10 steps to (better) cooking: Gear up!

10 steps to better cooking, On the Spotlight, ,

If you want to drive a car you need an engine. If you want to hike a mountain, you need the right shoes and equipment. If you want to bike, you need a working bicycle. But if you want to to cook most people is convinced you don’t need anything if not a few pan.

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How to cook pasta

On the Spotlight, Simply Italian, ,

You may think that cooking pasta is something fairly simple. May be. But are you cooking it in the way you should? Are you really sure that it’s only a matter of boiling water? Water You need at least 1 litre of water for each 100g of pasta. At least means that you shouldn’t, under

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Special Edition: World Nutella Day – Nutella Crêpes

Dessert, cakes and sweet stuff, On the Spotlight, , , , , , , ,

Last 2nd February in France was Chandeleur, a holiday once religious, known now days as the Crêpes Day! It’s basically a day dedicated to crêpes, during which all French eat crêpes. As it was in the middle of the week, and despite the fact that making a single crêpe is fairly quick, but making them

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10 steps to (better) cooking: Fresh Ingredients

10 steps to better cooking, On the Spotlight, , ,

Last week we spoke about the ingredients of a basic pantry, what staples to have always at hand to be able to cook something from scratch at any time! Once you have flour, stock cubes, salt and all the rest, you absolutely need something in your fridge! And of course fresh fruits and vegetables! I’m

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10 steps to (better) cooking: The basic pantry

10 steps to better cooking, On the Spotlight,

What do you really need in your pantry to be always ready to cook something? Of course the answer to this question is different for any and each of us, but there are some basic staples from which you can build your own pantry. The Basic Pantry Matchbox, 1, especially if you have a gas

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Tajine au citron confit

Main Course, On the Spotlight, , , , , , , ,

It has been more than 1 year since my last update. Many reasons, the biggest: our son entered our life one year ago. Shall I say more? Now, to the recipe! Last September my friend Domitilla, coming back from her home town Mondragone, brought us some wonderful organic lemons, directly form her mother’s tree! Is

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Scotland, August 2009

2 CommentsOn the Spotlight

For this summer our first choice was China, but something came up, so we had to decide for something nearer, fresher and more simple to travel to. We decided for Scotland, a place where we both wanted to go, as we already travelled all around England and Wales, but never set a foot in the

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Stuffed focaccia

3 CommentsOn the Spotlight, , ,

Lately I’m experimenting a lot with sourdough and I have to say, besides the obvious improvement with bread, it is with pizza and focaccia that a piece of sourdough do its best! For the focaccia 200 g of sourdough 300 g of flour 200 g of durm wheat flour 250 ml of water Salt Knead

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Pasta with leek and provolone

2 CommentsOn the Spotlight

Provolone is a smelly, tasty Italian cheese that can go from mild to very strong. You’ll need the strong, even smellier and tastier type. It’ will give to this pasta a different hint. The leeks, on the other hand, will sweeten and mild out everything. And it’s a quite simple and quick pasta. You can

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Lamb and artichokes fricassea

2 CommentsMain Course, On the Spotlight, Travel, , , ,

Well, a fricassea, oh my, what the hell it is? Actually it’s something very simple and very traditional in the Mediterranean cuisine: you can find in Italy, Greece and even France. 8 artichokes Juice 1 lemon 700 g lamb leg, cut in chunks 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 onion 1 tablespoon flour Freshly

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