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!