Italian food is good for the soul! Despite great regional diversity, northern Italy and southern Italy are united by passion for fresh produce, pasta and the shared table. I love the simplicity and seasonality of la cucina Italiana. Here are some of my favourite Italian recipes.
Baked Scamorza with Salami Join my food & wine tour to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! I love cheeses that melt to a lovely soft texture without becoming oily, like Italian scamorza. Baked scamorza is a perfect quick dinner with salad and some sliced salumi. In Italy it’s often topped with prosciutto, but […]
Potato Gnocchi Eat Gnocchi with me in Italy on one of my Italian food & wine tours! I love versatile potato gnocchi, they’re delicious dressed with just about any pasta sauce including pesto, easy gnocchi Sorrentina from the Amalfi coast, or the simplest burnt butter and sage. You can even boil the gnocchi ahead of […]
Spungata (Ligurian Apricot Tart) Join one of my food & wine tours to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! This delicious fruit tart, called spungata in Liguria and spongata in neighbouring Emilia-Romagna, is similar to what other Italian regions call crostata. In Liguria spungata are often given as a gift when visiting friends and […]
Pinolate (Ligurian Pine Nut Cookies) Join one of my food & wine tours to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! Pinolate are simple Ligurian pine nut cookies with a wonderfully chewy soft centre, a crisp outer and delicious nutty flavour. Also called pignoli or amaretti con pignoli, they’re traditionally made with a mix of […]
Broad Bean Bruschetta Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Italian cooking class featuring the food of Liguria! Every meal at Lucio’s Paddington restaurant started with bruschetta, a slice of delicious toasted Italian bread, topped with a mound of something seasonal. I love using tender young broad beans during their short spring season to make […]
Trofie al Pesto Genovese Join one of my food & wine tours to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! I love this classic way of serving pesto – with the beans and potatoes cooked in the same water as the pasta it’s more like a main meal than a starter. This is done with […]
Focaccia Join my food & wine tour to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! I love authentic focaccia made with a generous amount of olive oil and had such fun working on focaccia recipes inspired by Lucio Galletto for my Ligurian online cooking class. Lucio uses more water and oil in his recipe than […]
Barbajada Join my food & wine tour to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! Barbajada, traditional Milanese hot chocolate, is the best mocha you’ll ever taste! It was created in the mid-1800s by Domenico Barbaja, a waiter at Café Cambiasi next to Milan’s famous La Scala Theatre. Traditionally it’s made with equal quantities drinking […]
Zabaglione Join my food & wine tour to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! Zabaglione is a deliciously frothy combination of egg, sugar and wine that’s best eaten as soon as it’s made. It originated in Italy hundreds of years ago and migrated to France where it became known as sabayon. Sicily’s famous fortified […]
Crema Catalana Join my food & wine tour to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! One of my favourite Sardinian sweets is bianchini, moreish little meringues studded with toasted almonds and lemon zest. Making them (or any meringue) means leftover egg yolks and a perfect excuse to make crema Catalana. This classic Spanish dessert […]
