While an olive oil Easter egg might not have much effect on Italian children who prefer Kinder Surprise Easter eggs, it could be an interesting match for olive oil buffs who also like chocolate.

The unusual oil and chocolate match was presented at Vinitaly by a producer from the Marche who explained that dark chocolate and olive oil is a harmonious combination. It also makes way for some more innovative exploration of Italian cooking traditions and products.

We have our doubts that an olive oil Easter egg will replace our preferred standard chocolate, but at least it’s good to see some experimentation happening in the world of Italian culinary tastes.

Continue reading: Olive oil Easter egg from Italy

This is a more modern mediterranean dish from Italy of grilled squid meat, with vegetables. It comes from Giulio Galano, chef at the Ristorante La Conca in Meta.

Ingredients: 500 grams of large squid, one carrot, one zucchini, one leek and one lemon. 200 grams of fresh peas, squid ink, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Method: shell and cook the peas in boiling water. Clean the squid, removing the tentacles and keeping the sack of black ink. Cut the squid into thin strips, dress with oil and the salt and pepper. Chop the vegetable and fry in a small pan with some salt and pepper.

Empty the sack of the squid ink into a boil, add the juice of half a lemon and a tea spoon of olive oil, mixing with care. Grill the squid, reduce the peas into a puree, and spread onto the plate. Add the grilled squid and the vegetables, decorate with fresh cherry tomatoes and a couple of drops of the squid ink.

Via | Mangiarbene

Continue reading: Italian recipes: grilled squid with ink

Dubbed by the guys on Gustoblog as a “new recipe”, it’s no news to me, having had experience with a more international style of Italian cooking. Below, we give you the run-down on pasta with sundried tomatoes.

Ingredients: any kind of pasta you like, dried tomatoes, salty ricotta, garlic and extravirgin olive oil. While we recommend homemade dried tomatoes, if that’s difficult try and find some that aren’t in oil.

Process: For the tomatoes, put some water to the boil, and in the meantime juice a couple of lemons. When the water is boiled (no salt!) add the lemon juice and tomatoes. After about 5-10 minutes, prepare on the side the extravirgin olive oil and oregano, add some basil if you like. Drain the tomatoes and place them in the marinade over night.

Continue reading: Pasta recipes: dried tomatoes

This is a mouth watering summer recipe that I will definitely try this season: gnocchetti with prawns and asparagus tips.

Ingredients are asparagus, prawns, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, onion, pine nuts, white wine and potato gnocchi which is best if homemade.

Wash the asparagus, keep only the tips, and steam cook them or very slightly boil them. Mash the garlic and onion and fry them in a pan, adding then the pine nuts. After a couple of minutes, add the prawns and a splash of white wine. The prawns can be either shelled or used whole, but the heads and tails should be cooked with the rest to give extra taste.

When the prawns are nearly cooked, add the asparagus and a pinch of salt. When the gnocchi is cooked, toss them for two minutes in the pan and then you’re ready! We’ll leave the white wine choice to you.

Foto | Flickr

Continue reading: Italian pasta recipes: gnocchi with prawns and asparagus

As we continue our journey through Italy’s modern ethnic cuisine, we bring this Eritrean restaurant in Rome. It’s one of the most well known African restaurants in the capital - called Sahara in can be found on Viale Ippocrate.

The interior is authentic and characteristic with traditional elements and different rooms where you can eat either at the table or around the lounges. The dishes are well done and if you like spicy food, you can a variety of different options to match with typical African wine. At the beginning of the dinner, an aperitif is offered which makes for a special evening, the women waiters are dressed in traditional clothing and will take your thoughts away from the city for a while.

African cusine is supposed to be eaten mostly with your hands, helped out with spongy bread which functions both as a plate or as cutlery to taste meat or vegetables as your fancy takes you. The antipasti and the cous cous is particularly recommended, while famous dishes from the restaurant include Zighinì, lamb in spicy sauce with vegetables and bread, or Mincet Abish, minced meat with various condiments. The vegetarian dish Shirò is also excellent, prepared with a chick pea puree. Bookings are recommended.

Foto | Flickr

Continue reading: Eating out in Rome: the Sahara eritrean restuarant

Whether multiculturalism in Italy is working or not, we’re certainly enjoying a variety of international cuisine over here as Italians slowly embrace the traditions of other cultures.

In Genoa, the Nabil restaurant is an true institution - famous throughout the city, you eat great food and spend less. Anyone who loves middle eastern food should try this out. The interior of the restaurant is well looked after and on theme. The menu, put together by chef Nabil, includes traditional home made recipes (he has used his mother’s recipes) from his homeland, Jordan.

Some of the best dishes include cous cous, fish, vegetables, chicken and lamb, or mansaf - a rice-based dish with lamb and yoghurt. The antipasto is definitely to be tried, with falafel, natural yoghurt, and vegetable condiments including hummus, bean curd and roasted aubergine.

