As the ” “ in title suggest, this sauce is not the real Bolognese. To be the real thing it would have to include meat and this is not the case. I love the original version and yet I often prefer to eat this one since it’s lighter, easier to digest and animal-friendly. The proteins derive from red lentils and mushrooms, a…
A Super Simple Squash Soup like this is going to be perfect for the cold Autumn and Winter days. It’s made with just four ingredients – onion, garlic, squash or pumpkin and potatoes – and a bit of seasoning. I then pureed it to obtain what we Italians call a vellutata (smooth and “velvety” soup). If you use fresh bay leaves…
This pie is incredibly easy to make and tastes great. The only work that needs to be done is slicing the squash and the potatoes and then assembling the slices in a nice shape, something which is very satisfying for the artistically inclined. 😉 I advise using a mandoline but if you don’t have it, make sure you cut…
Several of my favourite pasta dishes come from Rome (gricia, amatriciana and carbonara), but my favourite of them all is cacio e pepe. Literally: cheese and pepper. So simple and yet so difficult to make! I had to try several times before I could actually prepare it the proper way, without the cheese getting all lumpy and sticky on my plate, but…
These tartlets, or tortini salati, as they’re called in Italian, are a wonderful Autumn appetizer. If you wish, you can of course make a big quiche instead of single-portion tartlets. For that, use a big sheet of puff pastry and twice the quantity of the overall ingredients. I’ve used fresh shiitake, and dried porcini mushrooms soaked in hot water. You…
This banana bread recipe is a fantastic way to use very ripe bananas. If you, like me, let your bananas go too ripe too often, “save” them by making this moist and naturally sweet bread! It’s a recipe from my cousin Silvia who’s an enthusiastic baker. She made this for me when she was visiting Amsterdam and we’ve been exploring…
This is a very simple yet extremely satisfying pasta dish, ready in max. 15 minutes. I like to make it with spaghettoni (the thicker spaghetti) but you can of course make it with any other long pasta. The anchovy is a great taste enhancer which makes the dish loved also by those who don’t usually appreciate fish. This happens because…
Tomatoes stuffed with rice are one of the big Summer classics in Italy: every family has a recipe because they’re delicious and easy to make in tomato season, when there are gazillions of juicy, tasty tomatoes sold everywhere at a very good price. Yes, you need the oven, but you can bake them while doing something else very far from…
This is the perfect salad for hot Summer days when you don’t feel like cooking, since the veggies – bell peppers and onion – can also be added raw instead of sautéed. I’ve used pearl couscous but you can use the plain one too for another no-cook option since it has to be soaked in hot water, whereas pearl couscous…