Pasta con Broccoli

Sicilian dishes traditionally bring together Italian & North Africa culiinary traditions: the inclusion for instance of saffron, raisins and pinenuts in a simple pasta dish. In the Inspector Montalbano series of books, by Andrea Camilleri, the eponymous hero, in a fictitious Sicilian town, seems to focus as much on what he has just eaten or will soon eat as solving his cases, and...

Read More »

Gnocchi di Ricotta

I have long known that fresh gnocchi in a restaurant (particularly in a restaurant in Italy!) is approximately a billion times nicer than that bought pre-packaged in a supermarket. Light, velvety & pillowy as compared to heavy and a bit stodgy & claggy. However I had totally bought into the old myth that home-made gnocchi have to be labour-intensive and time-consuming. It seems that...

Read More »

Braised Beetroot With Sour Cream

Despite my beetroot bolting like mad I decided to try and cook with the last of it the other day, figuring that it was worth a go - at worst I would have to ditch it, at best I would have something yummy to eat. I had some soured cream in the fridge, leftover from making beef stroganoff (which unfortunately I failed to take photos of) and had previously seen a Russian inspired braised beetroot...

Read More »