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.
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
