For the science

Back on diet.

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Yup, the time has come to face the music. I have been enjoying my food and dolce vita for 4 years now, without giving it much thought. I’ve been drizzling the wonderful Italian olive oil liberally all over my food, never bothering to find out just how calorific it is. Never worried much about portion control, as long as a portion of pasta for 3 people did not exceed 250g. Also, pushing 50, my metabolism has its middle finger constantly stretched out towards me, which is not helping. I have reached 62kg on the scales, many of my beautiful clothes in the wardrobe don’t fit me anymore, I don’t like what my body is becoming.

Ola Żelazo, with whom I have been exercising for a while now, has come up with “Zdrowe Odchudzanie” project, all about losing weight in a healthy way; it is to be stretched out for 6 months. It does not promise -10kg within a month, only to return with some extras a few months later, it promises to introduce different eating habits, while training with Olka and hopefully for the results to stay. Signing up for it was no brainer, I did. I have a two week menu now, more as a guidance than a strict diet and I’m using it as such. The aim is about 1600kcal a day. I’m saying goodbye to pizza for now, burgers, cheeses, generous bowls of delicious pasta, I will be following Courtney’s advice though to aim at 80-20 kind of efficiency, so I will get myself off the hook every now and then, I won’t be ordering salad when going out with friends and will make most delicious food next Saturday, when Lara and Sergio come for dinner. And the next day I’ll be back to 1600kcal. This is the plan. I hope I can stick with it, it would be great to have a nice waistline again.

On Friday evening Florek and Izzie enjoyed their pizza, I made for myself a kind of cauliflower bake from the new menu and I was shocked at how good it was. Will be definitely making it again. It was around 230g of cauliflower, finely chopped, panfried on a SMALL amount of olive oil, then a handful of parmesan in, one egg, all mixed well, formed into a small disc and baked in the oven on the baking sheet for about 25 mins. Then some of my lovely tomato sauce went on top, the same I used for the pizza, good stuff, from fresh tomatoes and melanzane, a handful of grated mozarella, ONE SLICE of salami on, this was not on the recipe, but I will not give up on flavour for half a year. Lots of oregano, a few slices of fresh tomato, back in the oven for 10 minutes. Fresh basil and onto the plate. Really nice. Onwards and upwards, or something like that! 🙂

Good Food

If it was to be my LAST MEAL….

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I enjoyed cooking this evening. Took my time, made the food I love to eat, picked vino I felt like opening on Saturday evening, enjoyed dinner with my favourite people on the planet.

Confit duck legs were taken off the bone today, braised red cabbage made the house smell like winter is coming ( sun sets around 6pm behind our mountanin here) and then there was a potato frittata I found on youtube and peeled the potatoes immediately. La ricetta calabrese, apparently. Peeled potatoes got sliced, not too thinly, tossed in a bowl with some flour, salt and quite a lot of oregano. Olive oil, not a stingy amount at all was heating up, a crushed garlic clove in it, which I removed after a couple of minutes. Potatoes in, fairly neatly, pressed down, then the heat gets lowered, lid on, about 25 minutes. Then, with the help of the lid one removes the olive oil, saving it aside, in order to safely turn the frittata upside down using a plate. Olive oil goes back in. The lid too, another 10 minutes. Olive oil out, frittata onto the serving plate, good to eat. Potato dishes like this I would happily eat on their own, with a spoon and a glass of wine!!

Braised cabbage was my regular Delia Smith’s recipe, plus some raisins, to get Izzie more excited about it.

Florek, not a fan of duck, had a beautiful chicken kiev.

The amount of calories on this plate was probably mind blowing, but I will be looking to reduce them daily from next week. How long will I last this time, we shall see, but with 62kg of me at the moment it is time to sort me out.

Good Food

New favourite bruschetta.

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Last Saturday we popped out to Lucca to see if I could get my new reading glasses sorted. One gets older, one gets more blind. One had her glasses done about 5 years ago in Specsavers in Cheltenham and one noticed that it’s time for a new eye test. In the wonderful Ottica Bruno, where Florek got sorted a year ago quickly and efficiently- I was seen within minutes, picked new, designer frames that I loved from the first, blind sight, got an eye test and was told to go and come back in an hour.

So we went to Piazza Anfiteatro for a quick, early aperitivo, ended up in Parlascio. Iza fancied prosciutto e melone, I went for bruschetta, but not the tomato one, the gorgonzola, pear and walnut one. It was a revelation. I was also convinced that the bread was not just toasted, I thought it was slightly smoked. Drizzled with honey. Washed down with a bellini was such a treat. I just made one at home with the remaining piece of gorgonzola piccante I had. I flattened some brioche and pan fried it on butter, as you do, for extra flavour. Gorgonzola piccante. Thinly sliced pear. Chopped pecans. Honey. Delicious!

