Milan Fashion Week is back
It’s been a busy month in Milan. The beginning of September saw the city’s Design Week make a welcome comeback after the usual events in April 2020 were cancelled because … Continue reading Milan Fashion Week is back
Living the high life in Alto Adige
I loved writing this piece about mountains, lakes, strudel and more for Italia Magazine this month. Alto Adige is one of Italy’s beautiful mountain regions and famous for the UNESCO-protected … Continue reading Living the high life in Alto Adige
Tales from Italian haute couture online talk: princesses, frocks and la dolce vita (new date)
Join me for a talk about Italian haute couture, Rome and la dolce vita. It’s a star-studded journey through the world of aristocrats and film stars as we go back … Continue reading Tales from Italian haute couture online talk: princesses, frocks and la dolce vita (new date)
Eating pizzoccheri in Valchiavenna
It’s a lazy Sunday lunchtime on a February Sunday and I’m having lunch in a restaurant with family and friends. The restaurant is La Genzianella in the hamlet of Fraciscio … Continue reading Eating pizzoccheri in Valchiavenna
Why Valchiavenna will always have a place in my heart
On Sunday we finally got to the mountains. We went up to Gualdera above Campodolcino in Valchiavenna. Valchiavenna is the valley that leads up from the top of Lake Como … Continue reading Why Valchiavenna will always have a place in my heart
Cooking up a tart’s spaghetti – online cookery class
Hi everyone! Join me and cook along as I cook one of Italy’s most loved pasta dishes, spaghetti alla puttanesca or tart’s spaghetti. As we cook, we’ll be taking a … Continue reading Cooking up a tart’s spaghetti – online cookery class
Spaghetti and sauce: online workshop for kids
We’ll be cooking spaghetti, making our very own fresh tomato sauce, busting spaghetti myths, exploring a bit of spaghetti history and learning a bit of Italian along the way. The … Continue reading Spaghetti and sauce: online workshop for kids
Casarecce with romanesco cauliflower
This is one of my favourites: pasta with Romanesco cauliflower (cavolfiore romanesco). I made today’s recipe also because I was feeling inspired by a cookery class I did with a … Continue reading Casarecce with romanesco cauliflower
Tales from Italian haute couture online talk
Had a very enjoyable talk this morning with the loveliest bunch of ladies from the Benvenuto International Club in Monza about fashion, Rome and la dolce vita. It’s the time … Continue reading Tales from Italian haute couture online talk
Focaccine
It’s Friday afternoon and I’m making focaccine, or little focaccia as adding the diminutive ‘ino’ or in this case ‘ina’ makes it little. So these are little focaccia, although if … Continue reading Focaccine
Breakfast with a view, Florence
Life is a series of breakfasts, or at least sometimes it’s felt like that and has been all the sweeter because of it. The current restrictions mean that it’s not … Continue reading Breakfast with a view, Florence
A night in Pleiney
If you go to the Aosta Valley and follow the signs for the Great Saint Bernard’s Pass, you’ll get to one of the region’s lesser-frequented valleys, the Great Saint Bernard … Continue reading A night in Pleiney
Pandemic
The last time I wrote this was almost two years ago after coming back from the UK when the world was still as we knew it. Two years later and we’ve … Continue reading Pandemic
Home, memory, sand in your sandwiches
Then we came home again, after a summer that included our usual trips to Spain and the UK, via the two month mark of the three month Italian school holidays … Continue reading Home, memory, sand in your sandwiches
Chicken dinners
The decorator had been in all week and we were living in that state of chaos which is slightly too much. Meals on the coffee table (or rather what serves … Continue reading Chicken dinners
A tale of two lasagne
If we’re talking lasagne, then it’s a tale of two. The first is my mother’s from my childhood, when lasagne was a food of ’80s dinners, along with the stir … Continue reading A tale of two lasagne
Memories will be made of meatballs
A friend asked me for the recipe for my meatballs. “How do you make yours?” she asked. “I love to hear how other people make them.” Good question. My meatballs … Continue reading Memories will be made of meatballs
Comfort comes in the shape of meatballs
I had this phase once where just about every Friday night I’d make chicken risotto, and every Friday night my son would curl up his nose and wail “that’s not … Continue reading Comfort comes in the shape of meatballs
Pesto(ish) for a rainy day
So after Spring made a very brief appearance, in particular yesterday which gave us a day in which we all breathed a sigh of relief from the awful weather we … Continue reading Pesto(ish) for a rainy day
Wild boar stew is part of my identity
When I told my family I was toying with the idea of being vegan or at least vegetarian, my younger son looked at me in that way he has when … Continue reading Wild boar stew is part of my identity
Cacciucco, or chickpea soup amidst the snow
Cacciucco, a fish soup associated with Tuscan coastal towns such as Livorno, Viareggio, and in my case memories of a camping holiday in Castiglione della Pescaia where I had these … Continue reading Cacciucco, or chickpea soup amidst the snow
Monday soup for the soul
After last week’s impromptu “let’s just all have a week off as everyone got ill”, everyone’s back and out of the house and so I spent the whole of my … Continue reading Monday soup for the soul
We are what we eat (but make it Italian)
