From the category archives:

Italian

Recipes which are as authentically Italian as an English girl gets, even with the help of an actual Italian in the house. I can take criticism so feel free to weigh in with your versions.

Alsatian apple tart

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Mr. R&R doesn’t cook. No interest whatsoever, in fact left to his own devices he cheerily admits to existing on tomatoes, bread and shop-bought ice-cream with possibly the odd gricia pasta (olive oil and pancetta) in extremis. So he has a bit of difficulty describing food in technical terms – all he remembered about the [...]

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Tiramisu: the original Italian recipe

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Well, not really. The title is a complete misnomer: there is no original recipe for this dessert. Even in Italy, everyone thinks their particular version is the best and most authentic. And actually, if the internets are to be believed, tiramisu is only the latest version of a long line of marscapone-based desserts which was [...]

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Baked fish with potatoes, thyme and olives

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I’m not sure there’s an actual fishmonger in Nassau, but we don’t need one: the sea here is just teeming with life. Mr. R&R and I now invariably paddleboard, rather than drive, to the beach and from our high vantage point we see spotted eagle rays, trigger fish, lobster, barracuda, sharks big and small… Yesterday [...]

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Summer pasta

In the middle of an essay on Renaissance art during the reformation (2500 words, due Friday, it’ll be fine…) the fridge has started to look rather bare. So I made this “fridge-ends” pasta rather out of desperation than anything else – it turned out to be stellar. The colour is pastel washed-out summer sun – [...]

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The cult of tramezzino

This dapper gentleman is Gabriele D’Annunzio, born in Pescara, Italy in 1863. D’Annunzio had an extraordinary life by any measure: a published poet at sixteen, he was a prolific author and journalist, wrote for Sarah Bernhardt, collaborated with Debussy, had a scandalously public love affair, spawned the original NSFW urban myth, fled Italy to avoid [...]

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Pasta with asparagus pesto

Fare ordine is a big thing in our house – it literally means to create order, or better, to tidy up. In practice, that means a great excuse to hoover up leftovers, as in “We should really eat that last piece of cake, just in the interests of fare ordine“. There’s no better time for [...]

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Gnocchi with brussel sprouts

I’m a rational person, a scientist and a life-long atheist. And yet, I think that, when it comes to love, there are certain signs that should be observed and followed. In my case there were two signs: spookily accurate horoscopes which reflected every twist and turn of my somewhat complicated romantic life, and food. Finding [...]

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Pannacotta with blackberry coulis

I realise that as an adopted Londoner in the Naughties (oh god did I just write that word?) I should be proposing one of those one-name dishes that seem obligatory now: “FISH. Pollock. Sake batter. Five English Pounds.” But since it looks as if we’re about to say goodbye to Brown et al, I thought [...]

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Pork loin in milk (maiale al latte)

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From our flat in downtown Miami, we can frequently be found on the terrace doing a weather check. Mr. R&R is focused on the kiteboarding conditions, standing hand to brow in full salty sea-dog mode, examining flags and trees for signs of life, checking for white caps and peering off into the distance to see [...]

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Pasta with zucchini, almonds and fresh herbs

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I don’t know about you, but I always have a couple of courgettes at the bottom of the fridge, hiding in plain sight like beached torpedoes. It’s my fault – as one of the few vegetables that arrive in Nassau, I’m bored of them even by the time I get to the checkout desk. But this [...]

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Spelt pasta with vine tomatoes, rocket and ricotta salata

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I tend to get all over-excited at our local Epicure – if you see a strange chick muttering happily to herself in front of the semolina flour and a jar of preserved lemons, or spending fifteen minutes in a near trance examining the goats cheese, it’s probably me. What can I say, gourmet supermarkets do something [...]

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One-pot barley soup for sustenance without stress

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Cooking has been pretty routine of late as we’re waiting for the builders to finish with our new apartment. They’re at that stage which I’m optimistically calling “looks-much-worse-than-it-could-possibly-be”, where there are no floors, doors or lights, five different companies working and about as many languages all being spoken at once. I’m a bit scared to [...]

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