Zucchini Slice & The End of the Season’s Eatings
The season is ending, the first real rain has fallen and so here is a recipe to celebrate the official end of the Sardinian summer, and some of the amazing people who have passed t
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Paradise in a Pudding: Ripe Persimmons & Orange Blossom Panna Cotta
‘Write me down as one who loved poetry and persimmons’ This perfect epitaph by the Japanese poet Shiki (pinched from Jane Grigson’s biblical Fruit Book) is one re
Late Peach & Fig Leaf Jam
Potting the last of the summer wine. Late writing this, late making it, luckily there were late peaches. One day I will find time to write again, in the meantime here’s some
Melanzane Impanate
Mad Apples & Antonietta Every morning and evening my neighbour Salvatore drives his little green Ape off to campagna and returns with a bucket full of home grown melanzane. Shi
Coronation Chickens and A Victorious Sponge
Victoria Sponge with Strawberry and Fig Leaf Jam At the beginning of last month I set off for the Agricultural Consorzio up the road where it was announced that the chickens had fi
Welsh Cakes
A combination of moving countries and getting older makes you fascinated with family history, and your own murky origins. My father has always joked about our Celtic strain, and sa
Torta Mimosa & A Woman’s Day
This woman began her day by going to the lab for tests. It turns out living in a highly health conscientious culture and being pregnant means repeated monthly tests. I have come to
San Benedetto Market, Cagliari, and Camone Tomatoes
The exterior of San Benedetto market in Cagliari is unprepossessing to say the least. The first time I went looking for it a few years ago, I walked straight past it, thinking it w
Epiphany, the Befana & Pavlova
Mandarin Curd Pavlova with Frosted Bay and Yoghurt Cream Epiphany, or Befana as it is colloquially known, is a day that in Sardinia almost eclipses the 25th of December, at least a
Quince Pies
I often feel that I am on a one woman quest to convince my Italian friends/family that not all English food is stodgy/overcomplicated/filled with too many flavours/too much butter.
Counting, A Cake & Some Crumbs of Comfort
There was a cake in the oven when it happened. We had just recovered from Covid, then the vines got sick and then seemed to be recovering too. And then Lorenzo had some blood tests
Fig Leaf Custard Bomboloni
I am cooking in Andros again. It’s my fourth year at Melisses, the beautiful stone house built into the hillside run by my friend Allegra and we are hosting a food and flower
Saffron & Blood Orange Hot Cross Buns
Happy Sardinian/English Good Friday.. Starter:220g plain flour120g dark brown sugar½ tsp cinnamon½ tsp nutmegPinch of ground saffronPinch of ground clovesZest of 2 blood oranges
Fig, Fennel & Gorgonzola Pizza
My favourite pizza of all, in bianco, so without tomato sauce, but with sweet and jammy figs and the salty, creamy tang of gorgonzola. The wild fennel adds a lovely fragrant note a
Lemon Curd
The word curd is a wonderful one; the gentle purring ‘currr’ a lulling lullaby as you curl into a soft buttery bed, only to be slapped awake by the sharp sting of lemon and the
Ricotta, Blood Orange & Honey Drop Scones
Sometimes, on winter evenings, my granny would make drop scones for tea. Granny’s work for most of her life was her kitchen and her garden; acutely dyslexic the only job she&
Love Buns
It’s Valentine’s Day – of course – and I made a bun of love to celebrate. I love buns of all varieties, they are the perfect love-child of cake and bread &#
Christmas Making/Baking
I’ve been very slow to get around to Christmas this year, partly because of moving house, and partly because it has been one hell of a weird year, and this Christmas feels no
Lemon, Ricotta & Olive Oil drizzle Cake
An aside – it has occurred to me that almost everything I make contains lemon, ricotta and/or olive oil. Sorry. This is another creation based around one of my favourite Engl
Pumpkin, Dark Chocolate, Olive Oil & Clementine Cake
This is an extraordinary cake. It is really a cake that should have been made on Halloween, but I’m very behind with everything and luckily the squash season isn’t as unforgivi
The One True Apple Cake
Torta di Mele There is a cake that almost every mother and grandmother in Italy makes (the sister of the yoghurt pot cake which featured in Bitter Honey) which is one of the simple
Chocolate, Poached Pear, Brown Sugar & Hazelnut Cake
The combination of pears and chocolate is a nostalgic one for me, as one of my mum’s signature puddings when I was growing up was a soft, liquid-centred chocolate cake with tinne
Cherry, Ricotta, Olive Oil & Almond Cake
A whiff of Clafoutis…..but cake-like. Another cake which demands little in terms of preparation, but delivers in both aesthetics and flavour. Cherries and ricotta are a class
Peach Cookies with Ricotta Cream
It’s this time of year again, so am reposting these. Inspired by the Pesche I have seen in Pasticcerie all over Italy, these are unbearably cute to look at and fun to make (a
