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…
This salad is usually made with couscous, one of the many wonderful ingredients you can find on Sicilian menus. Couscous is part of the island’s tradition because over the course of the centuries Sicily got influenced by many different cultures and the Arabic one was one of them (see the history of the Emirate of Sicily). Couscous is typical of the…
This fresh and tasty salad is perfect for the strawberry season and it’s rich and colourful, plus it offers an ample variation in textures (think of the silkiness of the mushrooms and the crunchiness of Romaine lettuce ). Perfect if you need some extra vitamin C (strawberries, tomatoes, parsley and lime are full of it). If you’ve never tried raw…
A French dish with an Italian twist: the Niçoise salad. There are different versions of this classic: with or without potatoes, often without green beans but with crunchy raw peppers, and then anchovies and black olives that are typical of the surroundings of the French city of Nice. I really like potatoes and green beans in my nizzarda, and…
This is the simplest brown rice salad for the warm Summer days, made with tuna, tomato, green olives and an unusual and unexpected ingredient, at least for Italian dishes: a dash of ketchup. My mum always adds a little bit of ketchup to her rice salad and I’ve learned to appreciate its pleasant sweet-and-sour taste in it. I buy a good organic one and…
This elegant salad with lovely bittersweet notes is perfect for a light Easter brunch. Beautiful radicchio rosso from Treviso, one of the many amazing chicory types from Northern Italy, has wonderful purple curled leaves and a distinct bitter crunch which is greatly compensated by the sweetness of the ripe pear and the full, nutty taste of the avocado. The high protein content of…
This salad is inspired by the Thai cuisine, maybe my favourite after the Italian one for the fresh, pure and tangy flavours. Give me a bowl of Tom Yam soup or a Thai curry (vegetarian or not) with rice and you’ll make me happy! Sweet potatoes are almost always eaten cooked and that makes them incredibly sweet. If you eat…
This Summer pasta is delicious, light and fresh, so it’s perfect for a warm day. It’s great also eaten cold, as a pasta salad, for example during a pick-nick. In this case make sure you cook the pasta REALLY al dente because it will keep on absorbing moisture from the sauce getting softer as it does. Raw cauliflower…