As Summer slides into Autumn here in Italy, I’m busy picking the crops that I planted as seeds back in the Spring. Last month I harvested more than 30kg of tomatoes…of which more later! I’m now moving onto the root vegetables, beans and leafy greens including iron-rich cavalo nero which I’m growing for the first…
Tag: recipe
Roasted sprouts with chestnuts and maple syrup
Lots of people think they don’t like sprouts but it’s simply not true…what they don’t like is the way sprouts are typically cooked! You should never, ever boil sprouts. The trick is to roast them in butter adding chestnuts and maple syrup or honey for extra sweetness. Perfect for Christmas lunch but also at any…
Italian lemon and ricotta cake
I’m finding the second lockdown in Italy much tougher than the first. Maybe it’s because winter is upon us and we know this is how things will be at least until the Spring, maybe it’s the relentless online Zoom meetings, a novelty when they started back in March, now anything but. I’m also acutely aware…
Tray-baked sea bream with lentils and salsa verde
Our garden has gone crazy over recent weeks so I’m looking for new ways to use the growing supply of vegetables that are ready to be eaten each day. This one brings in the green stuff…spinach wilted into lentils and a salsa verde made from fresh basil and parsley. There’s nothing like drizzling homemade salsa…
Apricot, plum and lavender cake
This weekend we harvested the apricots that grow on the tree behind our house. Last year was a bumper crop but sadly there were very few this year, most likely due to the unseasonally cold and wet conditions during May. So the only option was to make them into a cake, adding a handful of…
Food, friendship and the comfort of strangers
Exactly three months ago today I was travelling to the UK for work and to see my two grown up daughters and grandson Rex. A few weeks earlier I’d returned from a work trip to The Philippines which I’d combined with an opportunity to learn about some of the delicious but entirely unfamiliar dishes of…
Elderflower cordial
Foraging is one of my new favourite things. There is something immensely satisfying about returning home from a walk with a handful of beautiful flowers or leaves and turning them into something delicious. In the last few weeks I’ve made pesto from wild garlic and sugary fritters from the flowers of the acacia tree. This…
Lebanese mezze
I thoroughly enjoyed my last online cooking lesson with Cinzia in Florence and her recipes for ravioli with zucchini and garlic sauce and tiramisu have been a big hit with my friends and followers (especially the tiramisu which is the ultimate lockdown comfort food!) But the experience of being grounded is starting to take its…
Pizza ortolana con pesto
When my children were young I used to make pizza almost every week. We lived in the Welsh hills and there wasn’t a pizzeria for miles. My son Dylan would take the orders, scribbling down the selected toppings of household members, whilst I kneaded the dough. It became something of a weekly family ritual. Since…
Torta de mela (Italian apple cake)
Winter in Piedmont means that the local farmer’s market is full of apples grown in the rolling hills which surround Mondovi. And that means I have no choice other than to make torta de mela or Italian apple cake! This recipe is adapted from one I found elsewhere with the main difference being that I…
Ese ne tekrema 