Pomodori Ripieni (Stuffed Tomatoes)

This is a classic Roman dish that was taught to my mother by a friend who’s Roman mother made it often. On my recent trip to Rome, the cab driver and I chatted about his methods for making this meal while he transported my husband and I to our residence for the week – such…

Il sugo di pomodoro (tomato sauce)

This is our family tomato sauce. It is a classic, velvety smooth sauce which is simple to make, tastes of summer and stores well for a winter’s pasta dish that will remind you of warmer weather. Ingredients (makes about 4x500mL jars of sauce): 2 kg of ripe tomatoes (we use beef-heart but San Marzano are…

Ragu’ di casa nostra

This is how we make the meat sauce at our house, it is similar to the famous ‘bolognese’ meat sauce but slightly ‘Sicilianized’ with the addition of a little more tomato sauce and peas. It is a great pasta sauce to freeze in portions and use in the depths of winter when an impromptu dinner…

Pasta al pesto ‘Trapanese’

Originating from Trapani, city on the most westerly tip of Sicily and where Rita Monaco is from (resident chef at fattoxcasa!), this recipe takes advantage of all that is fresh at this time of year: tomatoes, basil and garlic. Ingredients: (this will be sufficient to dress about 500g. of pasta, enough for 4 to 6…

zucchini ripieni

We’ve got zucchini goggles on these days with an over-production of the fruit in our garden – we’ve never had such a great year (I wish we knew what it is we did…). So, another zucchini recipe because we are quite literally eating them every day (and inviting people over to eat them as well!)…

zucchini della zia Silvia

A great way of using a bumper crop of zucchini from the garden, this dish can be served as either antipasto or side dish and will keep in the fridge for up to a week. Whenever we visit zia Silvia in Tuscany, this is one of the dishes – of many – that she has…

Pizza

This is a simple pizza recipe, using the daily bread dough and whatever ingredients you wish – we suggest keeping it simple rather than putting too many things on the pizza as you may weight it down and the dough won’t rise in the oven as much. This is a take on the classic pizza…

Focaccia

This is worth turning the oven on in the summer for… a ‘focaccia condita’ or ‘dressed focaccia’ which is almost pizza (but not!) with grape tomatoes, black olives, white onion and herbs. Also very good with rosemary and garlic or just olive oil and coarse salt. Ingredients: the daily bread dough, half the quantity (use…