Ligurian panissa salad
I’ve gradually transitioned to working from home over the past couple of years. This means minimal commuting and to my great relief, far less office politics to put up with. There’s no more need to…
Cucina conversations: a Sicilian coffee for the summer months
I’ve been invited over for Sunday lunch by my great aunt and uncle in a town along the Ionian coast between Messina and Taormina. Pranzo, as usual, is an abundant affair. A bevy of dishes is…
Cucina conversations: pansotti liguri
When the Cucina Conversations ladies and I decided to dedicate this month’s edition of our roundtable to dishes named after body parts, I immediately made a beeline for two books. One was Mary Taylor-Simeti’s Sicilian…
Cucina Conversations: Croccante di mandorle, the perfect edible gift for an Italian Christmas
No matter what I do, Christmas always seems to arrive too quickly. And this year is no exception. At least this time, however, I can say I anticipated the onslaught of additional tasks and deadlines…
Cucina Conversations: Italian cuisine, a new blogging roundtable and Sicilian grape must pudding
I had quite the epiphany a couple of years ago when I first read John Dickie’s highly readable account of Italian food and culinary history, Delizia. In the book’s second chapter, after describing Palermo’s totemic…
‘Twice-cooked’ piparelli biscuits
There are few things I love more than analysing words and language. It’s only natural, I suppose, after studying languages (Italian, French, Spanish and a little bit of Latin), linguistics and several years of teaching…
Eggplants and oven-baked caponata
Summer is in full force (in every sense of the word!) now and this means that there is an abundance of eggplants in all shapes, colours and sizes at my local market. Italy is one…