My Italian food
One of the best, easiest summer soups, to be eaten tepid or at room temperature (or even slightly chilled, for me), pappa al pomodoro is a thick tomato and bread soup, strongly associated with the cooking of Tuscany. On a hot day, few other dishes bring more comfort. Continue reading “Pappa al pomodoro (bread and tomato soup from Tuscany)”
All over the world the word “pizza” usually refers to a slab of hot bread dough topped with savoury bits and pieces. However, in Italian cookery, and particularly in Southern Italian cookery, “Pizza” also means “pie”: one can talk of a “pizza di ricotta”, for instance, a sweet ricotta pie or of a “pizza di scarola”, a savoury pie with an escarole filling. One of the best of these pizza-pies is “pizza rustica”, Continue reading “Pizza rustica alla napoletana – a Neapolitan Easter “pizza””
“Blessed be the stuffed peppers! what a clever thing they are!…What are they made of? Not much: peppers, bread, a couple of aubergines cooked ‘fungitiello‘ style (i.e. deep fried), a handful of capers and Gaeta black olives, some anchovies and, let’s not forget, a pinch of oregano and parsley, a clove of garlic and few bits of tomatoes. And from these humble ingredients, a masterpiece is born: one of those dishes that makes your mouth water just thinking about them. Continue reading “I peperoni imbottiti alla napoletana (Neapolitan-style stuffed peppers)”
This is the savoury version of scarpaccia, that unusual courgette cake from North Tuscany I described in the previous post; in fact savoury scarpaccia is regarded as the original dish by Tuscan food authority Paolo Petroni, whose recipe I used as a template (the sweet version, he says, came later). Continue reading “Scarpaccia salata di Camaiore (savoury and custardy courgette cake from Camaiore, Tuscany)”
This is a lovely old-fashioned dish worth reviving. Think of a sformato (singular ) as the Italian, more substantial version of a soufflé. Generally, sformati (plural) are made with chopped-up cooked vegetables, eggs (yolks and whites separated, the whites beaten to stiff peaks) and Parmigiano, all bound with a thick béchamel sauce. Continue reading “Sformato di piselli (unmoulded pea pudding )”
Italian home cooking 