La Sagra Italiana in Glasgow
Yesterday I spent my afternoon at the Sagra Italian in George Square in Glasgow. A Sagra is a festival that often happens during the summer in every Italian village to showcase their culture, tradition and culinary specialities. And La Sagra Italiana 2019 is a perfect example of what a Sagra should be, it was an amazing experience full of cultural events, music and lots and lots of delicious food. Many food trucks gathered on the square serving gelato, aperitivi, arancini, panzerotti, pizza, zeppole and more. I was invited to deliver a cookery demonstration and I decided to do two different kinds of pasta, one from the north of Italy and…
Italy on a plate
In the last few days, I started to declutter and spring cleaning the house and amongst magazines and recipe books, I found an award I wan in 2009 at a cookery exibition and competition in Glasgow. I don’t take enough credit for all my accomplishments as I often look forward and plan for the future, but sometimes it’s nice to remind myself of all the big and little achievements, from being published in Italian magazines to an award-winning chef, and to be very proud of. Many years ago I competed at ScotHot with a pasta dish, the whole experience was amazing, exciting and terrifying at the same time. This was…
Upside-down cannelloni
Many years ago I visited a beautiful village in the north of Italy called Valeggio Sul Mincio. Valeggio is not only renown for its beauty and historical importance, but it’s also a gastronomical hotspot for fresh pasta and tortellini. One of the last time I went there I bought a tray of filled tubes of pasta, like cannelloni, with various filling each and topped with a light bechamel sauce. Since then my cannelloni are always upside-down. This version has a simple ricotta and spinach filling, I usually add some nutmeg but nor this time as in the white sauce, the besciamella, I added the smoked garlic Arran cheese I bought…
Pesto and Trenette alla Genovese
For many years I ran cookery classes at the local college. The first course I organised proved to be very popular and has been sold out for many many times. I think the secret of the success was because it included food from nearly every Italian region. This gave a great variety of recipes, flavours and options to the student who participated. (If you come to one of my Taste of Italy cookery classes at Perth College, let me know which one is your favourite recipe so I can add it to the blog.) That’s one of the reasons why Italian food is so popular, we don’t have a national cuisine, but every…
Pasta with courgettes and courgette flowers
Cooking for an Italian is as vital as breathing and walking, and often we don’t cook from a recipe, but somehow we know how to make the most of what we’ve got. Very often in Italian cookbooks there are terms like q.b. (quanto basta) it means that there is no specific quantity for some ingredients, but you need to use your judgment and your taste to decide how much is enough. Today I went to visit a friend for a nice chat over coffee and she showed me her beautiful vegetable patch, I couldn’t resist and I picked a yellow courgette and a courgette flower and, as soon as I’ve…
