Slice of cardamom spiced orange olive oil cake dusted with icing sugar, served with fresh orange slices

Orange and Cardomom Olive Oil Cake

Laced with bold flavours and fragrant orange, this cake has a fabulous texture and is indulgent in just the right measure. You can make it ahead of time if you have guests coming, and it never fails to pleaseREAD MORE

Warm some olive oil in a deep saucepan and add the sliced leek with a pinch of rock salt. Sautee over a medium heat for around 5-7 minutes until it has softened. Next, add the celeriac, apples and thyme and cook for 2–3 minutes, then add the stock and cannellini beans and season well. Simmer over a low heat for 20–30 minutes, until the celeriac is tender, then remove from the heat and blitz with a hand blender until smooth. Toast the hazelnuts whole in a pan for a few minutes, then set to one side. Before serving you may like to crush a few into large pieces. At the last minute, fry the sage leaves in extra virgin olive oil and a little flaked salt until crispy. Serve immediately.

Celeriac Soup with crispy sage and hazelnuts

I first fell in love with celeriac in France, where we used to travel extensively as kids and here the remoulade was a firm lunchtime favourite. Since living in Italy, I tend to roast it most often with garlic and salt, it also loves thyme as a partner. During the colder days, it is also wonderful as a hearty soup combined with cannellini beans and a little apple for sharpness.READ MORE

Spigola con Limone al Forno

This is too easy not to share. The fish itself takes 10 minutes to cook and 2 minutes to prep. It goes well with some roast potatoes and some greens as accompaniment – whatever is in season works.  READ MORE

Pasta e Ceci

Sometimes when it rains and rains, you just feel as if you need soup, or pasta, or sometimes soup and pasta. And this indeed is more than the sum of its parts – it is the very definition of comfort food.READ MORE

Roasted Beetroot, Citrus and Olive Salad with Horseradish

In the south of Italy, you frequently find a delicious winter salad with orange, fennel, olives, perhaps a bit of red onion or bitter leaves. This is an adaptation on that. Amazing if you can get a mix of different coloured beets because it makes this dish a total showstopper as they bleed and blend together.READ MORE

Risotto con Porri

A simple, nutrient-rich, and flavorful first course, perfect for those who prefer plant-based dishes and wonderfully comforting. Leeks are typically at their best from September through to March. With their sweet aromatic taste they are a great alternative to onions and when combined with a brilliant pure extra virgin olive oil, they pack layers of flavour.READ MORE

Ribollita

In Search of the Perfect Ribollita

Ribollita remains to this day the cornerstone of Tuscan cuisine. It originates from a tradition of repurposing leftovers, driven by a necessity-based way of living. Made from leftover bread, it is a soup that is reheated the next day and brought back to the boil while frequently stirred and this process transforms it into something truly special: a new soup with a more intense flavour.READ MORE

Orecchiette con le Cime di Rapa

Rapini or broccoli rabe: bright green, decisive in flavour and intensely good for you.  Fresh from the orto as we head towards winter and favoured in the kitchens of southern Italy in particular, it’s an ingredient we always looked for when we were in London but that we only really started to use regularly when we moved to Italy.READ MORE

Pici con Limone e Pecorino

Pici is a type of pasta that you can only find in Tuscany. Of course it has regional variations under different names, but these rustic, thick spaghetti-like strands are made of just flour and water with a little olive oil, and they have an ability to hold a sauce very well.READ MORE

Frico Friulano

This traditional Friulano recipe is based on the three key ingredients of potatoes, onions and cheese, aimed to be a substantial meal for woodcutters and shepherds. It uses the local cheese Montasio, but if you can’t find this, a mature cow’s milk or vegan alternative would work well. It is true comfort food for a cold day.

 

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Zuppa di Ceci

Super simple to make, this vegan soup is delicious and satisfying. If you don’t have time to pre-soak the chickpeas (which requires you to think ahead the day before), then it works with chickpeas from a jar.READ MORE

Winter Roots

The base notes of winter meet the peppery spice of new season olive oil in some sort of divine marriage.READ MORE

Citrus and Hazelnut Slaw

There is something seriously good about a crisp, refreshing salad on a cold day. It livens the tastebuds and contrasts so brilliantly with the richer flavours of the season.READ MORE

The Green Kings: Artichokes

Carciofo (artichoke) season in Italy runs throughout the winter until the late spring. So in April, we try to take full advantage before they disappear again for a few months.

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Chicory

Cicoria in Italy is a wintery-spring staple. Packed full of vitamins and mineral salts (particularly in wild chicory) it is deliciously bitter and a fine side dish accompanying meat, fish or potato based dishes.READ MORE

Homemade Tagliatelle al Ragù

Homemade pasta al ragù is a wonderful classic Italian dish and is surprisingly easy to make.  As is often the case with Italian food, simplicity is key – but of course you can add vegetables or other meats to the ragù if you wish. This is a child friendly version.  You will need a pasta rolling machine to make the tagliatelle. READ MORE

The Mighty Fennel

There is a time in July when we wander the shopping aisles slightly lost by the absence of our all time favourite food staple. Indeed for about 8 months of the year we always have fennel at home, eating it most days, but its season is early autumn to late spring, along side cavolo nero, trevisano and other winter vegetables. We often feel the freshness of fennel should be on our table in the summer, but we know there is a reason for this.  And this cousin of the carrot is therefore highly appreciated at this time of the year when it is at its new season best.READ MORE

Beetroot three ways

Red, orange and yellow feature highly in our autumn vegetable basket, from pumpkin to pomegranate, we feel blessed to have these rich, earthy, autumnal flavours at our table. Beetroot holds a special place in our heart so we wanted to dedicate a few words to it.READ MORE

Orange Olive Oil Cake

Breakfast in Italy is mainly a sweet affair. Cornetto (croissant) is the staple food in the morning at the bar with your cappuccino, while at home cake is wholly acceptable. As winter begins to set in, we are eating Orange Olive Oil Cake made with the most sensational oranges from the Librandi estate in Calabria and their exceptional olive oil.READ MORE