There is a steep slope at the front of our garden and, to be honest, it isn’t very pretty. You need to be a mountain goat to mow it and it always looks unkempt. I’ve tried planting ground cover, but nothing seems to do very well there. This has everything to do with the fact that the soil is very [...]
Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category
Wild Asparagus
Posted in Recipes, The Garden, tagged wild asparagus, wild asparagus season Le Marche on March | 8 Comments »
Pollo alla Cacciatora
Posted in Recipes, tagged Chicken Cacciatore, Chicken cacciatore with mushrooms, Chicken Cacciatore with porcini on March | 15 Comments »
Tradition has it that Chicken Cacciatore was made to cheer up the unlucky hunter when he came home empty-handed. (Cacciatore is the Italian for hunter.) Well, not exactly empty-handed because sometimes he’d spot some wild mushrooms under a tree whilst having a rest and cussing his hound.
I served this on wooden trenchers over polenta, but it goes just [...]
Boiled Beef & Carrots
Posted in Recipes, tagged Boiled Beef & Carrots, Bollito Misto on February | 10 Comments »
I do all the day to day cooking, but when I fancy a night off Dan will step in. He’s actually a brilliant cook who has worked as a chef in restaurants both in Italy and in the UK.
One of the first things Daniele cooked for me was Bollito Misto. As he started to explain it, I was thinking: Hang on, this [...]
Olive Conservate
Posted in Recipes, The Garden, tagged curing olives, curing olives in brine, curing olives in salt, olive conservate, preserving olives on January | 11 Comments »
Not all our olives are destined for the press. Some are set aside to preserve. Until now, I’ve used the brine method as explained by Patience Gray in “Honey From A Weed”:
Wash the olives and soak them in glazed jars for 40 days.
Change the water every two days. This removes any bitterness.
Drain and place in jars with alternate layers of coarse sea salt. (About two handfuls [...]
Feasting & Fasting
Posted in Recipes, tagged Agretti sott'acetto, seppie con piselli, Squid with pasta and agretti on December | 10 Comments »
I am offering a squid dish as one of the courses for “The Seven Fishes Feast” held by Joe over at Italyville and Maryann from Finding La Dolce Vita.
Fish is traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve in Italy as a means of fasting during the Vigil before the arrival of Christ.
In southern Italy they go a step further [...]
Mela Cotogna (Quince)
Posted in Recipes, The Garden, tagged Casalba, Fruit cheese, Mela Cotogna, Membrillo recipe, Quince, Quince blossom, Quince Cheese, Quince cheese recipe on November | 21 Comments »
Our quince came into full bloom in mid April. Beautiful large white blossoms with a generous flush of pink. It’s a lovely tree. Even its name sounds quaint, old fashioned and rather magical and mystical.
You can do a number of things with the fruit (except eat them raw, of course), but I have always been intrigued by Quince Cheese. I’d tried [...]
Double Rainbow
Posted in Recipes, The Garden, tagged arancini on October | 10 Comments »
It was warm and sunny yesterday, but the afternoon rain gave us this view from the balcony:
There was no rain today and it was warm enough to eat lunch on the balcony in T-Shirts and flip flops. I made Arancini using the leftovers from last night’s saffron risotto. I filled them with mozzarella, but do check out Finding La Dolce Vita for more ideas and a full [...]
The Fig Tree
Posted in Recipes, The Garden, tagged fig jam, Fig tree, figs with proscuitto, Honey from a Weed on July | 11 Comments »
We have an old fig tree in the garden. I’m not sure how old, but compared with the one we planted two years ago, he must be more of a great great grandad than a cousin.
I’ve never done anything particularly special with the fruit. Just picked them straight from the tree and eaten them. (Well that’s special enough, isn’t it?) [...]
Chiocciole di Mare (Dog Whelks)
Posted in Recipes, tagged dog whelk recipe, dog-whelks, preparing dog whelks on April | 5 Comments »
Every Wednesday the fishwives come. No really, their husbands are fishermen and they come to our village every week at about 10am to sell their husbands’ catch.
Yesterday I bought some Chiocciole di Mare. I didn’t know what these were called in English: they weren’t as big as whelks and they weren’t as small as winkles.
My [...]
