story

Chickpea Flatbread

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

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Peach Granita

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

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Shaken Coffee

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

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Bresaola and Rocket Salad

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

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Broad Beans, Pecorino and Salami

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

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Tuscan Meatloaf

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

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Blood Orange and Rosemary Cake

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.

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Zucchini and Goats’ Cheese Pinsa

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

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Fennel and Blood Orange Salad

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.

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Lemon, Ricotta and Almond Cake

I wanted to make something delicious to mark the 83rd birthday of my mother, Stella.  She is one inspirational, wholehearted, phenomenally generous, clever, funny and, just all out wonderful woman.  Although we are on opposite sides of the world, she in Australia and I am in Liguria Italy, I couldn’t let her day pass without cake. 

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