We’ve made it to Italy. Through covid uncertainty, cancelled flights, tests, we’re now in our favourite spot in Castelnuovo, but we need to stay at home for 5 days before taking another set of tests to be released safely to the public. In spite of being fully vaccinated. :-/

So we’ve done a very substantial shopping in Esselunga and I have been busy. Busy baking a lovely, simple olive bread, for instance.

I brought a small packet of instant yeast from home, chucked it into roughly 400g of a random Italian flour, added salt, water, olive oil, combined it all well and gave to Florek to knead for about 10 minutes.

It’s risen beautifully within an hour, outside on the terrace, in those glorious temperatures we’re experiencing and then baked for about 40 minutes in 220 degrees. Good little loaf!

Also made was a lovely tomato sauce, made exclusively of fresh tomatoes, skinless. I took my time with it, until wonderfully rich and tomatoey, went great with gnocchi.

Impatiently awaiting some eating out in Lucca. 🙂

Also worth mentioning is this little invention-one walks in to a supermarket and finds a lovely, fresh, risen pizza dough, ready to use and enjoy, at a modest cost of less than 2 euro.

Must of course mention sensational parma ham with equally sensational melon, Izzie’s favourite. Yum!

This is one of my favourite pasta dishes when on holidays in Italy. I can never get enough of the simply delicious, clammy pasta. Having watched a few episodes of a vlog I recently discovered, by a British expat living in Positano, I decided to have a go at this dish myself. I was convinced that clams in Waitrose will be wonderfully cheap, as I don’t remember paying more than 10 euro for a plate of vongole in Lucca, but no, this is Britain and a bag of Dorset clams set me back £14 (!!!). One can sometimes get dover sole cheaper than that, but I went ahead with it.

About 30 minutes before I started cooking I followed Angela Hartnett’s recipe and soaked the clams in some cold, very salty water. Good call, as there was a lots of grit and sand left in the sink, rather than on the bottom of the plate.

I infused slowly my olive oil with 2 cloves of garlic, some fresh chili as well as chili flakes – one can never be sure how strong will the chili be- then threw a handful of cherry tomatoes and cooked it all down. A good splash of white wine and the lid went on. Pasta was cooking, so I could then chuck the clams in, cover them and cook them till they opened. Combined the pasta, clams and juices together, topped with lots of parsley, a bit of extra salt and it was done.

Florek, who can only take a certain amount of seafood without suffering did have a good go at my vongole, but was not blown away and neither was I, if I’m honest. I finished it, but was I transported to Lucca while eating my efforts? Not quite. In a month or so I should be able to have the real thing! 🙂

One of our favourites, especially when courgettes are in season. This summer I have some lovely, sweet, yellow ones in the greenhouse and I used one of them today, alongside a green one. The job starts with toasting off some pine nuts, I like toasting them even when the packet says “toasted”. In another pan a red onion, some fresh chili and chili flakes get chucked in. A handful of cherry tomatoes. Grated courgettes, roughly grated, some texture is essential. This cooks down nicely with a little bit of chicken stock, seasoning of salt and pepper, but also a drizzle of sesame oil, which might seem controversial, but in my kitchen I respond to myself only, so I use my beloved sesame oil for this extra oomph of smokiness.

Pasta gets cooked and thrown onto the veggies, tossed well, finished off with pinioli and parmigiano. A final drizzle of extra virgin olive oil is never a bad idea.

This is a pasta dish I can eat A LOT of. I did today! 🙂

There are things I love to eat, but don’t often cook, as I’m the only fan of them in our family. I’ve made a lovely shepherd’s pie with ready lamb shanks bought from M&S, hoping I will succeed in convincing them that lamb can be delicious. Iz finished her portion, but only because she was promised a ride on the front seat of Tesla model S we have for a week. Florek struggled, but managed most of it. I won’t be doing it again, I think. Duck is another one of those things that I adore, he doesn’t. Cabbage, as well.

But cabbage was made this time to accompany my confit duck legs and I enjoyed it, but needed to call mum for a method, as I have never prepared cabbage this way and have not eaten it in donkey’s years.

I bought a pointed, sweet, small cabbage, chopped it quite roughly, chucked into the pan with a splash of water, salt and sugar. Mum suggested cumin as well, I opted out. Covered it and cooked for about 10 minutes, during which I got on with my roux, made with some leftover back fat from last night’s pierogi. Flavour like no other, I always have some in the freezer. My roux also contained some chopped and fried shallots, once the cabbage was tender, but still held its shape nicely I added the roux, stirred it all well and adjusted seasoning. It made a wonderful extra along the duck and the new potatoes. It’s a yes from me!

I was really excited about making these( from mojewypieki.com). The colour looked spectacular and it seemed like a good way of getting some spinach into the child. I was even hoping she could help me make them on this rainy afternoon. But no, the child not in the mood for cooking and asked if she could have regular pancakes instead. Nope, spinach ones were the only ones on the menu.

I started with blitzing 90 g of spinach with a tall glass of milk into a nice, creamy, place green liquid. To that I added 1,5 tall glass of plain flour, 3 beaten eggs, a tall glass of sparkling water, about 1 tbsp of melted butter and some salt. The batter rested for 15 minutes and then I fried the pancakes on 2 pans to speed up the process.

I filled them with a nice mixture of fried bacon, shallot, mushrooms, courgettes and tomatoes, added some grated cheddar and warmed up in the oven for a few minutes before serving. A splash of ketchup works for me, I must say, no excitement from the child. At all. We are yet to find out what the Man of the House thinks.