This salad is usually made with couscous, one of the many wonderful ingredients you can find on Sicilian menus. Couscous is part of the island’s tradition because over the course of the centuries Sicily got influenced by many different cultures and the Arabic one was one of them (see the history of the Emirate of Sicily). Couscous is typical of the…
This is definitely my favourite pasta of all. Easy and quick to make and yet very tasty, for me it’s THE Summer pasta, often eaten cold as a salad. It’s called crudaiola from crudo (raw in Italian) because all the ingredients used for the sauce are raw. Technically the cheese is not raw but you get what I mean: this…
This is a super easy baked ricotta that is perfect as a little appetizer and even as a complete meal, for example with a good side dish and a salad. I served it with a side of grilled courgettes drizzled with good extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice and it was a delicious antipasto. It can be eaten hot…
This super easy Summer salad is made with beautiful tomatoes and three different types of beans: Italian borlotti, Dutch spekbonen (a huge type of green bean) and broad beans. I’ve used udon noodles because I love them and I like to change my pasta type from time to time. You can of course use thick spaghetti or any other noodles, though…
Who’s ever bought a a watermelon that wasn’t sweet? Everybody, I guess. 😀 Watermelon is a wonderful fruit and can be beautifully sweet, but if you get yourself a bland one, then there’s no fun in eating it just like that. Tossing it is not an option, in my home, so I usually juice it and mix it with other,…
This chilled soup is a wonderfully refreshing dish for the warm Summer days. It’s a bit similar to a Spanish gazpacho but the taste is richer and more intense thanks to the roasted bell peppers which give it their distinct flavour. If you want to enjoy all the wonderful healing properties of tomatoes, raw garlic and basil don’t make it…
I adore Vietnamese spring rolls and I make them regularly with classic ingredients. I usually dip them in soy sauce with chilli and sesame oil, only this time I decided to prepare them with an Italian touch and a special dip sauce prepared with tomato puree and balsamic vinegar. For the filling I chose grilled chicken, shrimp, raw red beetroots,…
If you’ve never eaten cime di rapa (broccoli rabe and rapini for our American friends) you might find them difficult to enjoy the first time you try them. They’re quite bitter and they perfectly embody the “acquired taste” concept. In general, Italians tend to love bitter flavours: think of artichokes, wild herbs like dandelion greens and chicory – yes, we…
This fresh and tasty salad is perfect for the strawberry season and it’s rich and colourful, plus it offers an ample variation in textures (think of the silkiness of the mushrooms and the crunchiness of Romaine lettuce ). Perfect if you need some extra vitamin C (strawberries, tomatoes, parsley and lime are full of it). If you’ve never tried raw…
This soup is an ode to the colour orange and thanks to its warming ingredients is perfect for giving you a boost of energy when you’re feeling down and/or need some more vitality. The hot paprika provides a little hot zing and the lime juice adds a nice touch of acidity to the sweet main ingredients. We’re using three super…