ITALIAN FOODIES

Ok, I wasn't going to post about this until after the event but I've decided "what the hell"!! I received an email from RTE Radio 1 on Tuesday from the Derek Mooney show asking me if I would be interested in coming on the show to talk about Italian food on Thursday but this has since been changed to Monday, Caroline from Bibliocook had kindly mentioned me - Thanks Caroline!!. They are doing a feature with Paulo Tullio(he is a big food and wine critic here in Ireland for all my International readers who I am a big fan of)about Italian food in Ireland, how it's not authentic e.g cream in Carbonara etc. He has written a few articles in the Independent recently regarding this issue and I've actually spoken about it here before. My first reaction was panic, O MY GOD what will I say and how can I get out of it??? But after a few stiff brandies I told myself not to be so stupid and think of all the publicity for the shop and what a privilege to be asked!! In saying that I will be so nervous and that's why I wasn't going to tell anyone, I did tell my bloggie friend Laura and swore her not to tell a soul so now she'll thing I'm a looner when reading this:) Initially it was supposed to be on the phone which was fine and then the researcher had the great idea of me going into the Limerick studios and going "LIVE" - (Aghhhhhhh!!!!) and Paulo(my buddy;) will be live in the Dublin studio!! It's funny I've no problem at all sitting here babbling away day after day or burning the ear off all the customers in the shop but when put in this situation panic sets in, I'm sure there will be lots of silent pauses and am, am, am, am and like, like, like!! Hopefully Paulo will be gentle, he always seems really nice on The Restaurant and he does eat in the cousin's restaurant in Atina so I might try and butter him up by throwing that in:)

This is a little gem of a recipe from Gordon Ramsay's( a.k.a Chef Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen U.S.A) Fast Food Book which is great when you want something quick and easy with just a few ingredients. I know anchovies aren't that popular in Ireland but they really aren't that strong in this dish - in saying that I would eat kilos of them at a time.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves peeled and thinly sliced
• 200g marinated anchovies roughly chopped - we have them in La Cucina
• bunch of flat leaf parsley roughly chopped
• 300g spaghetti or linguine.
• sea salt and black pepper
• freshly grated parmesan - I know I always say no cheese on fish pasta but it worked on this one???? Don't know why??
• serves 4.

WHAT TO DO:

 - cook your spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente.

 - heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the garlic and fry over a medium heat until golden brown at the edges. Stir in the chopped anchovies.

 - drain the spaghetti and tip into the pan with the garlic and anchovies. Add the chopped parsley, black pepper and toss well.

 - serve with grated parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

P.S - can you all say a little prayer for me and wish me luck:)

This is one of those recipes that everybody has probably heard of at some stage of their foodie life but have never actually made it especially in Ireland and that would include me. I've seen so many different recipes over the years as there are a lot of different versions, some use aubergines, other use black olives or anchovies but this one from Angela Hartnetts book is just a simple, easy recipe using just peppers and tomatoes so I decided it was time to try it out!! I've never had it before as Bruno's mother always makes a roast pepper salad when using peppers which is absolutely divine, I tried this salad once but myself and the roast peppers did not get on very well. I was about 9 months pregnant carrying the 10 pounder princess( I kid you not and she was a week early)  and I think it took me about an hour to peel the bloody peppers and there were only 4 of them - I might as well have ran a marathon I was so tired after it. All the recipes tell you to cover them with cling film, run them under cold water etc etc to help with the peeling process but nothing worked for me.

Naturally I was traumatised since so I have stayed away from peppers until I was in Aldi last week and saw these lovely long yellow and red peppers - I don't remember the technical name for them. I have to say Aldi and Lidl do a better selection of vegetables than any Supermarket and everything was from Europe unlike my local Supermarket where the cherries are from the U.S and the asparagus is from Peru???? If Aldi can source from Europe why can't Dunnes and Superquinn?? In saying that I managed to get into the Farmer's Market on Saturday and there really is such a great selection of vegetables and I bought way too much of course - I was checking the Silver Spoon for recipes for carrots today I have so many!! It's a pleasure to actually wash the dirt off the potatoes and carrots instead of taking them out of a pre-packed bag. We were just saying it would be great if the market was a permanent fixture like The English Market in Cork, you would never have to shop for veg in a Supermarket again.

This recipe is really simple but the most important factor in Pepperonata is the cooking time, you have to let it simmer for over an hour to truly get the intense flavours. I made it during the day and then had it that night with some grilled Italian sausage and Italian bread rubbed with some garlic and olive oil - absolutely delicious, even the "MIL" (mother-in-law)would have been proud:)

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 50ml olive oil
• 1 small onion diced
• 3 red peppers, seeded and chopped into big chunks.
• 3 yellow peppers, seeded and chopped into big chunks.
• 1 x 400g can plum or cherry tomatoes- use an Italian brand if you can!!
• small handful chopped flat leaf parsley
• small handful chopped fresh basil
• salt and black pepper

WHAT TO DO:

 - heat the olive oil in the pan and add the onion. Cook until soft and translucent, but without colouring, this takes about 3-4 mins.

 - add the peppers and cook gently until softened, again avoiding any colouring.

 - season to taste and add the tomatoes. Continue to cook over a low heat until the peppers are soft, this takes about 1 hour and 20 mins. If the peppers look dry add some water, I did this a few times.

 - remove from the pan and stir in your parsley and basil.

- you could serve it with meat, monk fish or just simply with crostini or toasted ciabatta!

BUON APPETITO!!

In La Cucina catering is a big part of our business, we do a lot of catering for UL and the local Industrial Estate. We also do private catering for parties at home -  christenings, birthdays etc. Last night we were invited to a "fancy schmancy" party at Federico Puccarello's house(Argentian player on the Munster team) where we also did the catering which was a first for us to be eating our own food at a party. It was his wife Carlotta's birthday and they are regular customers in both La Cucina and Bru's parents restaurant La Piccola Italia so we know them quite well and were delighted they asked us to cater! Everybody loved the food and half the party were our customers anyway as a few of the team were there- Barry Murphy, Ian Dowling, Anthony Foley - such shameless name dropping;), the big names obviously weren't there as they are in France. There was lots of rugby talk as you can imagine and it was really interesting to hear their opinions as to what's going on in the World Cup, sorry but I didn't get any gossip:)! There was lots of foodie talk too as the couple that own the Market Square restaurant were there and their Italian manager so lots of talk about the restaurant business and Italian food, my favourite past-time of course so we had a very enjoyable night!

My parents minded the princess last night so I decided to bake them a little cake yesterday, this recipe was in last month's edition of Olive and looked so good I had to give it a go!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 200g 70% dark chocolate.
• 90g unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
• 55g caster sugar 
• 2 eggs
• 150g ground almonds

WHAT TO DO:

 - heat the oven to 180 degrees.

 - butter and base line a 18cm non-stick springform cake tin.

 - put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pot of simmering water.

 - use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gently fold the melted chocolate and ground almonds into the egg mixture using a metal spoon. Pour carefully into the tin.

 - bake for 30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

As moist as it looks we found it a little dry and had to have it hot with some ice-cream - it was too dry to eat alone but it was still nice though but not the best chocolate cake I've ever had by any means:)

BUON APPETITO!!