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Jun 10

22 Comments

Simply Gelato

fatamorgana-shot-3

At some point in your life you have probably met that girl who just can’t shut up about herself: how cool she is, how she only wears designer clothing, how she knows the right people, how clever she is and – of course – how rich she is. Chances are you have also met that guy -  a colleague-who just can’t shut up about himself: who brags rights about a project he’s done – all by himself –, who boasts about staying later at work than his other colleagues, and who has the right business connections. The truth is that most probably their claims are far from reality…blah blah blah… Sounds familiar?

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Jun 1

20 Comments

A year of Joy…Ambrosina

Ambrosina

The picture above was taken during a sunny Spring day at Trevignano, a village surrounding Lake Bracciano. Since it was unexpectedly windy,  I took off my scarf and wrapped it around my baby girl’s neck – to protect her  (unfortunately, I could not protect her hair!!!).

It’s been a year since Ambrosina was born. There are no words to describe what it feels like to be a mother and all the joy our little baby has brought us.

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May 25

11 Comments

Give me whatever crap: Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Puttanesca4

Even though it’s not tomato season yet in Italy, the other day I was craving for a tomato- based pasta. To be more precise, I was searching for the recipe of Spaghetti alla Puttanesca.

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May 19

19 Comments

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, strawberries and cream gelato

fragole-con-aceto-balsamico

I don’t know about you, but when Spring arrives, I become lazy (well ..let’s put it this way…I am lazy but I become even lazier!). And yet, I am still that food snob (not foodie please!) who’s willing to travel all the way down from Rome to Modena to get the real deal: Balsamic Vinegar of Modena Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena -TBVM-, the right name for this luscious, fascinating potion.

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Mar 4

23 Comments

How to make Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe like a Roman

Cacio-e-Pepe-7

It took me years to make a decent Cacio e Pepe, one of Rome’s traditional pasta dishes (the others are Carbonara, Amatriciana, and Gricia).

Since Cacio e Pepe has only three main ingredients -Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper and pasta-, it might seem an easy recipe to make – but it isn’t.

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Dec 24

14 Comments

Buon Natale!

Buon-Natale

Today I went to the market near home to buy seafood for an appetizer I had to bring for tonight’s Christmas Eve dinner (Vigilia di Natale). According to Italian tradition, you eat seafood on Christmas Eve and meat on Christmas day. Since there is a lot of demand for fish on the 24th of December, you need to order seafood in advance. So I went to the market’s fishmonger and to my surprise they couldn’t find my order so they had to redo it (cleaning and preparing seafood included!!). That meant I had to wait for more than half an hour with little Ambrosina, who was hungry and crying!! To me this was the icing on the cake, or in Italian Christmas tone – as the picture portrays it –  confectioners’ sugar on Pandoro (that is my daughter’s Xmas cap!).

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Dec 5

14 Comments

Massimo Bottura: Italy’s “IT” Chef

Massimo Bottura

Making this post was a tough call: not only because I did not have daylight on my side for food photography, but mostly because I was about to experience (probably) the best dining experience of my life – an evening with Massimo Bottura’s cuisine at Eataly Roma. Having said that, imagine my biggest food photography challenge combined with the pressure of having to photograph Massimo Bottura’s remarkable dishes.

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Sep 4

33 Comments

A Flashback to the Eighties?

What brings you back to the eighties? Well, in my case – as far as music - this song from Wham!

What brings me back to the eighties in terms of food? Buttered pasta and tomato sauce on the side.

We all have childhood memories about eating, and we all can relate to a certain food during a specific period of our lives. When I was a child, I still remember pasta cooking in the boiling pot and, as soon as it was done (not necessarily al dente), we used to add butter to prevent spaghetti from sticking together. To eat spaghetti, a simple tomato sauce with dried oregano was served to pour over the pasta. I thought that was so Italian. However, little did I know that this was not the way Italians ate their spaghetti.

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Aug 17

32 Comments

Silenced By The Trout

A view of the crystal clear water of Santa Sussana well

 ”If I am a river, you are the ocean
Got the radio on, got the wheels in motion
We were silenced by the night
But you and I we gonna rise again
Divided from the light
I wanna love the way we used to when”

Nope! This is not a post about love. However, I could not find a better way to star this post without citing the song Silenced by the night from my favorite band – Keane -.  Not just because we always play their music while we are driving, but because  we were also heading to a river with the stereo on (with Keane’s Strangeland of course!) and our wheels were in motion to Rivodutri, where you can find a marvelous restaurant specializing in fish river called La Trota (the Trout).

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Aug 11

147 Comments

Zucchini Variations

Appetizer or main course? When it comes to vegetables, we think about them as appetizers, and – more often – as side dishes.

I had a bunch of zucchini romanesche at home (with their flowers) and before I was off for vacations, I had to make use of them.  Since I usually prepare zucchini with pasta or simply as a side dish, I wanted to come up with a main course (with zucchini as “main” ingredient). I thought it was a good idea because zucchinis are fresh and in season, and a meat course would have been heavy with the high temperatures we got in Rome.

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