Recipe – Vegetarian Lasagne

Vegetarian Lasagne I love this vegetarian twist on a classic lasagne, full of spring greens. It’s a bit messy to make, but delicious to eat; the ricotta mixture is much thicker than the béchamel sauce used in a traditional lasagne, so don’t worry that it doesn’t form a perfectly smooth layer – it all evens […]

Recipe – Truffled Macaroni Cheese

Truffled Macaroni Cheese For many food lovers, fresh black truffles are the highlight of winter. I developed this recipe using white Italian truffles from Alba (during their short mid-October to mid-December season), but it works just as well with black truffles. This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled and is also a great side […]

Recipe – Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni Spinach and ricotta cannelloni is an easy dish that can be prepared a few hours ahead of time, then just put in the oven at the last minute – perfect for casual entertaining. I use Barilla cannelloni tubes that don’t need to be cooked before filling, the moisture from the sauce […]

Recipe – Tagliatelle with Pesto

Pesto Tagliatelle How often do you buy a bunch of basil, use a dozen leaves or so in a sauce or salad then wonder what to do with the rest? The answer’s easy, pesto, the famous bright green sauce of Liguria; though if you’re buying basil specifically to make pesto, get a pot of living […]

Recipe – Chicken Minestrone

Chicken Minestrone Literally meaning ‘big soup’, minestrone is a hearty Italian dish half way between a soup and a stew. Vegetable-based, it was traditionally made from leftovers and whatever was in the garden or foraged nearby, so feel free to use this recipe as a guide for your own inspiration. Beans or pasta, often both, […]

Recipe – Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino

Spaghetti Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino The simplest recipes are often the favourites, the ones with the most views on this website are croque monsieur (a.k.a. toasted ham & cheese sandwich) and affogato (ice cream ‘drowned’ in coffee and liqueur), hardly recipes at all. Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino is another of my super simple favourites […]

Recipe – Fettuccine with Black Truffle

Fettuccine with Black Truffle For many of us, one of the highlights of winter is truffles. But it wasn’t always so in Australia. On 18 June 1999 Duncan Garvey harvested Australia’s first Perigord black truffle in Tasmania. Since then truffles have also been cultivated in NSW, ACT, WA, SA, Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand. While […]

Recipe – Pasta alla Puttanesca

Pasta alla Puttanesca “Puttana” is the Italian word for prostitute and I love the apocryphal story of how Neapolitan pasta alla puttanesca was named. Most respectable Italian women used to (and some indeed still do) shop for fresh ingredients every day, but not the busy working girls of Naples who worked a 6-and-a-half day week […]

Recipe – Orecchiette Broccoli Anchovies & Chilli

Orecchiette, Broccoli, Anchovies & Chilli This classic dish from Puglia is also popular in neighbouring Basilicata. It highlights one of the many reasons to love pasta – it’s literally on the table in less time than it takes for a pizza delivery to arrive! It may look simple, even a little odd, but it’s so […]

Recipe – Pasta e Fagioli

Pasta e Fagioli Also called pasta fazool (or pasta fasul), pasta e fagioli is not a precise recipe – add more or less chilli or garlic to suit your taste, alter the ratio of pasta to beans if you prefer more of one or the other, and add more or less water to give it […]

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