Is a month enough?

This blogger is officially BACK.

Back in her hot, stuffy apartment, with both her coffee and pizza needs well and truly satisfied. For now. And also back at her computer, ready to continue filling you in on all things southern Italy related. Well, apart from today, that is. Today's post is actually a celebration, if you will, of all things British. I have spent the past month enjoying not only the delightful English weather (not even a hint of sarcasm there...it really was delightful) but also great British wit, British television and of course, British food. Ladies and gents, behold: A month of the UK-in pictures...

Breakfast in the garden. YES, it was actually possible!

Tea time, obvs.

My aunt's curry. Not to be missed.

MASSIVE YUM. That is all.

Yes, I actually witnessed this. Absolutely incredible...and oh-so-sad for Eastbourne.

Summer school fun and frolics

Relaxing at the Great British seaside.

This is what teachers do on their afternoon off.

Brunch at Bill's.

Erm...

Exciting camera angles.

Post cocktail, bus stop shenanigans.

If you haven't tried Mix-ups...I urge you to. NOW. But beware, it's far too easy to scoff the whole packet in one go.

Erm...shop much? High street, I salute you.

As I departed Bristol airport on Saturday afternoon (after a torturous wait at security, which thankfully didn't involve a strip search of any kind but DID involve me almost exploding with impatience), I took a moment to reflect on whether I was actually ready to come back. It's always difficult saying goodbye, and leaving behind the country in which you grew up, with which you are familiar and where everything is just easy, but usually I'm well and truly ready to return to Italy. This time however, I was divided. I couldn't wait to enjoy some Italian summer, eat some real pizza and get back to my comfortable, albeit stuffy, apartment. Yet I had had a great time in the UK: friends, family, fish and chips and Primark (sorry, that last one wasn't in keeping with the alliteration but you know...it deserved a place on the list). Had a month been enough? Would I have started to really crave Italy after even just a couple more days? Who knows. For now however, I will not wallow in my thoughts, and will begin, once again, to eat my body weight in gelato, torte, and tomatoes...

Kinder Bueno Cheesecake

Hi folks! I hope you all had a great weekend. On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending my very first southern Italian wedding; my stomach is now in recovery, and I will be posting all about it in the very near future! For now though, check out this delicious (and very simple) Kinder Bueno Cheesecake recipe, which I recently made to try and impress my boyfriend's family, along with a couple of other calorific treats (have a look at that blog post here)

  To give credit where credit is due, I actually took this recipe from boutiquebake.com. I only made one little alteration: just a little extra butter. I found that the original amount didn't quite bind the biscuit together as much as I wanted.

Here's what you'll need:

For the biscuit base: 300g of digestives and 200g of butter

For the cheesecake: 350ml of whipped cream, 450g of cream cheese, 150g of sifted icing sugar and 6 single Kinder Bueno bars. You can obviously use more Kinder Bueno bars if you wish!

 First, place a sheet of greaseproof paper in a circular spring clip tip. You could use a normal tin, but it might be a little tricky taking the cheesecake out later. Melt the butter and then crush the digestive biscuits well. Then mix them together and press into the tin. Make sure they are nice and compact.

Whip up the cream, and in a separate bowl mix the cream cheese and icing sugar. You can do this by hand but I found it much easier using an electric whisk! Melt the broken up Kinder Buenos either in the microwave or over a saucepan of hot water, then mix all of the ingredients together. Spread the mixture over the biscuit base, making sure it's smooth and level.

Put the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 4 or 5 hours to set properly. I left mine in there overnight at this was perfect. I then topped it with chocolate sauce and some extra Kinder Bueno chunks.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can modify it easily. In the future I'm going to use the same basic recipe to make an Oreo or Snickers cheesecake. It's making me hungry just thinking about it....

Buon appetito! :D

Easter (Over)eating

Well, WHAT a week!

My parents arrived in Puglia last Saturday, and what followed was a super busy seven days full of excursions, family meet ups and masses of overeating. We took trips to Trani, Castel del Monte and Matera (write ups to follow) and, despite the pretty bad weather, had a very lovely time indeed.

But let's return, for now, to the aforementioned 'overeating' part of the Easter vacation. I've written many times before about the fact that, on special occasions, Italians really up the ante and enjoy ridiculous amounts of delicious food. So, who were we to say no to anything! Throughout the entire week we indulged in all sorts of tasty treats, including...

Yes, this is what Italian Easter eggs look like. None of that funny box business like in the UK. They can be pretty pricey too.

We sampled these delicious typical dishes at a wonderful party that was thrown by some friends. Here, you can see Parmigiana, Pancotto (a dish made with vegetables and bread), pasta with a vegetable similar to chicory, panzerotti, tomato pizza and some local Rosè wine.

And theeeeen came the dolce. Oh my. From the top, a forest fruit cheesecake (which was deliciouss because it wasn't too sweet), a nutella cake, red wine cake, typical Easter colomba cake, pistachio cake, tiramisù and finally, a pineapple and cream cake. Of course, we sampled them all. Well, it would have been rude not to!

Cake close up.

A slightly lighter (yet no less delicious) dessert that we had whilst in Matera (at the Soul Kitchen restaurant). White chocolate semi-freddo with fresh strawberries and balsamic.

