I was recently asked to bring a pasta salad to a family birthday, and of course it's the one salad I pretty much NEVER make. I wanted to avoid the usual creamy options, and ended up with two different versions, both of which were a hit. GREEN MACHINE PESTO PASTA SALAD Toss some traditional basil [...]
Ask anyone who knew me as a child, and they would tell you that if I had been allowed to, I would have lived on nothing but potatoes. Mashed, baked, fried, boiled, there was no way I did not love to eat potatoes. Fast forward a few decades and not much has changed except that [...]
Mashed potato and chorizo sausage all crispy golden crumbed and fried? Yes please. For a vegetarian alternative feel free to swap the chorizo for some spinach or peas: also yum! what you need 2 fresh chorizo sausages a good quantity of mashed potato, butter okay but no milk salt and pepper a pinch of smoked [...]
Pizzoccheri is technically the name of the buckwheat pasta in this dish, the dish itself comes from the Lombardy region of Italy and is known as Pizzoccheri alla Valtellinese. It's one of those not much to look at but so good to eat dishes, a hearty vegetarian option for a cold evening. I made the [...]
This simple kind of one pan or tray bake cooking is perfection. Healthy, quick and no fuss, and colourful. Use up whatever you have in the fridge, whatever is in season, or what you feel like right now. what you need chicken thigh cutlets, with bone in and skin on a few potatoes, halved or [...]
If you're an Italophile like me you don't need a lot of prompting to try these delicious chewy cookies. But when a friend just KEPT ON sharing pics of Italian sweets online and then my hairdresser offered me a freshly baked amaretti, who was I to resist? They are super quick and easy to whip [...]
This is such a handy little recipe to have in your pocket, it is healthy and delicious and a lot simpler than you might think. One large snapper to share or a smaller one per person, scaled and gutted by your fishmonger, is roasted in a hot oven with some potatoes, giving you an impressive [...]
Chicken, pear cider, and garlic butter are three of my favourite things. In fact I could write a whole post just on garlic butter and how O B S E S S E D with it I am {and thank you very much keto diet for that discovery}, but suffice to say that mushrooms on [...]
I could go on and on and on about how amazing tomatoes are, how versatile, how sublimely perfect they are when old school heirloom varieties are ripened in the Mediterranean sun, how late I was to the tomato appreciation game, and how I couldn't live without them, but I won't. Instead I'll just give you [...]
According to Wikipedia, fritule are "a festive Croatian pastry made particularly for Christmas. They resemble little doughnuts... Venetian frìtole... they are usually flavored with rum and citrus zest, containing raisins, and are topped with powdered sugar." For me they're also a whole lot more. They were one of my favourite sweet treats growing up, and [...]
