduced the quantities a little in the recipe.
The world's easiest cake... and it still broke! Oops...
I don’t bake much… can you tell? This is a weakness of mine that I want to work on but I am a little afraid for my waistline… Read the rest of this entry »
Cuttlefish stuffed with broccoli
Posted: February 7, 2012 Filed under: Campania, Regional Cuisine | Tags: baby broccoli, baked, broccoli, Campania, cuttlefish, Fish, food, Italian Cooking, Italian Food, Italian recipe, low calorie, oven, Seafood, seppie, spicy, stuffed cuttlefish, white wine, Winter Leave a comment »Seppie ripiene con broccoli e gamberetti from Campania
I’ll be honest, this isn’t so much a traditional recipe as a twist on something I tried in a restaurant and liked. It is a winter version of something of a summer classic, as cuttlefish, although available all year round in Southern Italy, is mainly eaten, lightly grilled, in the warmer months.
This version stuffs the cuttlefish with broccoli, prawns, chilli and garlic (no fear, cuttlefish has a distinct sweet flavour which can take all these flavours) all cooked in a glug of white wine and with a sprinkle or parmesan cheese, which is used in very few seafood recipes.
We had already started to eat when I remembered to take a photo...
Mandarinetto liqueur
Posted: February 6, 2012 Filed under: Campania, Drinks, Liqueur | Tags: amalfi coast, Campania, Christmas, citrus, citrus liqueur, digestif, digestivo, food, food and drink, fruit, homemade liqueur, Italian drink, Italian Food, italian liqueur, liqueur, mandarin liqueur, Mandarinetto, mandarins, Winter Leave a comment »Mandarinetto from Campania
Most people have heard of limoncello, that sweet, tangy oh-so-mediterranean liqueur from the Amalfi Coast which just screams of summer, sun and after dinner drinks on a balcony surrounded by the scent of the sea. Yes, limoncello is deservedly famous. And easy to make… but that’s for another post.
How many of you have heard of its equally delicious winter equivalent, mandarinetto? Not many of you I bet.
Yummy mandarin liqueur
With its richer, darker colour and sweeter, even more aromatic flavour, mandarinetto is every bit as goos as limoncello as well as even easier to make. So when I saw a basket full of mandarins sitting in the corner of the green grocer’s on the corner for 80ç, I bought them.
