ITALIAN FOODIES

Bruno has recently started doing new filled rosemary focaccia and they are really popular. We do 3 types:

 - chicken, rocket and roast pepper.
 - parma ham, rocket and Parmesan shavings.
 - parma ham, gorgonzola and red onion.

A pizza ball is hand stretched:

The focaccia is drizzled with olive oil and the rosemary is finely chopped:

The focaccia is sprinkled with the rosemary and sea salt:

It is then cooked at about 380 degrees until golden brown:

They are then cut open and filled:

The chicken is the most popular but my favourite is the parma ham and gorgonzola.

buon appetito!

Eraclea hot chocolate - milk chocolate, dark chocolate, chilli, orange, hazlenut, white chocolate and low fat?? why bother;)

Rocky Road:

Biscuit cake:

Caramel slice:

white chocolate, cranberry & pistachio slice:

chocolate kebab - fudge, marshmallow and fruit pastille

All of the above are supplied by Wildes Irish Chocolates, the most popular is definitley the rocky road, we have a thing for marshmalllows in this country:)

Ciao!

We have recently started selling Gingergirl’s famous brownies, anyone from Limerick would be familiar with her stall at the Sunday market where she sells lots of goodies like jams, chutneys, brownies and her delicious orange and poppy seed cake which we also have in stock. Helen was recently featured in Food & Wine magazine and now has her own food column in the Limerick Leader, it’s great to see local producers getting recognition for what they do as it is definitely a labour of love!!

Laura’s cupcakes and brownies are as popular as ever, as we speak I know she is busy making 150 cupcakes for a wedding tomorrow, I don’t envy her. Good luck Laura!!

We are also stocking a new range of summer tarts - fruit, lemon, chocolate and orange

buon appetito!!

p.s. if you love painting and you love Italy then Julian and Mandy’s new art school in Umbria may be the perfect holiday for you, check them out here

First up we have a new menu in La Cucina with new prices(sorry) and a new range of pizzas!! In relation to the price increase there is nothing we can do as the cost of everything just keeps going up and up, we really should have had the increase last September but we held out as long as we could! I wonder where it is all going to go as the margins on food are getting tighter and tighter and the price to the consumer is getting higher and higher, it really needs to level out!! Things like pizza cheese, pasta, pizza flour, oil, cleaning products etc have taken huge price hikes, nearly double in some cases so unfortunately we have to pass it on, someone has to pay for the Ferrari;)

We have changed our pizza menu a bit and added a few more Italian pizzas but the old reliables are still available for the “non believers” so don’t worry we haven’t banished pineapple or chicken “yet”!! These are a few of the newbies:

 - bufala: buffalo mozzarella, vine cherry tomatoes, oregano and basil.

 - capricciosa: ham, mushrooms, olives and artichokes.

 - puttanesca: anchovies, black olives and capers.

 - tonno e cipolle: tuna, red onion and capers.

 - fiorentina: spinach, parmesan and egg.

 - calabrese: italian sausage, pepperoni, peppers and chilli.

all are served with home-made tomato sauce and mozzarella!!

Now the wedding, my sister is getting married on Sunday in Canterbury and yours truly is bridesmaid even though I’m the worst as I’m a bit allergic to the whole wedding thing!! Me and Bru are together 16 years and still not married - I put it down to commitment issues;) maybe some day, in Italy of course and you’ll all be invited:) I will be absent for the next week I’m afraid, I know, I know you give me an award and then I just up and leave but hey I do have a life “sometimes”:). We come back next week and then we’re jetting off to “Italia” yahooooo but I’ll post before I go!!

Ciao

L
xxx

There is no recipe today, just a quick post to tell you about our pizza special!! Sarah recently asked me to do a little post on the specials in La Cucina so I’ve decided to do a regular post!! We are also changing our menu at the moment and have added a few new pizzas and taken off some of the less popular items. The food business always amazes me, the very minute we decide to take off something because it’s not selling everyone starts ordering it????

We’ve had to reduce the menu a little as there was just too much on it and this was putting pressure on the kitchen!! One of the main problems we are having at the moment is that everyone keeps changing the dishes, we could get an order for 3 boscaiola, 1 no mushroom, 1 no bacon and 1 normal, the problem here is this requires 3 different pans instead of 1 and we only have 4 gas rings so it slows the whole thing up!! It’s gotten to the stage where every order has a different requirement, I’m amazed by the amount of people who don’t like mushrooms or tomatoes! The thing is you can’t go into any of the franchises and change the dish but because we make everything fresh people like to mix and match e.g. adding peppers and mushrooms to Carbonara, adding chicken to spaghetti bolognese!! You can imagine how happy our Italian chef Alessandro is making all these changes to his authentic Italian dishes!! Originally when we opened first and were fairly quiet it was no problem but now with it being so busy it is becoming an issue but what can we do???? If we were to refuse there would be uproar and we have done it for so long now I don’t think we can turn back, we’re hoping by reducing the menu a little it might help even though I know there will be problems with that too and we”ll probably still have to do some of the items we have removed  so we’ll just have to wait and see!!

