How do you learn to cook? How do you approach a new cuisine? Usually there is a number of basic ingredients that keep coming back in the recipes you’re going to make. Have them at hand, know how to use them, when and in which proportions, learn to combine them…
How many meat sauces exist in Italy? In between the rich and self-indulgent Bolognese ragù, where the ground beef and the ground pork are cooked with white wine, milk and tomato paste, and the Neapolitan one, where tradition has it that there is no ground meat, but whole pieces of…
Although we had been friends for several months, in the first weeks of us being officially together we did not miss an opportunity to talk about who we were, what we liked, which were our first and deepest passions. We spent ten days at the seaside in Maremma with friends:…
On a November afternoon, when the light was already revealing the evening intentions and the proximity of a winter that I hope will respect its promises of slowness and coziness, I made a coffee, stole two cookies from the jar and sat in front of my blog. I consider it…
We're getting married on Saturday but we are still on the high seas. There is one thing, though, that immediately calms me down. When we moved our bedroom in the attic and Tommaso's office (along with Noa's bedroom) down where we slept for 3 years, next to the living room…
Summer meals are by nature effortless and straightforward. When the season is colder, a grey sky matching a monotonous drizzling rain, I take time to roast pumpkin wedges with rosemary and spices until caramelized. I braise beef shank with wine and tomato sauce until the meat is so tender that…
Meatball pasta bake: is it a Carnival joke? Apparently, pasta with meatballs is an American invention not belonging to the Italian food tradition. We would normally associate it to Fettuccine Alfredo, Pepperoni pizza (if you order pepperoni pizza in Italy you would get a pizza with peppers, peperoni in Italian),…
In February I started working with a new Italian cooking magazine that was about to be launched, Ci piace cucinare. Monica is my contact since the beginning, we have endless conversations on WhatsApp on food styling and ingredients, every week we decide together themes and recipes to work on, according to seasonality, occasions and editorial needs. I cooked,…
I’ve written my first acceptance speech, sitting at my tiny desk in the living room with a stained apron, dreaming to wear a red dress and high heels and to stand in front of some of the best food writers, bloggers and editors of our time. I am sure I would have cried, I’m emotional.