Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes
I like to keep different shapes of pasta in my cupboard as although pasta is basically the same ingredient whatever the shape, different shapes do seem to fit some sauces better than others. Tonight I chose farfalle – which comes from the Italian word, farfalla, meaning butterfly. ‘A’ at the end of an Italian word (feminine) changes […]
Read MoreWith great memories of my recent Rome trip still strong, I decided to make one of the city’s most popular pasta dishes for supper tonight – Bucatini all’Amatriciana – as I had some pancetta in the fridge and some nice large ripe plum tomatoes. As it turned out, bucatini-shaped pasta wasn’t on any local supermarket […]
Read MoreUnusually there wasn’t much in the fridge but the freezer harboured a portion of salmon and a packet of peas; there was a collection of different pastas in the cupboard and some fresh herbs were brightly singing their fragrancy on the kitchen windowsill. Once an idea had formed in my head, I had to nip […]
Read MoreIt’s been an extraordinarily warm day for the first of March, but the evenings still draw in early so it’s dark by supper time and with the darkness comes a chill in the air. So it’s great to make a nice warming supper with a rich sauce; a final lap of winter flavours before spring […]
Read MoreThere were some olives in the fridge that needed eating up; some capers and lots of tomatoes, so the obvious choice for supper last night seemed to be pasta with a ‘puttanesca’ sauce. Traditionally, puttanesca sauce is served with spaghetti, but I didn’t have any, and I love the way those orecchiette – ear-shaped pasta – from […]
Read MoreI love broccoli, which probably accounts for finding a large amount of it in my fridge this evening. So I decided to make it the star of my supper. I normally cook it very simply – my partial steaming method where I put the florets (I’m talking calabrese here, to be strictly correct) into a […]
Read MoreThis is one of my favourite supper dishes – easy and quick to make for one; easy to make for two, or three or more … I always have tomatoes on hand (see my Top Ten Ingredients), keep raw prawns in the freezer and am never without pasta – though linguine is best for this […]
Read MoreI’ve been reading and very much enjoying Anna Del Conte’s Risotto with Nettles. Tim Healy talked to me about it when he was telling me his Top Ten Cookery Books; I’d heard of the book but not read it and so decided it was time to put that right. Anna has written twelve influential books […]
Read MoreI’m not sure exactly when it started; it’s been years and years that I’ve been making Bolognese on Friday evenings. It certainly began round about the time when my kids hit their teens and headed off into the big wide world of night-time West London on a Friday evening and wanted to go out early […]
Read MoreWhat’s a gourmet to do when they’ve had a busy day and it’s 7 p.m. and you’ve only just found time to think of supper? Look in the fridge and see what’s on offer … I’ve joined the commuter train rush on odd days over the past year, travelling to north London to work in […]
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