Back to the pizza special, I had it today myself and it is delicious, we have a really good Italian sausage in stock at the moment coming through a small Italian distributor based in Dublin, we are getting an excellent buffalo mozzarella from him too!! The special is:

 - Italian sausage
 - fresh rosemary
 - pancetta
 - parmesan
 - tomato sauce
 - mozzarella

and here’s 2 happy members of staff - Alessandro and Bruno:)

p.s. pizzas never hold their crisp base “takeaway” so I always put on my oven at home at the highest temperature and then pop it in for 5 mins when I bring the pizza home and it comes out perfect!!

p.p.s. - red blush oranges are in season at the mo and Superquinn have an Italian orange available in their Superior range which are really good!! They also have San Marzano tomatoes originating from Italy in stock too!! I should really be on commission:)

Ciao:)

Tapenade or pate as they are called in Italy really seem to be in “foodie fashion” these days which is great to see because they are so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. We tried to sell them in the early days of La Cucina but olives weren’t even popular then so they didn’t sell. I mentioned recently that we have started to do them again and they are selling really well, I’m actually making a fresh batch tomorrow for all you Limerick inhabitants. If you are not prepared to make them yourself there are a couple of places in Limerick that you can buy them

• Saturday Farmer’s market - there is a guy from Cork(I think) that sells a black olive tapenade which is really good. Anytime I go to the market I pick up some of that lovely crusty cheese bread from the little bread and cake stall and them some good Cambozola cheese from the cheese stall and that’s Saturday’s lunch sorted. A big antipasti of tapenade, cheese, Italian meats and crusty bread - Delicious!!

• Olio e Farina - Susan has a really good selection of tapenades, we always buy the black olive, mixed pepper and aubergine. She also does artichoke and a few more, Susan if you’re reading this let us know what other varieties you do. The lovely chunky bread sticks in the picture above are also from there, we buy the black olive and also the Rosemary. They are definitely the best bread sticks in Limerick. We don’t get into Susan much but when we do we are like 2 kids in a sweet shop trying to decide what to buy, we treated ourselves to a few bottles of “vino” yesterday, a couple from Sicily which Bruno knew so I’ll let you know how they go down:) If you are going in I’d definitely recommend to check out her selection of whole salami(in photo above) which are great for Antipasti and of course her Organic Buffalo mozzarella - and no I’m not on commission;).

So, back to promoting myself, we now do 4 varieties:

• green olive
• black olive
• sun dried tomato
• roast peppers

They are great to have for a dinner party as nibbles instead of the boring peanuts, Doritos etc, just have a selection of these with some bread sticks for dipping. You can also use them as a starter and just serve them in little white bowls on a wooden platter with a selection of breads. Another way to serve them is on crostini, just slice up a baguette into thin slices. place them on a tray, drizzle a little olive oil and heat in the oven until golden brown and then spread your tapenades on top, you can add different cheeses, rocket, cured meats if you like also. Some people eat them with grilled fish or chicken as they are really healthy and are a nice alternative to heavy sauces. What way do we eat them - just smothered on crusty bread while waiting for the pasta to cook:)

If you want to make them yourself, here is the recipe for the black olive version:

• 500g black olives - pitted
• 25g salted capers, soaked in water for 10 mins and then drained.
• 4 anchovy fillets
• 1 clove garlic
• 125ml extra virgin olive oil
• I don’t use salt as there is enough in the other ingredients, you can add chilli or black pepper if you like.

WHAT TO DO:

 - put everything into the food processor except the olive oil and just add gradually until you have a spreadable paste. You can have it smooth or chunky!

BUON APPETITO!!

Since starting this blog I have begun to realise how difficult it is to source Italian ingredients or speciality ingredients in Ireland. We obviously  have access to whatever we need but the odd time when we don’t have it I’ve found it next to impossible to find anything. The most recent being porcini and Risotto rice, I tried 3 supermarkets and not one had either of them. When Superquinn have the rice it is either Arborio or Carnoroli, never the 2 together! My sister has recently moved to Sligo and says it is virtually impossible to find anything there and this is probably true for the majority of the country besides Dublin and Cork- correct me if I’m wrong. I know in Limerick there are no speciality delis besides ourselves and Olio e Farina for Italian products. The problem with our place is it is so small that we can only stock so much so I was thinking of setting up a little online Italian shop just selling the basics to start with. I just wanted to ask you all what you think???? Is it something that  is needed or do people buy from the various sites that exist already especially in the UK?? Would you buy from it? What kind of products would you buy? I would love some feedback and would greatly appreciate it if anyone who has an interest in it to leave your thoughts in the comments section! Don’t be shy now people!!

I’ve noticed a lot more requests from customers lately regarding certain products so we have begun to stock the following lines:

DE CECCO RISOTTO RICE - CARNAROLI AND ARBORIO AND ITALIAN TOMATO PUREE

00 FLOUR - DIVELLA AND DE CECCO AND CANNELLINI BEANS

BISCUITS FOR TIRIMASU AND MULINO BIANCO BISCUITS

SPECIALITY OLIVE OIL JUST FOR FRYING AND ITALIAN FRUIT JUICES

ITALIAN STOCK CUBES AND PORCINI

DE CECCO PASTA - We have expanded our range, we now stock penne, spaghetti, tagliatelle, fusilli, orrechiette, rigatoni, lasagna sheets -spinach and plain.

