Marion’s, from the book. The recipe which she said blew up her food channel and if one is to make only one recipe from this book, let it be that. So I made it for lunch today. I can’t honestly say that it is as mind blowing as the recent discovery of crispy pancetta drizzled with honey

(oh, yes!), but Florek finished his in minutes and said he would definitely have it again. It’s a bit like olio e aglio, one always has all those ingredients in the cupboard.

First thing done were garlic chips, a delightful addition to any dish, I think! Thinly sliced garlic cloves, mine were big, so I used 2, gently cooked in olive oil until golden brown, then off the heat.

Spaghetti was cooking, while a large chunk of butter went into the pan, when melted 2 further garlic cloves, chopped, a tsp of chili flakes, then 2.1/2 tbsp of soy sauce and oyster sauce went it, nicely combined, off the heat until the pasta was al dente. Once it was, in with it, a couple of minutes until the sauce gently coated the pasta, some pasta water in and a good handful of parmesan. Spring onions on top, those lovely garlic chips and we were sticking our forks in.

I’ve been doing yoga for the last 3 weeks, to get ready for summer, to keep fairly fit and not give up on attempting to have a fairly flat stomach ( congratulations to myself on the choice of words! :-). I’ve done my daily exercise this morning, this plate was fairly calorific, but very, very satisfying. A keeper. 🙂

I wanted something different today. Something non Italian, not pasta, not rice. I’ve been binge watching Robert Maklowicz’s youtube channel for the last couple of weeks and having watched him travelling and eating his way through Croatia and Balkans I developed a taste for goulash. The recipe I went with is from kwestiasmaku.pl. I enjoyed making it, enjoyed eating it even more, as did the other two Bankses.

I started with roughly 500 g of pork shoulder, chopped in small pieces, seasoned and browned off. In another pan I had some guanciale sizzling happily ( the recipe called for bacon or pancetta), to which chopped red onion went in, carrot and a red pepper too. A few fresh tomatoes. The pork went into the veggies when browned off, to this I added a glass of red wine and left to cook for a few minutes. Then 2 tsps of sweet, red paprika and 1 tsp of hot paprika. A tbsp of soy sauce, a good squeeze of tomato puree. A bay leaf. 0,5 litre of beef stock, covered and cooked for about an hour. When the meat was beautifully tender and the flat smelled like Dinner Tiiiiimeeee, I added some fried cup mushrooms and a bit of roux to thicken things up. Very nice indeed.

Placki ziemniaczane were the next thing. I started off traditionally- intending to grate 6-7 medium potatoes on the thin grater. Half way through the first potato I decided to f**k it and deployed my mini food processor, which did the amazing job of making a lovely mash of the raw spuds and 2 shallots. In about 3 minutes. After a minute or so the spuds gave out some water, I got rid of it, added roughly 2 tbsps of plain flour, an egg, seasoned generously with salt and pepper and I could fry them.

The whole thing was very much enjoyed, now a mug of peppermint tea, as not exactly light! 🙂

After 3 months of living at Via di Poggio we decided it was time to resume our social life and get some nice people over for dinner. No one better than Laura, our Italian teacher, a fellow foodie and wine fan and her man Dennis we only met for the first time. In terms of food I decided not to cook Italian food for the Italians, I went with what I know and I can do well ( with limited ingredients, I realized I won’t do ponzu dressing for duck tataki, as I have no rice vinegar, but Chief Masaki came to the rescue again via messenger and told me to skip the vinegar altogether and use soy sauce, lemon juice and some honey, I did and it worked a treat, no surprise!).

So we started with prawn toasts, Marion’s, but simplified, again. On a thinly sliced baguette out of Conad I have thickly spread the blitzed mixture of king prawns, fresh chili, some coriander, spring onions, garlic, all well seasoned with salt and sesame oil( no fish sauce in my pantry currently). This sprinkled with black sesame seeds was then quickly deep fried, prawn side down first and then drained on kitchen towel and finished off with a drizzle of sweet chili sauce. I’m keeping this recipe, not a piece was left! Photos are by Dennis, skilled cook himself I hear.

