It wasn’t supposed to be another long slow cooked beef dish. It was supposed to be a long slow cooked venison dish, all northern Italian goodness for a quiet autumn weekend As usual, any last minute food plans depend on the local supermarket having what I need, and while my local supermarket is the rather…
Month: September 2020
A quick dinner… gnocchi con funghi, pecorino e timo
This isn’t necessarily a pretty dinner, but as autumn takes hold, work is busy and there is talk of more COVID restrictions, it was time for some comfort food! I love gnocchi, but I rarely cook them. They’re quite easy to make as well, but again, I never seem to (something I intend to put…
Peperonata, three ways
Those who follow me on Instagram (@libertaincucina) will know that when I tried to make peperonata last week, while also trying make settembrini, it ended badly. Peperonata 1 The weekend rolled around and with nothing planned for dinner (for once!) I thought I would give it another go. The recipe was taken from Rachel Roddy’s…
I wish I was in Sicily: Casarecce con broccoli, acciughe e pinoli
In my head at least, I spent a lot of lockdown in Sicily. Friends and I had a regular lockdown Saturday night appointment – a shared dinner party menu, eaten together over Skype, and then an episode of Inspector Montalbano, while we whatsapped about who we thought did it. I fell in love with Sicily,…
Settembrini… getting figgy with it
One day I will have a garden with trees. Orange and lemon trees. Olive trees. And a fig tree. Years ago I visited the island of Ponza with a friend, whose grandmother still lived on the island. In her garden was a massive fig tree and we picked figs and ate them whole, they were…
Cozze Di Diavolo
The weekend is my favourite time for cooking. If there’s nothing planned, two whole days to shop for, prepare and eat amazing food that you just wouldn’t have time for in the week. I had been reading a cookbook and found a recipe for mussels. It was described as a Friday night dinner, a big…
Just a quick one… Arancini
I’m a massive fan of Rachel Roddy’s writing and her recipes. (She also has my dream life, married to an Italian, writing about food for a living and splitting her time between Sicily and Rome). The week her article in the Guardian had a recipe for arancini. These gorgeous rice balls are a favourite of…
#ChallengeExtended – Lina Stores Polenta con Funghi
Last December a friends and I made a little trip to the newly opened Lina Stores restaurant at Kings Cross. I’ve seen mixed reviews online since, but I have to say I loved it. The staff were lovely and very helpful (having arrived early and my friend being delayed due to late trains was no…
Libertà in Cucina 