They say that Salerno is the Amalfi Coast’s best kept secret so I probably shouldn’t tell you about it. It’s important you see that this grand old signora of Campania remains a secret otherwise all and sundry will be aching to reside in one of its cute little teracotta-roofed appartamentos piled one on top of…
Category: Cheese
Old Town Feta, Watermelon and Kalamata Olive Salad
This beautiful salad is inspired by a backstreet grocery store in Corfu old town whose frontage is a cornucopia of fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables piled high in rickety old wooden crates. Tiny sweet apricots, velvety flat peaches, glossy nectarines, huge watermelons, bright gnarly lemons, green figs and dark juicy cherries. Two girls, gloriously plump…
Pesto alla Genovese
It’s early on Tuesday morning at Genoa’s Mercato Orientale and a light summer rain still lingers in the air. Softly fragrant and warm. Dozens of men and women are quietly and efficiently focused on the business of setting up their stalls stopping only occasionally to bid someone buongiorno. Fragrant bouquets of basil line the stalls their uniquely…
Corfu Market Salad with Cumin-roasted Squash, Wild Rice and Black Beans with a Honey Mustard Dressing
I felt a little bit guilty about ordering a 500cl bottle of ice cold retsina at lunch time – errr, just after 12pm – following a hot hour of shopping at the farmer’s market in Corfu town last summer. Not for long though because it was such a pleasure to sit for another blissful hour…
Greek Htipiti, a Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Dip
The late afternoon light gently caresses the once grand terraces that curl above Corfu Old Town. Lunch hour is long over and there is not a soul to be seen. The air is hot and still. The buildings shuttered against the sun. There is no sound save for the odd chirrup of a dusty sparrow…
Livorno Balsamic-glazed Red Onion, Ricotta Salata and Olive Tart
Livorno, Tuscany’s quintessential port town on the southernmost edge of the Ligurian Sea, possesses a colourful history and a cosmopolitan heritage. My kind of place. Its shabby historic quarter – known as the Tuscan Venice – is crisscrossed with jade green canals along which skittish brown boys manoeuvre their launches as they attempt to coolly navigate…
Picasso’s Omelette Niçoise with a Classic Salade Verte à la Française
For Pablo Picasso, food was a central part of life. From the age of 17, he auctioned his sketches for around one peseta (about the same price as a bottle of house wine) to raise money for his supper at Barcelona’s El Quatre Gats (The Four Cats) restaurant – for whom he designed their classic menu and…
Marina’s Greek Yoghurt Flatbread with Tomatoes, Olives, Feta and Wild Oregano
Last summer we spent some time in Corfu Old Town, one of my favourite destinations in the world. We didn’t do much for we had booked our trip at the last minute with the aim of getting away from the bonkers pace of our lives and properly slowing down. Our days quietly passed in a…
Citrusy Herbed Labneh and Roasted Tomato Tartine
Yoghurt is one of the most important components of the modern Mediterranean diet and there is rarely a table where it isn’t featured in some form or other; as part of a main dish, as a dip mixed with chopped herbs, in a dessert or even as a drink. On Mondays, our evening meal often consists of various…
Roast Chestnut, Mushroom and Oloroso Sherry Tart
A nigh on perfect Andalusian tart for a bright autumnal Sunday lunch. All butter pastry encased around caramelised red onions, wild mushrooms, roast chestnuts, fresh lemon thyme and gently stirred with fragrant oloroso sherry and a generous knob of butter. I put some pieces of creamy citrusy Caerphilly cheese on top of this one just to…
Cardamom and Dill 