In Italy, pasta is much more than a dish; it’s a geographical and climatic map. If you travel from the snow-capped Alps of the North to the sun-drenched coasts of the South, you will discover that the “perfect dough” changes its soul according to the land it belongs to. The Great Divide: Soft Wheat vs….
After centuries we are still thanking the Tatin sisters for the famous apple tarte we all know well and love. From this mistake that produced caramelised apples baked with no shortcrust pastry, added later on the top of the fruit when they realised their forgetfulness, incredible variations with vegetables emerged. This modification of my previous…
Discover my world: this recipe is a tribute to the Tuscan traditions we explore together in my Private Cooking Classes. This Savory Cherry Tomato Tarte Tatin is an intriguing and delicious appetizer that offers a fresh perspective on a classic Italian ingredient. In recent years, Italy has embraced the legendary French “Tarte Tatin” technique—originally born…
This Apulian caponata is a version of this one of Sicily’s essential dishes. It is a vegetarian eggplant stew–more like a relish, really–made of eggplant, onions, bell pepper, celery and tomatoes with briny olives and capers. There are variations of this tasty eggplant dish. Most of caponatas are spiked with vinegar or raisins. This version was…
This gluten-free dark chocolate cake was created by accident in Capri in 1920, in a similar way to the birth of Tarte Tatin. The pastry chef was in a stressful day and created this magic cake with chocolate and ground almonds forgetting flour: the result is this magic cake covered by a thin and crunchy…
A gorgeous pie that increases the freshness of local and seasonal products like squash, leeks and chestnut with a twist given by Phyllo pastry. Not a personal creation, but a recipe I stole from Cristina Lunardini, an excellent Italian chef, a Romagnolo like me, who I admire, a model to me. Fresh vegetables which can…
As our beloved Pellegrino Artusi claimed, “Cooking is a troublesome sprite”. Clear of any more or less pleasant surprises that can happen to those who decide to measure themselves against the kitchen stove, there are some fundamental principles of Italian cuisine that we take for granted, that prove otherwise, especially if we compare them to…
Italian bread is famous for being based exclusively on flour and water, yet this recipe, typical of nothern Italy, includes olive oil in its dough. The presence of fats creates a very soft bread, which is easy to be preserved in the foggy climate of Po valley. Moreover, olive oil can be replaced by butter…
Pignolata, also known nationally and internationally as Struffoli is a very popular dessert in Southern Italy at Christmas time. It is not hard to make but time-consuming, and the best advice I can give is collecting the family around the table in order to roll them into the small marbles. The traditional dessert is arranged…
Pignolata, also known as Struffoli in Naples, is a very popular dessert in Southern Italy, an area that was dominated by Spain for centuries, and its origin is from the region of Andalusia. These Christmas marble-sized honey fritters are deep-fried and then rolled in honey before being assembled into a cone or a globular wreath….