A special mention must go to the desserts, which are truly rare creations. Basbuse is perhaps the most famous, made from coconut, honey and rose water, and also chick pea flour biscuits. The whole menu, from the antipasto to the dessert, excluding wine, takes you to about 20 euros. If you’re looking for some original food and wine matching, some Lebanese wines are available.

Foto | Flickr

Continue reading: Genoa restaurants: Middle Eastern cuisine at Nabil

The presence of sushi in Italy has really captured the imagination of the natives here, who often seek out new establishments serving the Japanese delicacy. Angelo Peretti, who manages a blog entirely dedicated to the Bardolino territory and its wine makers has been exploring some sushi and wine matches.

He has reported that Bardolino Chiaretto and sushi or sashimi is being offered by an Italian chain of sushi restaurants. The chain is called Kiki and its managers “have found the Soave grape La Capelina from the company Franchetto di Roncà and the Bardolino Chiaretto from Lenotti di Bardolino very exciting”: the two wines will be offered together with the Japanese cuisine.

The whole article is available here on ViniBuoni, though it reminds us that Japanese cuisine is very delicate, therefore the Chiaretto, a rosé, is perfect. If you’re looking for some great summer dishes, and food and wine matching, sushi is ideal with wines with good acidity. Try some combinations yourself.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Italian food and wine matching: Sushi with Soave and Bardolino

Italy is full of wonderful restaurants but if your idea of them is of a quaint trattoria with white and red check table cloths, you may have to change your mind after this restuarant.

The “Fungo” (mushroom) in Rome has been famous from the 50’s as one of the cult restaurants most in vogue in the city. The restaurant sits above a huge water tank, designed by the architect Nervi and called the mushroom for its striking form. It was converted into a restaurant by tenor Mario del Monaco.

In the EUR zone, the Fungo has always been renowned for its excellent dining and therefore also its prices - not accessible to everyone. It was closed for sometime but has since been re-opened and is now called the “Quattordicesimo Piano” or 14th floor.

We think that at least once it’s worth going to eat there. The atmosphere is very chic, and you get a great view of Rome. Chef Lissana creates simple but exotic and experimental dishes, and the place is generally for people who want to distinguish themselves. You can always come out saying you ate at the legendary mushroom in Rome.

Continue reading: Dinner at the Quattordicesimo piano: Rome's "Mushroom" restaurant

From the weekly publication Panorama, here is a series of recommendations for people who aren’t happy to eat in just any “normal” restaurant.

That Milan is rich with bars and restaurants is no news to anyone, but among the many places available, some stand out for their eclectic style and extravagance. Such as Il Maggiolino, where the complete absence of cutlery means that any dish, from polenta to grilled meat, is eaten with your hands. There are two restaurants: one in via Giambellino 56, and one in viale Liguria 47 - seating 800 it’s the largest finger food location in Europe.

At Warsà in via Melzo 16 you also eat with your hands - it’s a restaurant serving food from Eritrea, in the multicultural area of Milan, where you can sit on the floor on zebra hide. The Locanda dell’Oste Scuro in via Archimede 12 also has an unusual atmosphere where every evening, the lights are turned off, the music is turned up, and a man dressed in a cloak serves a sweet/sour liquor that resembles blood. On the menu is lobster served in any possible way: stewed with polenta or done with curry and pilaf rice.

Continue reading: Milan restaurants: eating in extravagant restaurants

If you’re looking for somewhere to go out in Milan this weekend, you could try La Ratera, an artisan brewery in the San Siro area of the city. It’s a place that unites excellent food quality with some interesting cultural iniatives. The ironic name, meaning “rat den” or similar, is very typical of Milanese dialect, and despite this, the interior is well looked after and welcoming, with the owner making you feel at ease. The food has been well researched and the chef has some surprises without offering anything too standard.

For example, on offer are: scrambled eggs with black truffle, grated mussels with five types of pepper on pomegranate salad, broad bean cannelloni with red lentils, roasted cuttle fish and octopus, and heated chocolate cup cake with ginger centre. Everything washed down with different types of the house beer, well-matched with the dishes. (Apparently this was their “aphrodisiac menu” event).

Other events in the upstairs room with its piano include jazz concerts, and tastings such as the above which was enogastronomic event combining “pleasure, sensuality and sin”, along with a discussion of the photographic work of Alina Rizzi. It may not be your style, but the dinner is definitely worth it.

Average prices, eating, and drinking Italian artisan-made beer you can walk out with a bill of about 32 euros. This is something to spoil your palate with, and bookings are recommended. You can see below a photo of the interior.

Continue reading: Going out Milan: artisan brewery and restaurant San Siro