On Saturday, we decided that (at least) a week of 'sensible' eating was in order. This was going very well indeed until a birthday celebration that we were invited to yesterday evening.

 Oh dear.

The Best of British!

You only have to spend a few minutes on my little blog to realise a couple of things. One, is that I am not a fan of the Italian post office. Another, is that I love exploring southern Italy. But one of the most obvious thing you can find out from my blog, is that I love Italian food. Dolce, pizza, pasta, gelato... the list of things I love eating here in Italy is endless. But underneath all of that love for Italian cuisine, I am still very British. There are a huge number of British products that you can't get for love nor money here in the Boot, so I may have literally yelped with joy when this wonderful package found its way to my door:

check out the FLAG!!!!

Thanks to the lovely people at the British Corner Shop (http://www.britishcornershop.co.uk/), my cupboard is now well stocked with some yummy goodies, including (but definitely not limited to) chocolate digestives, walkers crisps, Cadbury's fingers, Jamaica ginger cake and, the piece de resistance... LYLE'S GOLDEN SYRUP. Over 400g of thick, sugary goodness now sits in my kitchen cupboard. 'Is it like powdered sugar?' one Italian friend speculated. I corrected him by slowly prising open the lid and dazzling him with the golden GLOW.

One week after ordering, my package arrived on Monday. I discovered (via the handy UPS tracking service) that it had had a (relaxing?) weekend stuck in Bari. Trust the Italians to delay my British goodies. My Italian man was just as excited as I was about the package. 'Ooo my crisps!' he (incorrectly) stated. After a peaceful night's rest, safe in the knowledge that I had all sorts of deliciousness sitting downstairs, I did the only sensible thing possible: made a load of flapjack.

With 250g oats, 100g of butter, about 120g of brown sugar and two tablespoons of golden syrup, I recreated one of my favourite British recipes. My boyfriend took a load of the stuff for his parents to try and they apparently LOVED it. Well, what do you know. Those food-fussy Italians do enjoy some quality British grub!

In some of the flapjacks, I even added a cheeky bit of  Green and Black's cooking chocolate, which had also arrived in my package. And guess what I'm having for my tea tonight? Oh yes, WARBURTONS CRUMPETS. ( 'So, do you like, make a sandwich out of these or what?' Silly Italian.)

So, if any of you fellow expats fancy a quick fix of some tasty British treats, check out a massive selection of stuff at the British Corner Shop, which also has an ever-growing American section too. Next on my list? Quavers and ginger biccies!

Happy eating! 

Sweet Monday...

So, it's Monday again. How on earth does this day manage to come round so quickly? Everyone needs a little pick-me-up on Monday mornings, so here's a little treat for you all. It occurred to me that I haven't posted a photo for some delicious dolce for a while, so I thought I had better remedy that immediately. Behold! A selection of  mouth-watering delights from one of the best bakeries in the local area, Saint Honore....

Cassata, Torta alla ricotta and two creamy chocolatey creations that tasted SO. DARN. GOOD.

Have a great day!!

Blogger and...pizza maker?

A little while ago I spent an evening with my boyfriend's family at his brother's house. Every now and then the whole family gets together for a meal, and this time we had the pleasure of sampling some homemade pizza, made in his brother's very own pizza oven! Now, I have eaten my fair share of pizza, and have even had a go at making some dough myself, but I've never eaten it from someone's very own pizza oven at home. Needless to say, I was very excited indeed. My boyfriend's brother was an excellent pizzaiolo, and churned out pizza after pizza all evening, with all sorts of various toppings. After I had eaten a piece of pizza (or 7), I was asked if I wanted to have a go at rolling out the dough and cooking the pizza myself. Erm, yes please! I was told how to roll and stretch out the dough into the pizza shape, and even how to place it in the oven properly. Afterwards, I put the toppings on the pizza and, beaming with pride, placed it on the table for his family to dig into. The fact that there wasn't a single piece left made me feel just a little bit proud of myself... ;)

 While I couldn't take any credit for the dough this time, I did write a recipe for pizza dough in this months ITALIA! magazine, complete with all the information you need to know about how the Pugliese like their pizzas (mashed potato and all!!) Get your hands on a copy now! :D 

More food please!

Good afternoon from wet and windy Puglia! I hope you are all having a nice, relaxing Sunday so far. This blog post is, surprise surprise, a food one, and also provides further evidence of my ongoing culinary development. This week I made some nice little vanilla cupcakes (the icing didn't turn out perfectly, hence a photo senza drippy frosting mess) and, with the help of my incredibly patient man, I assisted in preparing a traditional Pugliese Sunday lunch. I have been told that, even if you are rubbish at preparing other dishes, the Sunday lunch is one that you must perfect. Best get to work then...

I used a recipe from the BBC website for these moist, tasty cupcakes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cupcakes_93722 

 

This is definitely a Southern delicacy: the Pancotto. I tried this one at La Locanda di Hansel in Foggia (Trip Advisor reviews here)

The Pancotto had to be followed by dolce of course. This was the torta Kinder. One word: YUM.

Couldn't have put it better myself....

Yes, all of this went into making a delicious sugo for our Sunday lunch

We also made involtini using beef, parsley, Parmesan, a little garlic and salt.

Sugo in progress

Meaty sugo plus traditional pugliese orecchiette makes one happy Amy.

Buona Domenica!