It is news to no one that Italians are particular about their coffee. “Il galateo del caffe” or, Italian coffee etiquette is serious business. I have gotten myself into trouble licking spoons, using the wrong spoon, stirring my caffe’ clockwise, stirring it anti-clockwise, stirring using a movement that swished the caffe’ from the bottom to […]

If fingers can be called giddy, mine are, as I type this post on pasta matta.  A lean and salty pastry, it makes a delicious casing for a glut of savoury tarts and pies, known throughout Italy as torte salate.  I confess I am a total flirt when it comes to pastry.  Over the years, […]

Between the jigs and the reels, I’ve been feeling rundown lately.  And repeatedly, I’ve been told that it’s bresaola that I need.  And so, today’s lunch –  a fantastically, simple salad of Bresaola and Rocket.  Also, a super tasty one.   For anyone in the dark, bresaola is a cured meat from Lombardy in the […]

A few things happen with passion in Italy in spring.  One, is feverish house cleaning.  Another, a house blessing by the parish priest.  Another again, eating broad beans, also known as fava (pl. fave) or baccelli. The cleaning and the priest’s blessing it turns out are linked, with the spring cleaning coming first. This came […]

Like a lot of families that live around the port of La Spezia, my husband’s family came and settled here.  Both his mother and his father’s families were from Tuscany. And although his parents had both passed away before Massi and I got together, I feel like I kinda know them through stories.  What I […]

It’s spring but for some reason, I’m finding myself reluctant to say goodbye to the winter this year.  Well, at least to her smashingly bright, fruit and veg,  and in particular, to Sicilian blood oranges.  I seek them out as I am totally under their spell.   And,  it seems I am not the only one. […]

It’s spring, and the first of the zucc’s are hitting the markets, and they’re making me hungry.  My idea for today’s lunch  –  pinsa romana with zucchini and goats’ cheese.   Before moving to Italy, I had never heard of pinsa romana, a doughy and friable alternative to pizza.  Wonderfully crunchy on the outside and soft of […]

It’s more than a week since Easter Sunday lunch and yet, we are still hoeing in to the traditional dove shaped Colomba di Pasqua.  Cut into chunky slices, warmed and served with a generous coating of crema pasticcera, Italian custard cream, this mild sweet bread is elevated into a smooth and richly rewarding indulgence.  The […]

It is almost Pasqua, Easter so, all things chocolate are on my mind.  Cake especially.   Also, I’ve been remembering the year when Massi won an enormous Easter egg  in the village of Manarola where he worked.  In Italy, Easter eggs are typically large, hollow (ie mega delicate), and are wrapped so ostentatiously as to triple […]

I came inside today, armed with a whopper of a fennel that my elderly, yet sprightly neighbour had dug up and given to me.   Apparently, it was “a plump, male fennel, bound to be sweet and tasty”. Huh? While I had noticed a difference in fennel shapes before, the gender bit, was news to me. […]