We’ve also brought back our tapenades(pictured above, they are actually called pate in Italy. We have 3 types- black olive, green olive and sun dried tomato. We will do our best to keep them in stock and make them fresh everyday.

Let me know your thoughts!!!

Grazie a tutti!!!

Ciao:)

Big news - my sister got engaged on her holidays in Maratea in the south of Italy and is getting married  there next year - yahoo!!Her boyfriend a.k.a “our hero” got down on one knee by the cliff in the photo on their anniversary and they celebrated with a bottle of Moet! - how romantic! Hmmm Bruno???? 

Another excuse to go to Italy next year, like we needed one!I still haven’t forgiven her for ringing me at 12am last night to tell me after it taking 2 hours to put the bambina to bed!

We have just started to stock a new range of cantuccini “Cioccobelli” for cappucino and “Lemonbelli” for tea made by Ficiobelli. and I’m so addicted!! I mentioned before that we have cappucino and biscuits for breakfast every morning, not very healthy I know but it beats musili hands down!! Plus, they always say the meditteranean diet is the healthiest in the world after the Japanese and the Italians have cappucino and something sweet every morning so that’s my excuse, Bruno’s cousins never eat cereal only when they come here because they love Irish milk!! Then I wonder why I’m not size 0!!Ah well I wouldn’t be happy anyway!

Cantuccini originate from Tuscany and it is common to finish a meal with almond cantucci dipped in a glass of a strong Italian sweet wine, Vin Santo. They need to be dipped into liquid to soften them and make them easier to eat. Don’t forget the perfect cappucino should be no bigger than 150ml consisting of 25ml of espresso and 125ml of milk and the most important part of espresso is the “CREMA”.

I decided I should do a post on La Cucina for all the lurkers that aren’t from Limerick. We opened La Cucina in 2003, after we identified a big demand in the market for good quality take-away home-made Italian food.  Bruno’s parents opened La Piccola Italia over 30 years ago in the city centre, you can imagine the battle they had back then, they could only buy olive oil in the chemist. Bru and his sister Claudia opened La Piccola Pizzeria in 1997 and it took off straight away. Back then there was no such thing as take-away pizza

Claudia and her husband Gareth now run the Pizzeria and me and Bru run La Cucina. When we opened first we had the romantic notion of running an Italian deli selling all sorts of Italian goodies made by hand everday. This is how we started off, bru’s mother used to come in a couple of times a week and show us how to make new Italian goodies like rice balls, cannoli, spinach & ricotta tart, courgette tart, carnaroli rice salad, pizza with nutella, pizza with potato & onion etc and where did it all go -  in the bin I’m afraid. We were just ahead of our time, we got quite disillusioned in the first year as anything different that we made we threw out. 

Today our menu has been tailored to suit the Irish market , we do a huge range of pizza, pasta, panini, hot wraps, salads, desserts, coffees all to take-away. Some things on the menu just don’t happen in Italy:

• pineapple on pizza - a big no no!
• chicken in pasta - another big no no!
• cream in carbonara
• pesto on sandwiches
• very little creamy pastas, more tomato based.
• pasta salads
• there is no such thing as ceasar salad!

The funny thing is our best pasta seller is Pasta Pollo - chicken in white wine cream sauce with fettucine and our biggest pizza seller is Pizza Limerick with ham and pineapple and Con Tutto with everything! We sell a lot more cream based sauces than tomato based and as I mentioned before pesto on sandwiches has become the new mayo. At the end of the day as long as our customers are happy we are too and no matter what we make we still put the same passion and energy into it!!

A typical day in La Cucina is a very busy affair as anyone who eats there can see. It never stops, we make everything from scratch on the premises 

• pizza dough and sauce
• bolognese, pomodoro sauce, pesto, bechemala, arrabiata
• lasagna, pasta al forno
• salads - coleslaw, potato salad, house salad, pasta salads etc.
• breaded chicken, boiled chicken
• prep for pizza, sandwiches, pastas - all the veg etc has to be chopped by hand. One of the biggest and most time-consuming jobs is actually preparing the lettuce, it just takes so long to wash it, dry it and then chop it all up. We refuse to use pre-packed lettuce!!
• on top of all that we have to make all the food to order, cleaning, orders for the next day, catering and the books!! busy busy!!

We buy all our desserts in now from Sallymills, Laura and Wildes as we just don’t have time to do our own. These days we actually get very little time to try anything new as it is so busy  - a good complaint!!

We have big plans for the future and would love to open in the city centre someday, it would be a bit different focusing more on casual dining and maybe a wine bar incorporated!! Bring on the “cafe bar license”! It’s been put on hold for the moment with the arrival of the princess but watch this space!!!

We’re also in the process of launching “sauces by italian foodies”. We’ve also had a couple of people approach us about franchising and are very interested in opening La Cucina shops in other parts of the country but at the moment we’re too busy enjoying the good life “la dolce vita” with the princess!We’ve adopted the Italian approach to life - good food, good family and good times!!!