Thursday 24 May 2012

Stylish blog award!

Dear all,


Amazingly, I have just been awarded the Stylish Blog Award by Rachel Pattinson! I am very grateful for this award, thank you so much! I can't believe you think my blog is stylish... I hope to improve it! But for now, I shall accept that it is.


Stealing this from Rachel's blog, (thanks!), this is how it works:


1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share five things about your blog
3. Award five recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!



So as I said, lots of thanks go to Rachel! 

So here are five things to know about my blog! 

1. I was inspired by the blog from the book/film, Julie and Julia, however I do not want to copy!
2. I have always loved Italian food and now I have a reason to expand my knowledge, and an excuse to eat more!
3. I may not update my blog everyday because buying ingredients is expensive and I really want this to focus mainly on the Elizabeth David Italian Food book. 
4. I can't wait for the day when I have loads of followers!
5. This blog also gives me a chance to learn how to take photos of food in a more creative way. 

So, there we go! Now I need to give five of my favorite new bloggers their award! It could be you! 

Grazie, ciao! 

Monday 14 May 2012

Hello All! 
Just popping in to tell you all about these scrummy biscuits called Plasmon! They are meant to be biscuits for babies.. ahem.. but my boyfriend and I love them. He's loved them since he was a baby, and I have ever since I first visited his house in Italy. You must try them with your morning coffee! (But be careful you don't eat the whole packet...my boyfriend knows it's hard not to!)
Try and find them at your local Italian deli.


I shall be back soon, hopefully with the seafood salad recipe! It's going to be an expensive one to do.. and I have quite a few plans this week, so I may not be able to do it until next week, but fear not, I will return! 

Ciao ciao :)

Thursday 10 May 2012

Dear readers,


Tonight was the night for my antipasto alla Genovese, which in my opinion, is very a very strange antipasto. 
Elizabeth does not say how to serve it or how to cook it, so I just had to use my best judgement. 
I started off cooking the frozen broad beans, which as I said before, should have been whole broad beans! Meanwhile whilst they were bubbling away, I layered the Tuscan salame on a plate and filled a tiny bowl with salted cream cheese. Once the beans were done, I poured them into another bowl, as they were. Now, as I didn't know how to serve it, I decided to serve it just as it was, but with some crusty bread and white wine, as Elizabeth recommends.
The taster for the night was my boyfriend Fabio. He said he liked it, apart from the beans, as he's not a fan of them. I decided to eat the bread dipped in the cheese, wrapped in the salami and with a bean on top! It was surprisingly yummy! 
I wonder how they do it in Genoa? 


Here is a picture...




All in all, it was an interesting antipasto, but like I said, it was strange, especially to eat beans with cheese and salami. I can't even seem to find where it came from in Genova and why they ate it. If anyone knows, tell me!
 But for me it didn't have the wow factor, and I reckon there are definitely more adventurous ones out there! For example, the next Hors D' Euvre I shall be attempting will be insalata di frutti di mare, (seafood salad), which I know will be a hit with the boyfriend! 
I shall be back soon with what ingredients are needed. Let me know if you attempt this recipe!


Ciao ciao!

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Dear current non-existent readers, 

Here is the blog I've been meaning to create for quite some time now! As I have just finished my degree in publishing and I have massive amounts of freedom, it's time. 
I have had this crazy idea to try and re-create all the recipes from Elizabeth David's 'Italian Food', which she has written many editions of. The edition I hold is the revised edition from 1987, the most current one in print. 
I know this sounds very Julie and Julia esque, but I have reason! My boyfriend is Italian and I have spent a lot of time in Italy over the past two years. Every time I return from holidaying there, I feel the urge to recreate all the meals I have eaten, but yet I haven't had the time. I did however have ago at cooking the famous cappelletti in Brodo, which I had tried at my boyfriend's nonna's house, however apparently according to him it would never be as good as his nonna's! So now I need to prove that I can cook Italian and even if it will never be as authentic as his nonna's, (she is a brilliant cook by the way!), at least I have tried. 

I will be starting of with the Hors d' oeuvre, (that sounds French to me!) and salads section, and will be cooking antipasto alla Genovese. In Italy, what I have noticed about the Hors d' oeuvre, are that they mainly consist of something in oil. For example, these cherry bombs that I tried, which are stuffed with something spicy and are preserved in oil and crostini, (fried bread), in oil with a topping. Perhaps I need my eyes opened a bit wider, which I'm hoping this book will do that for me. 

I have the ingredients for the antipasto alla Genovese, which are:
 -Young broad beans (I had to order my shopping online and they didn't have fresh broad beans, so I ended up getting frozen baby broad beans from Waitrose, which are just the beans and no pod!) This was probably due to the time of year.
- Strong salame - (I wanted a whole italian salami but they only had Spanish or French! So I ended up buying  some freshly sliced Italian salami)
- Salted cream cheese (You're meant to use sardo, which apparently has a strong salty tang, but Ocado did not have any, as you don't find it in the UK. Elizabeth recommends salty cream cheese as an alternative.)

Wish me luck! I shall be back soon with the results. 

Ciao ciao!