There aren’t many things I miss from the UK. If I could walk in to Waitrose now, I’d get a handful of things; some salted French butter. Their scones. Some sourdough. Scallops. Wotsits. Lady Grey tea. Spicy Tailor curry kits. Mature cheddar. But I have been thinking for a while that I would happily destroy a portion of fish and chips. I have not had a good portion of chips in Italy so far, but that’s ok, they excel in other things. But fresh, lovely fish is available in abundance and this morning I brought from Esse some nice, small fillets of cod, consulted Marion and made us a calorific and tasty supper this evening.

Chips were rubbish. They were cooked in the oven, oven at Via di Poggio 34 is shite and I can’t wait to leave it behind in a few weeks time.

But the fish was delicious. I started with the batter, as all of the ingredients had to be cold, so flour, salt, baking powder and a touch of turmeric were coolong in the fridge while I prepared the fillets. Got rid of the bones, seasoned well with salt and pepper, dusted with corn flour. Then added some cold beer and soda water to the flour and stuff, aiming for the loose cake batter consistency, dipped my fish and quickly deep fried, until golden and crunchy. Once out onto the paper towel, a sprinkle of salt and we were good to go. Mayo with sriracha sauce was an excellent addition, as well as some sweet peas. Now- peppermint tea. 🙂

For a long time I had no idea what to do with aubergines. Here in Italy they are available all year long, cheap and everywhere. I’ve tried a melanzane parmigiana the other day, it went down quite nicely, but this here was what youtube suggested yesterday and I made these for lunch. Nothing was left!

First, a few delicious cherry tomatoes were roughly chopped, some fresh basil added, some garlic, salt and olive oil, all combined and set aside. Aubergines sliced about 2cm thick, scored, seasoned with salt and a little drizzle of olive oil, into the oven for about 10 minutes, 200 degrees, till slightly coloured. Then the tomato salad on neatly on top, some breadcrumbs mixed with parmigiano and a tiny bit of mozzarella, back to the oven for 15-20 minutes. Very Italian, very delicious.

🙂