Svedesi are coming on Friday, this might be a little something to start with. They raised the bar really high when they had us over last time, so I have to match this. With an absolute pleasure!

Also placed an order with vinello.it this morning to restock on some Argentinian reds, it was dispatched 2 hours later, so there is a good chance it will be here on Friday. 🙂

Classics

Pesto. Timeless classic.

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It turned out exceptionally well last night, all the photos look great on this particular laptop, so here it is, on the blog.

We had it with shop bought gnocchi.

A handful of pinoli got toasted on a dry pan, another handful of skinless, raw almonds got thrown together into the mini food processor and blitzed. Onto this fresh, amazing basil. Lots of it. Freshly grated parmiggiano. 2 cloves of garlic. Olive oil, good glug. Salt. All nicely blitzed into a wonderful, juicy green paste.

This almond trick I learned from Molly, whose husband is responsible for the best gnocchi with pesto I’ve ever had. Almonds seem to add a lovely creaminess to the pesto, I always have some in the pantry now. Yum. Simple, delicious, timeless classic.

Eaten out

Monaco.

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Last weekend we popped out to France and Monaco. What a tasty trip that was. First stop was Camogli in gorgeous Liguria, as recommended by Google. We had lunch in one of the small places right by the sea. My pasta with vongole was one of the best ever, in spite of the fact that the vongole were deprived of their shells completely ( I prefer them on my plate!), the dish was topped with lemony, toasted breadcrumbs, I think I will be stealing this idea, it was delicious. Izzie’s fritto misto was a treat too, calamari light and salty, soooo good.

From there we proceeded- very slowly, due to intense traffic- to Monaco. When we finally got there and checked in,freshened up, it was already 8pm and we were ready to eat again. We opted for a restaurant a stone’s throw from our hotel, “Polpetta”, an Italian place, in France, so we were served some excellent French bread, French butter, from the menu a chateaubriand screamed at us and it’s been a long time since we had it, so we ordered it, alongside a bottle of Crozes Hermitage, which we finished in a celebratory, holiday moods. A lovely, light tiramisu to finish, almost as good as the one at Nonna Clara’s.

I enjoyed the service at “Polpetta”, a team of Italian chaps, clearly enjoying working together, really professional and good at what they do. Easily switching between Italian, French and English. I loved their bernaise, must have a look if tarragon/estragon is available in Italian supermarkets, it would be great to be able to make a sauce like that.

We returned the next evening, this time for a duck breast in mustard sauce and a fab beef tartar for Florek.

The next morning we did a detour to Nice on the way home to stock up on some French goodies, as usual; salted butter, cheeses, wine and others, I also grabbed a bunch of rhubarb, portioned it and froze for some delightful crumbles in autumn.

Now, zero alcohol until the weekend, I can’t believe how quickly time flies this summer, it is almost Ferragosto! x

Made in Poland

Taste of Poland 2026.

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Izzie and I have popped out to see mum for a week. Thermal shock on arrival, a very welcome one, from scorching Toscana into a rainy, cool Wrocław, at 20 or so degrees. A very welcome change. It was nice to see a very green, juicy landscape and wear jeans and long sleeve for the first time in 2 months. 🙂

As ever, we ate really well, mum always sees to it. There were ribs, simply cooked, soft and delicious, with kluski śląskie and yellow beans on the side. I must add ribs to my repertoire.

We had some BBQ on mum’s allotment, with a nice selection of sausages, kaszanka, pork shoulder and tomatoes- straight from the greenhouse. That afternoon there was really fun, everyone was in good mood, beer was flowing.

On Thursday morning we drove to Kudowa, with the idea of climbing Szczeliniec, which I have not done for 30 years or so. We did that, got absolutely drenched on the way down, but then lunch in Kudowa more than made up for it. I had an excellent duck breast with cranberries. Simple, perfect.

From the Greatest Hits- there had to be some kluski z mięsem, one of my absolute favourites by mum.

And then some smoked fish, one thing I miss from England and Poland. On one evening we had freshly smoked trout, on another, smoked sturgeon. A real treat, with a piece of good, dark bread and a glass of white wine.

A shopping trip to Kłodzko had to feature some jagodzianki. And it did. x

Baking, Eaten out

First time in Trentino and some exceptionally good sourdough.

