Hello there, here are my blog posts!
I’m yet to master adding a photo to a recipe excerpt so get creative, and imagine one for each post. Do me a favour, and make it a good one. Nothing overly stylised, just casually beautiful. Definitely, no burnt bits on show. Thanks, Kate
I made this polenta, lemon, and almond cake for the first time about 2 weeks ago. I’ve already had to make it again. My cravings for a repeat were louder than that of a hormonally charged pregnant woman. Ditto my hubby and kid’s. The racket was just so deafening, that I had to adhere, and […]
Having lived here for more than a decade, and with my Italian citizenship day fast approaching, I’ve been feeling the need to have “my own”, go-to polpette or meatball recipe. Comical, yes (am I secretly fearing a recipe pop-quiz on the day of the ceremony?), but nonetheless, on my mind. If I was going to […]
While I was in the mood for cooking something mighty today, I’d not the luxury of time. So, I settled on this quick savoury tart using ready-made puff pastry, a good slathering of a bitey orange marmalade, mildly bitey, soft goats’ cheese, tempered by sweet, prosciutto crudo and some punchy rosemary. Probably the tart is […]
I‘ve a soft spot for crostata di marmellata. In essence, it consists of buttery, short crust pastry, that is smothered with marmellata – the Italian word for all types of jam – and finished with pastry strips, usually arranged in a diamond pattern. The look is very much, old-school and indeed, the signature lattice topping […]
Part 1 of a 2 Part (Future) Series … Sometimes colour alone can catch you in its web. That’s what happened with the grape studded flatbread schiacciata con l’uva. It’s vibrant, purple core captivated me instantly, and after tasting it, I fell hard for this sweet bread. But like many crushes, my devotion is riddled […]
We are in the shadow of the autumn equinox, and the cold is starting to make itself felt. Just like that, the seasons are turning, and there’s something so damn groovy about the change. I relish the colder months in Italy. It is quiet and calm, and the sheer illustriousness of the place can be […]
So, after 3 months of summer holidays, Italian schools are back this week. My kiddo is starting Superiore, high school, so bittersweet, where-did-the-time-go, wow these kids are ready to fly kinda excitement. Another gush of excitement has me feeling boosted this week, as we’ve seen a dip in the mercury, and summer’s sweltering days are […]
My sister Mary is a great one for “cracking” things. Not codes, or plates, or cups, but more like fun things, open – cracking a beer, cracking the champers, cracking open a packet of crisps, cracking open a box of magnums etc. So, when I heard the story of how the delicious Ligurian street food […]
Like so many days throughout summer, I’m thanking those clever Sicilians today for showing us the way to transform ice into granita. The story goes like this: the Arabs brought a sugary drink known as sharbat to Sicily during their domination, to which the locals added lemon, honey, fruit juice, or rosewater together with […]
Our exceedingly generous, green thumbed, pensioner neighbour marched by earlier today with a crate load of tomatoes from his garden. He was off distributing his red jewels to another neighbour, and then another. While I snapped the moment in my memory, I was sorry I didn’t have my camera with me. A blisteringly hot […]