Eat like an Italian
Posted: May 16, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Italians like to eat. They REALLY like to eat. And who can blame them? Pasta, pizza, risotto, olive oil, parmesan, gorgonzola, pecorino, mozzarella, parma ham, bresaola, speck, salami, tiramisu, Amadei chocolate… not to mention all those scrummy wines, from the well known Chianti and Pino grigio to the less well known but equaly wonderful Aglianico and Franciacorta.
Courtesy of _gee_ on flickr
Yes food in Italy is pretty damn good. So good in fact that you end up asking yourself the million dollar question… How do they all stay so slim? Well I asked myself the same question when I first got here, as I started to (inevitably) put on some weight – not much, I’m too vain for that – but some, nontheless. Then I realised: You don’t just have to EAT like and Italian, you have to LIVE like one! So, here are the rules you need to eat (and live) like an Italian: Read the rest of this entry »
Rustic Restaurants, punctures and snow in Southern Italy
Posted: March 12, 2012 Filed under: Campania, Drinks, General, Liqueur, Regional Cuisine, Uncategorized, Wine | Tags: food, Italian Food, Italian lifestyle, italy, living in Italy, restaurant, rustic, snow 4 Comments »Il Brigante, Sieti (SA)
The name of this restaurant is “the robber”, but it won’t run away with your money, honest! This was one of the very first restaurants I came to with the Italian boy and friends, and where I first experienced a group meal “the Italian way”, that is to say with a lot of gesticulating, shouting across the table, good natured banter and free flowing red wine.
Homemade red wine in chipped ceramic ware...
If that sounds like your thing (and to be honest, it it isn’t then Italy isn’t really your thing either) then look no further than here. Even if it is a pain in the proverbial to get there and back. More on that later…
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.
Polish – Italian fusion
Posted: January 19, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »As I have friends from all over the place, I don’t always eat and cook Italian. In fact one of my very best friends in Italy is Isabel, from near Kracow, and I often go to her house for dinner. Her speciality is a very Italian Spaghetti alla bolognese, but sometimes she goes back to her roots.
Other times, she can’t manage to get hold of all the ingredients, but has a craving for Polish food anyway… so Italian-Polish fusion cuisine is born! In this case she desperately wanted Barszcz Czerwony, beetroot soup with mushroom dumplings. In the absence of the proper mushroom dumplings however… Italian tortellini were the only option.
Polish-Italian fusion cuisine!
I wasn’t convinced at first. Especially considering that the soup turns the pasta pink. Yep, pink pasta, every barbie fan’s dream food…
But you know what? It was delicious. Slightly sweet and sour, the soup worked well with the saltiness of the meat tortellini.