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Heatwave. Not just in Italy, across Europe. Even in Poland they are baking. And speaking of baking; I’m sure the temperaure helps, but the bread I’ve been making lately has been particularly good. I use the same recipe and method from Food Language, leave the loaf in the fridge overnight and bake it in the morning, before even turning on the coffee machine. The one last week looked great, tasted divine, also the day after, toasted, with mandarine marmalade.

This morning I was up at 6.30, went out to water everything, enjoyed an hour or so of a nice, fresh Tuscan air free of flies and mosquitoes at this hour, then proceeded to bake the loaf I had started yesterday. This one had some toasted sunflower seeds. With stracciatella, tomatoes, sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil it is just perfect.

Last week we’ve popped out for a little break to check out Lake Garda. We got to see a bit of Emilia Romagna, Lombardia, Trentino and even Veneto. I wanted to taste some of that German-Italian food in Trentino and I did. Followed Makłowicz’s footsteps to Cantina Agraria in Riva del Garda, tried trentigrana- excellent cheese.

Tried carne salada, one of the nicest meals I had in quite a disappointing food scene in Limone sul Garda; disappointing especially service wise, I appreciate the fact it was very hot, but the staff everywhere did absolute minimum. Nobody told them about upselling, we often fancied a dessert after the meal, but as nobody bothered properly clearing the table, let alone offering some dessert, so we often paid and left. In Limone, their lemon sorbet was fantastic, served in frozen lemons, expensive, at 6,50 euro a pop, but delicious.

On Sunday we drove to beautiful Malcesine and took the funivia to Monte Baldo, where we’ve had a surprisingly delicious lunch (mine were ribs, polenta and funghi), the service was impeccable, for a change.

Enjoyable, Trentino, loved coming back home though. 🙂

Baking

Summery citrus cake with apricots.

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An exceptionally well turned out cake, which I’ve made yesterday. Hot days are upon us, so baking in the kitchen is quite nice and cool in comparison with 33 degrees outside. 🙂

I used one of my favourite lemon pound cake recipes for this, only lemon juice got replaced with yuzu, which I still have a small bottle of. 110 g of soft butter got creamed with 160 g of sugar and vanilla sugar, plus zest of the whole lemon. To this, one by one, 2 whole eggs. 2 tbsps of olive oil. 30 ml of yuzu juice. 185g of plain flour, plus 1 tsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt. 120 ml of milk. All gently combined, not overmixed, into the lined tray. Quartered apricots and a handful of blueberries on top. Baked in 160 degrees for about 45 minutes. Once baked, glazed with yuzu glaze. Half of it went to Casa Del Debbio and was very enthustastically received. 🙂

Made in Torcigliano

Pierogi con cinghiale.

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Poland meets Italia on the plate. Last Sunday we had Festa di Polpo again, in the same delightful company of LauDe and the neighbours. Nadia brought some delicious, tender chunks of wild boar, simply cooked, I made 3 contorni to go with it, but we had some of that meat left, so yesterday I decided to stuff it into pierogi. I cooked down some onions, carrots and zucchini first, a handful of porcini too, before adding the boar, then blitzed it altogether, but not into a baby food consistency, a bit more roughly. Made a solid portion of pierogi, a portion of which I had taken over to Nadia and Cri’s to taste. The message that came later that evening confirmed that there is enthusiasm for Polish cuisine in Torcigliano. Pierogi were enjoyed at Casa Del Debbio. Shame I can’t offer them any of the ruskie ones, as Nadia has lactose intolerance.

Uncategorized

Yuzu pannacotta 2026.

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I ordered a bottle of yuzu juice from Amazon. Eyewatering 30 euro for a 200ml bottle, but it brought so many great memories. And when I looked up the recipe here and found we were making it in Dinings 15 (!!!!!) years ago, I was aghast. This evening we had some Asian food, the side of broccoli dressed with yuzu ponzu ( soooo good), but then I had to make the pannacotta. With an Italian cream. There doesn’t seem to be much choice in Italian shops in terms of cream, there is panna, no double or single one like in the UK, so I hope the recipe works, I skipped the milk altogether. Slightly reduced the sugar too, I can quite believe that 15 years ago 120g of sugar didn’t even make me wink, now it does, so with 350 ml of cream, about 90g of sugar, some of it vanilla sugar, about 60ml of yuzu juice, 2,5 gelatine leaves. I should maybe wait for tomorrow to see how they turned out, before I blog them, but hey, they only just went to the fridge.

So, to be continued.

…And on Friday evening; tastes excellent, not sickly sweet, but a bit too set, I guess the addition of citrus juice messes up the gelatine a bit.

On the joys of cooking and eating