In Ragazzi di Vita, Pier Paolo Pasolini describes the life of a group of Roman street kids in the years directly after the second world war. The first part of the book takes place around the grattacieli of Via Donna Olimpia, the tall (for Rome, for the time) apartment blocks built in the Mussolini era […]
This is an updated version of my original A paper tablecloth guide to dining in Rome written for friends, friends of friends, friends of instagram pals and anyone else who happens to ask ‘where should we eat?’. Rome has a veritable wealth of gastronomic tourism and food writing, so the traveller has a more than […]
At the heel of the Italian boot, Puglia is a land of wild beauty where the stark rocky coastline seems to fall into the sea; a land of ancient olive groves and carpets of flowers, where the light dazzles against whitewashed walls and pale stone streets. As sure as the sea in Puglia is of […]
If a football stadium is a kind of open air temple to human passion; a place where barriers come down and for 90 minutes everyman is united, then beaches too are arenas to the egalitarian gods of sun and sea. I am Australian, and for me the beach is the bracing chill of the […]
Recently mum called with a request. “I was hoping you could give me the recipe for that lovely apple dessert you made once, what’s its name? Oh yes, the Tarte Tatin’. Flutter of pride. After years of telephoning you for recipes Mum, I am sending one back. I learnt this method for a Tatin, famously French, […]
Another of mum’s cakes from the original recipe folder, that Emma and I are delighting in as we leaf through looking for things to cook during this second lockdown. Mum didn’t bake this cake often, perhaps because my father isn’t big on spiced things, but I will make it more often now that it has […]
A bit like in the case of a carrot cake, the broccoli in this cake doesn’t necessarily add flavour (the parmigiano and lemon do the heavy lifting) but it does add vegetable substance in the place of extra carbs. And even though some of the nutrients have been lost in the boiling, the cake is […]
Thursday 19 March 2020. Schools in Rome have been closed since the 6th, and we have been on official and increasingly stringent lockdown since Monday the 9th. How is it? Relaxing? Challenging? All of the above. Nothing to do but loads to do, a bit like tossing simultaneous balls and not managing to catch them […]
This recipe is another family treasure, one of the hand me downs from my mother, my Auntie Margie and my grandma Marjorie, via my trusty recipe folder circa 1994 (home to butchers’ recipe cards, newspaper clippings and other late 20th Century gems). When I mentioned the walnut crescents on the phone the other day, Mum […]
Thursday 19 March 2020. Schools in Rome have been closed since the 6th, and we have been on official and increasingly stringent lockdown since Monday the 9th. How is it? Relaxing? Challenging? All of the above. Nothing to do but loads to do, a bit like tossing simultaneous balls and not managing to catch them […]
Rough Puff, also known as (quick) all butter puff pastry Real puff pastry is a laborious process that involves much folding and refrigerating to produce that – oh so wonderful – effect of buttery layers. A puff pastry is best used for open baked items like sausage rolls, pie lids and turnovers, in other […]
A couple of days ago a gentleman asked me whether I was British. I replied ‘No, I am Australian’. He suggested that this was the same; making me essentially British. I repeated that I was Australian, and that did not make me British. 2015 marked the centenary of the landing at Gallipoli, the start of […]