Festa di San Giuseppe

In Italy, today is the Festa di San Giuseppe, and it's also the day that fathers are celebrated. All over Italy, and especially down here in the south, families will be getting together for a delicious lunch and will be giving small gifts to their dads, just like we do in the UK.

There's one particular thing that Italians like to eat today (yes, there's always a specific food for every occasion!) and that's the Zeppola. A fried or baked ring of dough served with chocolate and a type of custard, this sweet treat is incredibly yummy. Before lunch on March 19th, the bars and bakeries are full of people buying dozens of the things. And rightly so, because it's hare to stop at just one...

 

Cheese please!

I am a massive fan of cheese. Not all cheese (I stay far away from brie), but normally I can't get enough of the stuff. I love going to the cheese counter here and picking up some fresh mozzarella or buying a chunk of Parmesan.

 There's one Italian cheese that I am seriously falling in the love with though, and that's Provola.

This semi-hard cheese can be found all over Italy, but was originally manufactured in the southern regions. It comes in all different shapes and sizes, but around these parts I usually see it in big ball shapes. If you pick up one of the bigger ones, the name given to it is usually Provolone, wheras the smaller ones are simply Provola.

Made from full-fat cow's milk, it's definitely not the healthiest option, but it's really rather tasty. You can get it smoked (affumicata) or plain, but I find the smoked one is a bit more flavoursome. In my opinion, the best way to eat almost any cheese here, is on its own. Not in a sandwich, not on top of pasta...but in a nice little chunk on its own. Yep, even with Parmasan; don't be so hasty in grating it directly onto your pasta dish. Cut of a piece first and sample the amazing flavour.

Here's some smoked Provola that I picked up yesterday:

Are you a cheese fiend like me? What's your favourite?

Sunday Snapshots

Just when I was complaining about the weather, a beautiful, sunny Sunday pops up.

And so despite the fact that I had done this the night before:

(Yes, that's mint vodka with Kahlua...!)

...In the morning, I got out of bed (albeit begrudgingly) and headed outside into the blinding sunshine. Yes, literally blinding. I had to shield my eyes for a good 20 seconds until I became accustomed to the glare.

It was a GLORIOUS DAY. Before doing anything else, myself and my man went for a coffee and a great big croissant. Then, we strolled around, launching a 'ciao!' at people we knew (the whole town comes out on Sunday morning, either for a walk after church, or to pick up some delicious cakes) and generally enjoyed being outside. Let's hope the weather continues behaving, and we can do this every Sunday!

You can just make out the Scouts in the background, doing...well, Scouty things)

Now that's definitely a Spring sky...

I hope you all had a smashing weekend!

Winter Blues? Just pick up a pizza!

Yesterday afternoon, for the first time in what seems like forever, I finally stepped out onto my balcony...and felt warm. Yesterday afternoon was gloriously sunny, and I truly felt like spring was making an early appearance.

As the evening wore on however, I was catapulted back to reality, as the grey winter skies arrived once again, bringing a load of  rain with them. Sigh. Is anyone else getting really fed up of winter now?

When this happens, we often decide to abandon our giro around town, and opt for something much more agreeable: a film and a pizza. Recently, we took this beauty home, stuck on a film, and ignored the yucky winter rain:

Spring, Summer and Autumn are glorious months in southern Italy, with blue skies in April, endless hot days in July and balmy evenings in September. But Winter? Well, you just have to hunker down, enjoy a bit of Italian telly and crank up the central heating. At least the quality of the pizza doesn't change with the seasons....

Marvellous Minestrone

During these chilly February days, I personally like nothing better than a nice bowl of hearty soup. And to be honest, you can't get much heartier than the traditional Italian minestrone. This soup is always described as being 'thick', but to be honest, it really is the chunkiest soup I have ever seen!

There's actually no set recipe for minestrone. Instead, any vegetables that are in season are used in this healthy dish, and sometimes pasta or rice are added to give it extra sustenance. Ahh those Italians, they really do involve pasta with almost everything!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of trying some of my boyfriend's mum's homemade minestrone. Here in Puglia, no meat is eaten on Fridays during lent, so it was the perfect meat-free lunch. Now, it may not be as aesthetically pleasing as some other typical Italian foods, but it tasted absolutely DELICIOUS. Some fresh crusty bread was the perfect accompaniment.

Are you a minestrone fan? What's your favourite winter warmer?

Terrific Torta!

It is a well known fact that Italians love their dolce. It is also a well known fact that I love dolce. And so, I recently went on a mission to create the perfect Italian sponge cake- which of course, must include yoghurt. When I make sponge cake, it always involves eggs, sugar, flour and butter. But the Italians aren't too fond of adding lots of butter, so instead they use yoghurt. I've tried several many yoghurt cakes whilst in Italy, so decided to have a go at making one myself. I used an orange and lemon yogurt which gave a subtle tangy flavour, and then dusted it with icing sugar for added sweetness. What do you think??

And here's the recipe:

A small pot (125g) and a half of yoghurt (if you want a stronger yoghurt flavour. If not, use one pot, then half a yoghurt pot of milk) You can experiment with various yoghurt flavours.
250g flour
250g sugar
3 eggs
a small sachet of baking powder (probably about half a teaspoon or so)
a teaspoon of oil (vegetable or olive)
grated lemon
icing sugar to dust

Mix the flour, baking powder, eggs and sugar together, before adding the oil, yoghurt and lemon. The mixture may seem a little runny but don't worry about this.