Call it a modern day version of one of those much loved and much stained notebooks that I have sitting on my bookshelves in my kitchen, the ones that belong … Continue reading We are what we eat (but make it Italian)
Bologna porticoes and the women’s marches
I took the picture last Thursday in Bologna before the women’s marches. There’s something so calming about Bologna. It manages to be lively and vibrant without feeling chaotic. It’s also … Continue reading Bologna porticoes and the women’s marches
Arancini di riso alla milanese or Milanese style rice balls
Saturday 25th November marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I want to share a recipe for arancini di riso, or little oranges of rice as … Continue reading Arancini di riso alla milanese or Milanese style rice balls
November is sausage ragù
You can’t beat a sausage ragù. You can’t beat any ragù, and I generally make mine with half beef mince and half sausage Italian sausage meat anyway. But today went … Continue reading November is sausage ragù
Easy Saturday cooking
Saturday cooking. When the week is over and although the workload might not exactly be finished, there’s nothing I love more than a bit of Saturday lunchtime pottering in the … Continue reading Easy Saturday cooking
Up Lake Como without a plan
It started off as it often does with a vague idea to go off somewhere that ends up somewhere else which is always the best thing about it. On this … Continue reading Up Lake Como without a plan
Eating chisciöi above Lake Como
True to every stereotype, it’s a beautiful Spring day up on Lake Como and I’m sitting on the sheltered terrace of Crotto di Biosio, feeling like I’ve hit the jackpot in … Continue reading Eating chisciöi above Lake Como
Easter cakes in Lodi
The Agnello di Pasqua (Paschal Lamb or Easter Lamb) is a classic Easter cake from the Lodi area or the Lodigiana. It’s made of flaky pastry and is usually filled with … Continue reading Easter cakes in Lodi
Penitent processions and the women’s social club
“Mummy, can we follow the procession?” my son asked me. We were walking down the street in the seaside town of Nerja in southern Spain, more specifically the sun-baked lands … Continue reading Penitent processions and the women’s social club
Montespluga
“Go there today,” the woman in the café tells me. “You don’t get many days like today.” “No?” “Not up the Spluga. You probably get about five clear days every … Continue reading Montespluga
Memories are made of breakfasts
When I was young, I can distinctly remember going around telling everyone: “When I grow up, I’m going to live in France,” France being the only place that I’d visited … Continue reading Memories are made of breakfasts
Being home
It changes when you move away, the perspective. The familiar is still familiar but you see it through a different lens. The old lens has long been cast aside. Or … Continue reading Being home
Leftover risotto and the women’s refuge
Arancini di riso are literally small oranges of rice or leftover risotto, deep-fried and delicious. My kids love them, so whenever I make risotto I generally make extra for arancini the day after. … Continue reading Leftover risotto and the women’s refuge
Nutella for grown-ups
My kids were little and we were by the lake. I was making Nutella sandwiches. “And if we ever have kids, they’re not eating any of that crap,” this guy … Continue reading Nutella for grown-ups
Focaccia genovese and Recco beach
Focaccia will always have a special place in my heart, or rather in my stomach. Food is emotional, and it’s what I remember eating when I first came here twenty years … Continue reading Focaccia genovese and Recco beach
Down amidst the cheeses at the deli
People say that you rarely get chance to eat anything on your wedding day. Wrong. I ate everything, deliberately made a point of finishing every single morsel of the menu … Continue reading Down amidst the cheeses at the deli
Cappuccino, brioche and the day is mine
I love Italian cafés, or bars as they’re called here. Of course you can’t generalise. Not all of them are such shrines to all things sweet. Some are best avoided, … Continue reading Cappuccino, brioche and the day is mine
Car
I needed a new car. My old one had reached the stage that if I drove it any longer it would die. Literally. And probably somewhere very inconvenient with the … Continue reading Car
Things I’ve learned from living abroad
Living abroad is very different to being on holiday. Sounds obvious, but needs saying. Of course you can stretch out that holiday feeling but sooner or later reality kicks in. … Continue reading Things I’ve learned from living abroad
Live Italian, eat Italian
Living in Italy you soon become aware that food has god-like status, on a par with football, Ferrari and your mother. It’s the focus of animated conversations, the holy grail … Continue reading Live Italian, eat Italian
Up Grigna, Lake Como way
It was supposed to be a family affair, the four of us. “Have we got enough petrol?” “Yes, of course we have.” Of course we have enough petrol. “Excuse me, how much further … Continue reading Up Grigna, Lake Como way
Pizzoccheri
I can trace my life in a dish of pizzoccheri. I’d just met my husband and we were spending all our weekends driving backwards and forwards in the dead of … Continue reading Pizzoccheri
Up in the mountains with kids
How to climb up mountains with the kids and enjoy it
Mountain refuge
Yesterday I was sitting in a mountain refuge with my oldest Italian friends. It’s the thing I like doing best. Walking up a mountain, taking in the views of the … Continue reading Mountain refuge
RACHAEL MARTIN writes 