Pasta is the perfect quick and easy comfort food. You can whip up a bowl in less time than it takes for the pizza delivery to arrive. Short or long, dried or fresh, saucy or not, stuffed, layered, baked – the possibilities are endless with this simple, delicious food.
Purslane Pesto & Farfalle Like this recipe? Join me in Santarcangelo di Romagna for more delicious Italian inspiration! I first saw purslane in a Cypriot friend’s garden and was surprised when they later presented me with a bowl of the tangy, succulent leaves as a salad. I came across it again years later as a […]
Creamy Mushroom Pasta (Without Cream) Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Traditional Italian cooking class! Orecchiette is a classic pasta from Puglia where it’s often cooked with broccoli, garlic, anchovies and olive oil (see video below). It’s also ideal for this creamy mushroom pasta without cream, inspired by a dish from Lucio Galletto’s beautiful […]
Fregola Risottata with Clams & Chickpeas Like this recipe? Join me on an Italian food & wine tour to discover more regional specialties! Slightly larger than North African couscous, fregola is a reminder of the Arabic influence in Sardinia. It’s delicious in salads and soups and especially tasty as fregola risottata, stirred with the cooking […]
Passatelli Pasta with Brown Butter Join my small-group food & wine tour to northern Italy to discover more regional specialties. Passatelli pasta is a specialty of Romagna as well as the northern part of neighbouring Marche and Umbria. I was introduced to it at one of my favourite Romagnolo restaurants, Osteria La Corte in San […]
Pesto alla Genovese Join one of my food & wine tours to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! Although pesto means ‘to pound’, the classic Ligurian pesto alla Genovese, from the port city of Genoa, is traditionally made by crushing – rather than pounding – the ingredients in a marble mortar using a wooden […]
Hand Rolled Sardinian Pasta: Lombrichi & Cicciones Join my food & wine tour to Southern Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! This simple Sardinian pasta dough can be used to make several different hand-rolled rustic pasta shapes with a lovely chewy texture. It’s made from a harder wheat than the soft wheat flour used […]
Tomato Sauce Master Kitchen Basics & Explore New Cuisines & Ingredients with My Online Cooking Classes A good tomato sauce is a basic in every Mediterranean cuisine. Use it to poach Lebanese stuffed zucchini, dress a simple pasta or gnocchi, layer into eggplant Parmigiana or lasagne – or add a pinch of hot smoked paprika […]
Shish Barak Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Lebanese cooking class! Shish barak (شيش برك) are little meat filled dumplings cooked in yoghurt sauce, similar to Turkish manti. I find that the longer the dough rests the easier it is to work with, as the gluten relaxes so it’s less likely to spring back […]
How To Hand-Pull Noodles Master More Chinese Recipes & Kitchen Basics with My Online Chinese Cooking Class Ever stood outside a Chinese noodle shop and watched the noodle maker winding the dough around his wrists like yarn then banging the strands onto the bench to stretch them? I have and – while I’ve wondered how […]
Swiss Spätzli Discover more delicious Swiss dishes on my small group food & wine tour of Switzerland! I love eating spätzli in Switzerland where they’re also known as chnöpfli (or knoepfle). While the Germans and Austrians make spaetzli too, they serve them simply boiled – the butter-loving Swiss go a step further. Once boiled, Swiss […]