After that the mentioned duck tataki, followed by char siu pork with basmati rice and broccoli. For dessert creme brulee, not caramelised due to no gas in the blow torch situation, but roasted plums did the job instead.

3 bottles of wine completed the picture alongside some mature cheddar Floro brought from England and a piece of comte.

Era una buona serrata! 🙂

One of the best ones I’ve ever made. Everything eaten, to the last grain of rice, all the Bankses were fed and happy.

Before Laura came over today for another productive Italian lesson, I had roasted my pumpkin with some olive oil and a some red onion for sweetness. I mentioned to her that I was looking for some Asian ingredients and condiments( that’s following a chat with Steve) and she directed me to a place in Lucca, where I could find some. So right after school we went home longer way, found a small Asian place and I bought a few things they have never heard of in my favourite Esselunga. I’m dying for some Chinese food, for some spice and some kick and tomorrow I’ll be making some char siu pork.

This evening however we had risotto. All the usual procedures while making a good risotto, good chicken stock, good Umbrian vermentino, excellent parmesan and that roasted pumpkin puree, which I kept adding every time I added more stock. I’m still in awe of guanciale ( sometimes we are low on milk, but there is always a pack of guanciale in the fridge), so I topped my risotto with some of this crispy, wonderful pork and pinoli, for texture. Very pleased with it. Also excited, as last time I made bao buns was a very long time ago. 🙂

It’s been too long since our last risotto, so I bought a piece of pumpkin this morning ( what a lovely idea that you can buy them in pieces) and made us a lovely, creamy risotto this evening. I might have chucked in a few ingredients too many ( a handful of sweet peas for Izzie and 2 girolle mushrooms for the balance, I didn’t want it too sweet), but I took my time and it was worth it.

Started with roasting off the zucca, alongside a shallot and a few garlic cloves, while repotting a few plants. Then, for the risotto I first opened a bottle of white Santa Cristina and poured myself a lovely, chilled glass. Chopped a shallot, those girolles and sauteed them. 200g of arborio rice in, then, after a few minutes, a glug of wine in. Usual procedure, some wine, some chicken stock, I kept adding that roasted zucca and shallots, then the peas. Once I was happy with the texture, grated parmesan went in, a small knob of butter and we were ready to eat. Pumpkin soup next, sometime soon. 🙂

I ran back to that small grocery store this morning and sure enough- they had some lovely mushrooms for me. Not cheap, not cheap at all, but hey, I was deprived of this pleasure for 20 years while living in the UK, plus I won’t be buying them every day. I bought 6 large lovely ‘shrooms, one went to the freezer, 2 sliced up and dried on the windowsill, one made us a small bruschetta for lunch and 2 were turned into the most wonderful sauce in the evening, to accompany gnocchi.

For bruschetta I simply panfried a small chopped shallot, added thinly sliced mushrooms, generously seasoned with salt and black pepper and when on the bread, sprinkled some of that lovely fresh thyme I got given in the shop. An absolute delight.

In the evening I took a bit more time with the sauce, I’ve been wanting to do this for months. Chopped shallot, some garlic, butter, mushrooms. Chicken stock, lots of seasoning. Some fresh cream. Once cooked down, gently blitzed in, so that the texture was soother, thyme and gnocchi in.

Izzie kindly gave it 8,5 out of 10, for me it was a knockout.

A very good day in the kitchen. Yum!

Quite simply! What my mum grows in her small greenhouse on her allotment is also a force to be reckoned with, but the abundance of tomatoes I have here makes me very, very happy indeed. I took my time in Esselunga and had a good look at what Mutti have to offer to the lucky Italians and found this –

Wonderfully sweet datterini tomatoes that make a sauce out this world.

While in Garfagnana we had a supper of Conad’s lasagne with veal ( wow!), which then inspired me to run back for some minced veal to make ragu. They had none minced, sadly, so I ended up getting 4 small veal burgers and made my usual ragu, but- with fresh tomatoes and those datterini. Exceptional and will be made again very soon.

