One of the main problems I have had when I moved to UK was: how I will cope with the new eating habits I will find? Where will I find my usual ingredients? How will I be able to ...survive?? :)
Well, I need to say that my fears were fueled more by my imagination than what I would have found here: I can actually see it's so easy to find many of the ingredients I used to cook when living in Milan.
Ricotta, Mascarpone, pasta (I bought some nice De Cecco penne packets at Asda recently), cheeses and more specialties are not so hard to find. And I have to confess I do also like to put the Italian thing aside sometimes, and enjoy some proper English food :) (but don't tell my partner, he still thnks I am suffering sooo much!)
On the other hand, we recently bought a house, and as it has a quite good size garden I thought to start growing some of my favourite vegetables...like ARTICHOKES
Ohh I could write a poem about these heavenly tasty veggies: they also make wonderful flowers if you don't crop them...but to be honest...I would prefer to eat them (sorry, flowers)!
I remember my mum had such a yummy way to cook them : she cleaned them and removed the external leaves, and cleaned them inside removing the fluffy part. Then prepared a mixture for the filling using bread (softned in water and well squeezed), grated parmesan, crushed garlic, fresh chopped parsley and extravirging olive oil. She filled the cleaned artichokes and placed them in a pan with a little bit of water (not to boil them, but sort of 'steam') and let them slow cook covering with a lid.
If I close my eyes, I can almost smell them in this moment, such strong is the memory
As soon as I will manage to grow some of my artichokes (my dear cousin sent me these 'Romanesco' artichoke seeds last spring) I will for sure share recipe and pictures of my Mum recipe described above.
I guess I am still feeling a little bit homesick after the Italian holiday, thought to share with you some of the pictures. I have been to Assisi, Perugia, Cortona, and other lovely places...will surely go back there again!
Well, I need to say that my fears were fueled more by my imagination than what I would have found here: I can actually see it's so easy to find many of the ingredients I used to cook when living in Milan.
Ricotta, Mascarpone, pasta (I bought some nice De Cecco penne packets at Asda recently), cheeses and more specialties are not so hard to find. And I have to confess I do also like to put the Italian thing aside sometimes, and enjoy some proper English food :) (but don't tell my partner, he still thnks I am suffering sooo much!)
On the other hand, we recently bought a house, and as it has a quite good size garden I thought to start growing some of my favourite vegetables...like ARTICHOKES
Ohh I could write a poem about these heavenly tasty veggies: they also make wonderful flowers if you don't crop them...but to be honest...I would prefer to eat them (sorry, flowers)!
I remember my mum had such a yummy way to cook them : she cleaned them and removed the external leaves, and cleaned them inside removing the fluffy part. Then prepared a mixture for the filling using bread (softned in water and well squeezed), grated parmesan, crushed garlic, fresh chopped parsley and extravirging olive oil. She filled the cleaned artichokes and placed them in a pan with a little bit of water (not to boil them, but sort of 'steam') and let them slow cook covering with a lid.
If I close my eyes, I can almost smell them in this moment, such strong is the memory
As soon as I will manage to grow some of my artichokes (my dear cousin sent me these 'Romanesco' artichoke seeds last spring) I will for sure share recipe and pictures of my Mum recipe described above.
I guess I am still feeling a little bit homesick after the Italian holiday, thought to share with you some of the pictures. I have been to Assisi, Perugia, Cortona, and other lovely places...will surely go back there again!
sunflowers fields everywhere
we went to a medieval banquet one night, in citta' della Pieve...fantastic meal!
We had a dinner in one of these 'Taverne Medievali' , these are special places open
just ten days per year and the food is simply amazing! We had starter (like the Tuscan antipasto in the post below), wild boar tagliatelle, charchoal cooked meat (I had spicy chicken it was amazing), dessert and red wine...all for 15 euros!
Boar tagliatelle, sorry this picture cannot describe the taste!
And this is the little corner of paradise where we spent the week in Italy
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