Dessert, Recipes

No-churn gelato di melone with strawberry salad and mint

Posted on by Elisa Scarton Detti
gelato di melone recipe
27
Jun

There’s a funny little scandal making its way through town this week. Our local gelato shop released a new flavour: gelato di melone or cantaloupe ice cream. Now that is cause for celebration around here! Our town is so small that hardly anything ever happens.

But not everyone was excited. As it turns out, the owner called his creation “gelato di popone”. Popone is a Tuscan dialect word for melon, but it also happens to be a not-very-nice nickname for one of our residents.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect since the gelato maker and so called Popone had had a bit of an argument the week before over politics.

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Main Meal, Pizza, Recipes

No knead wholewheat focaccia

Posted on by Elisa Scarton Detti
Italian focaccia
22
Jun

One of the first cookbooks I bought when I moved to Italy was Jim Lahey’s No Knead Bread. I have a track record of stuffing up anything with yeast, so no knead focaccia was right down my alley. Who cares if you have to wait 24 hours before you can indulge in your carb craving? You’ll never have to worry about whether you’ve kneaded enough or too much/ if it’s risen enough or if it’s “passato al lievito” (over-yeasted) as my parents in law say. Well, they also laughed at the idea of 24-hour bread making. My mother in law can knock out a perfectly risen and baked loaf of Italian bread in 30 minutes. Bakers, right?

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Biscuits, Recipes

‘Brutti ma Buoni’ biscuits with pistachio and rose

Posted on by Elisa Scarton Detti
brutti ma buoni biscuits
12
Jun

I still remember one of the very first events I went to after moving to country Tuscany. A handful of locals had come together in a tiny little hall to listen to folk songs and dance. It wasn’t exactly Woodstock. It was one lovely old man with an accordion and a few equally sweet old couples dancing. What was I doing there? I have no idea, but I do remember dancing with one of the little nonnos. He tried so hard to teach me the steps, but I was hopeless! He passed away recently and it’s this memory that has inspired today’s post… because this was where I first tasted brutti ma buoni biscuits! 

What a silly name for a biscuit! Brutti ma buoni literally means Ugly, but delicious. To be honest, looking at my very artfully styled photos, I have to admit they had a point! No matter how hard I tried, these biscuits are so ugly to look at like. They are the pugs of biscuits! 

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Blog, Recipes

Farinata (Italian Chickpea Pancake) with Summer Artichokes and Preserved Lemons

Posted on by Elisa Scarton Detti
farinata recipe
08
Jun

Farinata is one of those lovely Italian recipes that so many regions claim to have invented. She is like a sailor with a boy in every port. In Liguria, she is known as Farinata. In Livorno, she is Torta di Ceci, while in my native Tuscany, she goes by the name, Cecina. And as far off as Nice and the Cote d’Azur, she is called Socca.

Each of these regions believe they are her birthplace, which is understandable because she changes ever so slightly from port to port. A hint of rosemary here, a handful of chilli there, the addition of tiny local fish called gianchetti or elsewhere, served simply with nothing more than a scattering of cheese.

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Cake, Recipes

Spiced Elderflower Italian Sponge Cake (Pan di Spagna)

Posted on by Elisa Scarton Detti
30
May

Say ‘Benvenuto Estate’ (Hello Summer) with my Pan di Spagna or Spiced Elderflower Italian Sponge Cake! 

I was driving home from work a couple of days ago and I saw these gorgeous white flowers. I’m no botanist, but I know elderflowers when I see them. They were everywhere. Huge snow white blooms all along the roadside for kilometres. I had to pick them. Well, I had to go back to the office and convince Giulio to come with me to pick them because it was definitely a two man job.

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