Ron has booked his tickets for early November, with lasagne being his most favourite thing to eat, I do wonder if he will love the veal version too.

Now it’s September and I’m looking out for fresh porcini mushrooms. First thing I’ll do when I get some will be mushroom sauce with some gnocchi, some porcini will be dried, a few will be frozen. The chap in a grocery shop in Via Santa Croce told me to come back tomorrow morning and I might be in luck. Fingers crossed!

So many things to get used to. I said goodbye to my spacious, comfortable kitchen in Winchcombe, where everything worked, nothing leaked, there was lots of space and it was spotless, including all appliances. Before I write any more – Florek would say- anymore moaning- I know this is a temporary place to live. But still, when on the same day I realize the sink is still leaking, the washing machine the landlord left for us is filthy and only 1 programme works decently and there is no way I can clean the mould off the shower cabin ( mould inside the glass, so to speak, even my trusty Dettol is helpless), it was hard to keep the straight face. So I had a quick and intense meltdown and it helped. We went to Brickocenter the next day and the sink got fixed. We dug deep and ordered a nice, new, awesome washing machine, another Samsung like the one left in the UK, but a new generation. The next thing will be a coffee machine- yes, we did the unthinkable and had to leave our beloved Krups behind, we gave it to Keava and Simon as it simply did not fit in the already full car.

Shopping for food here is a delight. Filling my own fridge ( so many people back in the UK thought I was insane taking my fridge to Italy, I love it!) with things like guanciale, now available anytime we fancy carbonara, like delicious Italian yoghurt, Sicilian grapes, truffle sauces from around the corner in Via Fillungo, this feels great. Izzie helped making truffle bechamel and then sat at the table and ate the pasta coated in it straight from the pot, that’s how chuffed she was!

Carbonara had to be made, no brainer. Also, when making a nice tomato sauce for gnocchi I fried some guanciale and when crispy, chucked fresh, skinless tomatoes in and cooked them down in this wonderful, flavoursome fat. Miky told me a few days later that amattriciana sauce is made that way, only a good handful of pecorino romano cheese needs to be added too and black pepper.

And at Grumpy’s recently I went for pizza Capricciosa, with the most amazing, soft and delicious artichokes and black olives.

Having written all that, the scales actually is quite kind to us both! We eat less, as it’s hot, but also carrying shopping onto the third floor and moving a lot more really helps. Good stuff!

My mom is a big fan of veal, I never have been, but this is about to change. In the UK it’s mega expensive and I’m not sure if worth it. But having chatted to Michele, my food buddy from Ubon days I felt like polpettini and Miky said veal is the way to go.

I bought some ground veal, added some grated parmesan, an egg, lots of chopped parsley, a grated clove of garlic, a white bread roll soaked in milk and seasoned it well, before combining. While the simple tomato sauce was bubbling away I quickly pan fried the meatballs and then finished them off in the sauce. Served with penne, as per Izzie’s suggestion, less messy than spaghetti and cooks faster!

All went down a storm with some local Vermentino- another winner, 6 euro for a bottle of wonderful, light, Italian wine. Thumbs up!

Marion’s.

Youtube flashed this video at me this morning, I happened to have all the ingredients needed, there were no excuses. I first made some pesto for Floro and Iza, I knew they would not be interested in what I was about to be cooking.

Started with some chopped spring onions, some chopped ginger, a sprinkle of sea salt and pounded it into a nice chunky paste in my mortar. Heated up a little bit of oil and sesame oil and when it was hot, I poured it onto the spring onion mix, it sizzled and smelled amazing.

While the spaghetti was cooking, I got cracking with a generous handful of prawns. Onto the oiled pan went some chopped garlic, then prawns, a sprinkle of chili flakes and salt. A drizzle of soy sauce. Oyster sauce. A little cooking water from the pasta to loosen it. In went the pasta, it all got tossed together resulting in a dark, beautiful and very promising dish. To finish, the spring onion mixture, some mixed in, some on top.

I loved it!!!!