Put into circular baking tins, and bake for about 15 minutes (exact time will depend on your oven) until the cake is no longer runny in the middle. Take out and leave to cool, before sprinkling some icing sugar on top.

This cake turned out really light and moist, and will keep for about 3 or 4 days in an airtight container. Although to be honest, you'll probably have scoffed most of it after a day or so anyway... ;)

Happy Monday folks!

Buon San Valentino!

A great big Buon San Valentino from Italy!

I hope you are all having a lovely day, whether you have chosen to embrace the romantic Valentine's day traditions or not. Here in Puglia, the shops are full to the brim with chocolates, heart shaped cushions and useless little trinkets. My favourite coffee bar also had some delicious looking heart shaped chocolate cakes on offer this morning...pity I have decided to give up cake for lent. How utterly silly. I haven't given up chocolate though, so I fully intend to gorge on that later. Anyway, I just thought I would leave you all with a little photo...

Ahh, even my two little terrapins (Tim and Jennifer) are feeling somewhat affectionate today..

<3

It's carnival time!

It's carnival time again!

And despite the fact that it's bitingly cold here, the celebrations are in full flow. In case you weren't too clued up on what carnival actually is (I wasn't), it's a celebration that occurs just before lent begins, and is particularly popular in areas with large Catholic populations. So while we fry up a few pancakes and gorge ourselves silly, Italians go all out with elaborate masks and big processions. The best known places to see a great carnival celebration in Italy are Venice, Ivrea (where they launch oranges at each other...be careful of that one) and Putignano. The latter is actually down here in Puglia, and attracts thousands of people every year.

Down here in my small town, the celebrations may be on a much smaller scale, but the carnival spirit is still rife. Children, teenagers and adults alike don silly/outrageous/garish costumes, chuck confetti everywhere and spray whipped cream at each other. There are parties, feasts and of course, processions. We happened to stumble across this little one yesterday:

I bet those panda costumes were actually really warm...

You can tell my town is agricultural...

And of course, there's a conga line.

I think one of these is supposed to be Berlusconi...

 And even though I'm not a massive fan of getting dressed up and throwing things at people around me, I do enjoy one thing in particular: two days off work. Ahhhh..... ;)

Buon carnevale!!!

Tea Traitor??

Here in Italy, when people find out I'm English, they assume several things:

1. I don't speak Italian (not true...even if my grammar is shoddy)
2. The summer heat must be awful for me and my 'pale skin' (often true)
and
3. I drink tea. At 5pm. (sorry fellow Brits, this is definitely not true!)

Regarding the latter, it's not that I don't like tea...I just don't love it. I haven't actually been into coffee for that long- only since I arrived on Italian shores and realised what I had been missing, did I jump into caffeine city. But tea? I've never taken to it that much. Every now and again when I'm back in the UK I'll have a mug of PG Tips with milk and one sugar, and it does the job. But I can't claim to be head over heels for it.

Believe it or not, even with the abundance of delicious coffee on offer, Italians do actually drink tea every once in a while. But yes, you guessed it: no milk, slice of lemon. I always thought this was sacrilege, even despite my rather unenthusiastic approach to tea. It should be with milk or sugar or both or neither. Why does the lemon have to join in?? How European, I thought.

Well, that was until I tried it. The boyfriend had the sniffles recently (yes, I was the one who gave them to him....woops) and so decided to order a tea at our local coffee bar. It came in this cute little teapot/cup ensemble, which I absolutely loved:

And it also came with these:

So far so good. But look what appeared in the cup!

I gasped, and started going on about how it was the 'wrong' way to have tea, until by man finally persuaded me to a) be quiet, and b) try it. So I did.

And it was lovely. It really was very nice with that bit of lemon floating about in it. So there you have it folks, I am a traitor to my country's tea drinking traditions. Although, if I stick to the milk and sugar option when on British shores, I may be able to hide my filthy tea with lemon habit whilst I'm in Italy...

Have a great weekend folks! Whatever hot beverage you choose....

Croissant, anyone?

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

The weather was a bit yucky down here, but luckily the skies are clear today, and the sun is shining. What better way to start the week than with a spot of nice weather!

This weekend, bar doing an examiner course on Saturday (boo), I completely chilled out. I had a marathon True Blood session, drank lots of tasty coffee, went out with friends on Saturday night and then spent Sunday afternoon lounging about doing nothing. Apart from trying my hand at an Italian yoghurt cake of course! I couldn't find a decent recipe so took matters into my own hands a bit. It came out well but it wasn't perfect. Definitely a work in progress- recipe will be posted as soon as I come up with a good one!

 On Saturday and Sunday mornings, me and my boyfriend usually go out for breakfast. We go to a bar for coffee and one of those big, delicious, calorific croissants- it's one of the weekend rituals that I absolutely love. But due to my course on Saturday, we couldn't do it. And on Sunday morning it was chucking it down with rain, so we weren't keen on even leaving the house (how Italian am I?!). So we decided to cook up some croissants of our own. I don't mean we went to the trouble of making the dough and whatnot, but we popped some frozen ones in the oven (luckily, I had bought some for the first time the day before!). After all, that's what the bars usually do, so we thought we'd try and recreate the experience at home. The smell of croissants wafting out of the oven on a Sunday morning? It's really quite heavenly.

And my WORD were they good. Light, fluffy and absolutely delish. If it weren't for the creamy cappuccinos that you can only get if you go to a bar, I think our weekend breakfast ritual would always be confined to the house!