Tag Archives: Italian Cooking

Gragnano (paccheri pasta) with octopus ragu’

octupus ragu paccheri pasta

Pasta di Gragnano (paccheri pasta) al ragu’ di polpo For me as a cook, one of my greatest pleasures is the challenge of trying to recreate a recipe I have experienced in a restaurant. It often takes months of trial and error to perfect before I will prepare it for family and friends, and then…

Rosemary, olive oil and spelt cake

Spelt cake recipe

Ciambella di farro, olio d’oliva e rosmarino I grew up in family where sweets, cakes and desserts were a very rare occurrence. My nonna and zia did not make cakes very often and for special occasions my mother would dispatch my father to buy a tray of delicious pastries at the “Pasticceria”. We all…

Alf in Italy, Sicily – The fish market, cooking and deals in the piazza

Sandra and I are in Sicily with her sister Paola and Paola’s partner Simone. We are staying in a small apartment in Trapani, just one street back from the harbour where giant cruise ships dock at the quayside and spew out hordes of grey haired passengers who stroll along the streets before being bussed up…

Stuffed Sardines A Beccafico

Italian Sardines Beccafico Recipe

Sarde a Beccafico Recipe This is an extremely popular sardine dish in Sicily with variations to the cooking method and the stuffing. The dish is named in homage to the “beccafico” a small migratory and fig eating bird so the story goes. Becca means peck and fico, fig. The stuffed sardines resemble a beccafico bird.…