Recipe – Garganelli Pasta

How To Make Garganelli Pasta Join my Small Group Food & Wine Tours to Emilia-Romagna, Home of Garganelli Pasta Emilia-Romagna is the home of rich egg pasta, with 1 egg used for every 100g of flour to create pasta sheets that are then cut into an endless variety of shapes. Garganelli are similar to penne […]

Recipe – Spaghetti alle Vongole al Cartoccio

Spaghetti alle Vongole al Cartoccio Spaghetti alle vongole is the classic Italian clam dish. Vongole means ‘clam’ in Italian and I use the small South Australian vongole that are closest to Italy’s vongole veraci, but you can use any clams or other bivalve for this dish, including mussels. I first had spaghetti alle vongole al […]

Recipe – Salmon with Fregola Salad

Salmon with Fregola Salad This baked salmon with fregola salad is a great dinner party dish as it’s both easy and impressive. The fregola salad was taught to me by chef Giovanni Pilu, from Pilu at Freshwater, who usually serves it with lamb (see video below). Fregola is a reminder of the Arabic influence in […]

Recipe – Bottarga & Lemon Pappardelle

Bottarga & Lemon Pappardelle I love pasta! I also love lemon and bottarga, so I created this simple recipe combining all three. It’s inspired by my friend and co-author, Giovanni Pilu who introduced me to the joys of bottarga along with many other Sardinian ingredients (you can order his Aussie-made bottarga online and scroll to […]

Recipe – Gnocchi di Patate (Potato Gnocchi)

Potato Gnocchi 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 time, chill them in iced water then drain, toss with oil and set aside (or […]

Recipe – Trofie al Pesto Genovese

Trofie al Pesto Genovese 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 various pasta shapes in Liguria, but the most typical are trenette (a thin flat pasta similar […]

Recipe – Cicciones with Pork Ragu

Cicciones with Pork Ragu I love the chewy texture of cicciones with pork ragu. The name of this rustic Sardinian pasta means ‘little fat ones’, which is so appropriate! This is the same pasta dough used to make lombrichi, the ‘worm-shaped’ Sardinian pasta you’ll see on the video below. The full-flavoured Serra Lori rosato, made […]

Recipe – Pasta Frittata

Pasta Frittata This is the best way I’ve found to use up leftover pasta that has a relatively dry sauce, such as tagliatelle Bolognese, orecchiette with broccoli and spaghetti aglio e olio. The photo here was made with leftover orecchiette with salsiccia & mushrooms (see video below) and was a great match with a glass […]

Recipe – Bucatini all’Amatriciana

Bucatini all’Amatriciana I love tomato, cheese and all things quick and easy, so I’m not sure why it took me so long to try my hand at bucatini all’Amatriciana, one of Italy’s classic pasta dishes. Perhaps it’s because guanciale (cured pork cheek) can be tricky to find – so when I discovered Salumi Australia’s guanciale […]

Recipe – Gorgonzola Walnut Sauce with Lumache

Gorgonzola & Walnut Sauce with Lumache I first had this sauce many years ago in an Italian restaurant in Glebe. I remember writing a letter (no email back then) to the chef asking if he’d share the recipe, but he ignored my request. He served it with the little shell-shaped pasta called conchiglie, but I’ve […]

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