My Italian food
If you look at a map of Italy, you may be surprised to realise that almost half of the country is made up of peaks and mountain ridges. The Val Comino belongs to this lesser-known and still relatively unspoilt Italy: a green and rugged, territory where Lazio, Abruzzo and Molise meet.
Continue reading “Pizza di zucchine della Val Comino (Courgette pie from the Comino valley, in southern Lazio)”
January 2026: I have just made this delicious cake-pudding again and … oh boy! it is good. I do invite you to try it because you are for a treat. The book it comes from is, by the way, one of the best books on Italian regional cooking – do check it out.
Well, that title IS misleading in its conciseness. It should read “apple, pumpkin, amaretti, chocolate, figs and sultana cake with brandy and rum” – no less!. Continue reading “Torta monferrina di mele e zucca (apple and pumpkin cake from Monferrato, Piemonte)”
December 2025
“Oh! What a dreadful illness hunger is!” exclaims Pinocchio in the fifth chapter of his adventures. At the beginning of the chapter we find the wooden puppet desperate from the pangs of hunger, finally aware of how hard it is to be alone in the world, without a family. Suddenly, however, his troubles seem at an end. In the middle of a heap of rubbish he catches sight of a beautiful white egg and begins to fantasise about how he might cook it: as a frittata? fried?
Continue reading “Frittata al prezzemolo, aglio e pecorino (Frittata with parsley, garlic and pecorino)”
A typical autumn and winter dish that one will find, in some guise or another, in many areas of Northern and Central Italy. Continue reading “Faraona arrosto ripiena con castagne (Roasted boned guinea fowl with chestnuts)”
Last novembre, on a cold sunny day, we drove from Lucca into the Garfagnana region, to catch the woods in their autumnal splendour, before winter settled in.
Sillico was our destination: a minuscule, picture-perfect village, perched 700 meters above sea level on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, surrounded by chestnut woodland.
Italian home cooking 