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 moist, beautifully fragrant spiced triple chocolate and espresso cake is the perfect sweet treat for cold, pre-Christmas days. It’s as good as its name promises: moist, rich, lightly spiced and full of chocolaty goodness, with just a hint of espresso that will totally steal your heart. I’ve used three types of chocolate for a real winning mix: 70% Dark,…
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…
This risotto is a wonderful Winter dish that can be made when rosemary plants are flowering (they tend to do it also in Winter and that’s such a joy!). I love those little delicate lavender-coloured flowers so much because they’re an anticipation of what’s coming and they look so gorgeous on the dark green of the rosemary leaves. They are,…