Vegetarian cottage pie.

Chickpeas and borlotti beans simmered away with the flavoursome trio of onion, carrot, celery, a tin of deep red plum tomatoes, a magical bay leaf, a splash of red wine for good measure, a flick of Tabasco, and then topped with creamy, buttery mashed potato = tasty in my book.
So tasty in fact, I have [...]

Borlotti bean and farro soup

Apparently farro makes you happy.
I think it may be true, Prozac be gone you old fool, give me farro my good man and plenty of it, and pint of your finest ale.
It also contains more protein than lentils, a hefty dose of fibre and complex carbohydrates, it’s good for your hair and did I mention [...]

Braised Ossobuco

I am aware that this post is rather similar to the previous one, I have clearly got a meaty, tomatoey, robust, braise phase going on – what can I say it’s February which thuds in at #12 on my favorite month chart and it’s rather chilly. A braise bubbling happily on or in the oven [...]

A kind of Pollo alla Cacciatora

Oh, the title of this post has given me a headache, what to call it.

I am bold and brazen enough to post about a heavyweight Italian classic like Pollo alla cacciatora -chicken hunters style- but more importantly am I resilient enough withstand the mummers of quiet disapproval or chorus of you don’t do it like [...]

Olive oil and orange cake for breakfast

Just to be clear, as Vincenzo has just pointed out that the title sounds a little ambiguous, as if we ate orange cake and, well, I don’t know, drank olive oil for breakfast – which is actually not a bad idea considering how good our oil is this year – no, this is a cake [...]

Walking to breakfast

My Wednesday started so well.
The sun peeped out while I walked, no, I strode to the bar to have breakfast.
Then it all kind of clouded over and I stumbled and dragged my feet through the rest of the day. I did make another pan of this, but even that didn’t stop the day from being [...]