After the excesses and complexities of Easter, here is something very straightforward. Spaghetti al limone is another deliciously simple recipe from the first River Café Cookbook (see slow-cooked lamb shanks), easy to rustle up from limited ingredients. It makes a great starter for an Italian meal or a quick supper dish, served with a tomatoContinue reading “Lemon pasta”
Category Archives: Italian
Pesto
Like vinaigrette, mayonnaise or hollandaise, pesto is a sauce you ought to be able to sling together on autopilot. The traditional Genoese version demands a lot of patient pounding with a large mortar and pestle, so use an electric blender instead to produce a vibrant, versatile paste in just seconds. The quantities below are approximateContinue reading “Pesto”
Slow-cooked lamb shanks
This dish ticks multiple boxes. Hearty and satisfying, it is sophisticated enough for a dinner party but also affordable if you get your lamb shanks from your friendly local Syrian butcher rather than from Waitrose. Once all the onions have been sliced, it also entails very little effort. The recipe is from the first RiverContinue reading “Slow-cooked lamb shanks”
Spaghetti & meatballs
As a cash-and-time-poor working mother I have always been on the hunt for quick, cheap supper dishes to sling together after a busy day at school. This recipe entered the repertoire when we were living in South Croxted Road – I think it was inspired originally by a two-minute TV ad. You can make theContinue reading “Spaghetti & meatballs”
Italian toasted sandwiches
Time spent in Sussex en famille is always a treat. It’s not just the Bridge, tennis and long walks that enliven our visits but also the delicious food we eat there. This recipe entered the repertoire after Granny found it (in a weekend newspaper? 15 years ago?) and rustled it up one evening for theContinue reading “Italian toasted sandwiches”
Crab linguine
Crab linguine may be Italian in origin but it will always evoke for me the memory of the British seaside. Two great cooks inspired me to learn to make it: Charlie Taylor whipped it up in Dorset in 2010, and Granny has served it up more than once at Garde. (On one painful occasion yourContinue reading “Crab linguine”
Tiramisu
Like our British trifle, the Italian tiramisu has many variations and no-one can agree on a definitive recipe. Claudia Roden’s version, which I learned to make as a teenager, uses eggs, rum, a single layer of sponge and chocolate sprinkled on the top only. This decadent espresso martini tiramisu recipe from Olive magazine (see theirContinue reading “Tiramisu”
Aubergine Parmigiana
This dish makes a great vegetarian alternative to lasagne. It has umpteen variations, particularly in the pre-cooking of the aubergines, and there isn’t necessarily a ‘correct’ way of making it. My version has evolved from a recipe in Sophie Grigson’s book ‘Food for Friends’, which inspired many meals I cooked at university. Grigson recommends steamingContinue reading “Aubergine Parmigiana”
Lasagne
Like bolognese sauce, Lasagne is ‘a dish which, if not exactly lost in translation, has, in the grand British tradition, been considerably mangled’ (Felicity Cloake), so again I am making no claims about authenticity here. Some traditional meat lasagne recipes, for example, contain a ricotta and egg mixture rather than béchamel sauce. The version weContinue reading “Lasagne”
Bolognese sauce
As Felicity Cloake has written (in her excellent series ‘How to make a perfect…’): “To write on spag bol is to wade into a mire of controversy thicker and darker than any ragu that ever came out of nonna’s kitchen.” There is no definitive recipe for bolognese sauce and many of the ‘authentic’ elements (pork,Continue reading “Bolognese sauce”
Years of Practice 