INGREDIENTS: (4 servings) 50 g basil 70g Parmigiano Reggiano 30g pecorino 100ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil 16g pine nuts half garlic clove a pinch of coarse salt INSTRUCTIONS: We should use a mortar but we will use a mixer... Sorry to purists I usually put my mixing jar and mixer blades in the freezer before starting to avoid overheat that might impact the color of our pesto Clean the basil leaves with paper towel Put half basil into the mixer with garlic, salt and pine nuts Star

It's a very special pasta, even for Italians. You can find it in a small area, Lunigiana, between Liguria and Toscana. I know them very well since I was little because, driving back from Tuscany, after the summer spent at my aunt house, we would always stop and buy a couple of Testaroli to take home. Since I cannot find them here and my family is in Tuscany at the moment, I decided to try to cook them and somehow feel there with them. This will be the dish for our next IG cla

I am experimenting easy recipes for the free IG classes, "A Journey Through Italy". It is not easy to find a recipe that: can be cooked in 1 hour, doesn’t need special equipment, is vegetarian so that everyone can have it and doesn’t need too much ahead preparation. Yesterday's class was Trentino, northeast of Italy, the Dolomites home, a region that I love but I am not particularly familiar with. I just have very good memories of a skiing week between Trentino and Alto Adige

Milan, Milan, my beautiful city. I miss it so much. The vibe, the mix of history and modernity, the amazing restaurants and bars, its people... I can't wait to go back home. In the meantime, I bring home to Knoxville cooking the Milanese dish for definition, the Risotto. INGREDIENTS: (2 servings) • 200g Carnaroli rice or Arborio • vegetable stock (1 carrot, 1 celery stick, half onion, herbs you like) • 40g Parmigiano Reggiano • 40g Butter • the rest of half onion you used for

This pasta is typical from Val d'Orcia, Tuscany. It's a fresh homemade pasta, similar to thick spaghetti, made with flour and water. Very approachable even if you have never made homemade pasta, you don't need any tool to make it and it is very fun, perfect to cook with your kids. I love simple things, that's why my favourite version is with tomato sauce. They are very good also with Pesto but you can really personalize the recipe as you like. The texture is the best part, in

INGREDIENTS: (12 CREPES) 5 eggs 500 ml vegetable milk (I used coconut) 150g brown rice flour 50g fresh spinaches 12 basil leaves salt pepper coconut oil INSTRUCTIONS: Blend the leaves with the milk Beat the eggs and add the "green" milk Add salt and pepper and the rice flour The batter will be liquid Make it rest in the fridge for 30' or more Grease you pan with oil, mix the batter again as flour tend to go on the bottom of the bowl and pour one ladleful of crepes batter I co

Normally you serve soups in the winter and salads in the summer but... I love soups so much that I am still cooking them; from cold Gazpacho to this warm Pea and Mint soup served with a creamy Burrata. A simple dish with lots of flavour and feelings of comfort. INGREDIENTS: (2 servings) 2 cups of peas 1 blonde onion 1 medium potato 4/6 leaves of fresh mint 4 leaves of fresh basil salt pepper water or veg broth EVO 1 small burrata INSTRUCTIONS: Put your diced onion into a pot

Yesterday an IGTV video by Jamie Oliver got my attention. He was preparing an easy vegetable curry and I got inspired. I did the recipe in a different way but cooked veggies in the oven like he did. It was incredibly delicious and creamy, you have to try it! You can pick the veggies you have at home. He used carrots, parsnip, squash, and zucchini. I know chopsticks are not for curry but I love to use them for all Asian food, from Indian to Chinese. Sometimes actually also for

I bought so many radishes yesterday and had so many leaves that I decided to try to make a pesto with them. I loved it! I will make a lot of it and freeze my mini pesto. Jace won’t be very happy as he hates pesto😂 I do traditional pesto with a mortar but in this case the leaves were big and not as soft as the basil ones so I used a mixer. I didn’t weight ingredients so I can’t give a very precise recipe but you can have an idea and adjust it to your taste. 2 SERVINGS: 2 cups

We love salads. I make salads every week. Playing with seasonal ingredients and some proteins. They are the perfect lunch to take to work that you can prepare the night before. I have to say salad is my comfort food. Especially the one with avocado, onion, chickpeas and a good Tuna in EVO, in the glass jar. Maybe with a slice of bread omg I could it it everyday... Last week I took almost everything I could think of at SugarTree Farm and made one of my best salads ever. I didn

It looks easy but is not. Simple recipes are the most difficult to cook. In this one the perfect balance between each ingredient is key and you have to be quick enough to keep the Pecorino creamy and smooth. 2 SERVINGS: 200g Spaghetti/Bucatini/Rigatoni (I used Benedetto Cavalieri Pasta I brought from home but there is Pasta Gentile at Fresh Market that is amazing too) 100g shredded Pecorino Romano 6g Black Pepper Salt INSTRUCTIONS: Toast the pepper in a pan medium heat 3/4' G

OMG... I made it with Elena yesterday during our IG Live and I had to compliment myself ahahaha. I mean I cooked this dish before but it has never been as good. Maybe Knoxville's eggplants :-) There are so many versions of this recipe. Sicily and Campania compete for the ownership of this dish but is very common to eat Parmigiana also in Puglia. And not only regions but also each family has its own version: some add ham or Mortadella, some boiled eggs, some fry the eggplants,

This gnocchi are different from the ones I usually make as I was trying to decrease the amount of gluten in my diet. They are really almost all pumpkin pulp that's why also the consistency is different. You will not be able to make cylinders and cut them, you will make your gnocchi as quenelle. 2 SERVINGS: 800g pumpkin (weight raw with skin) 80g flour 2 spoons of egg pinch of salt INSTRUCTIONS: Bake your squash into foil paper at 355F/180C for 30/40’. It's ready when you will

During this quarantine period, we all became bakers and pizza makers. I am one of those... I received a Sourdough starter in February during a lunch where we made homemade tagliatelle. I really thought I would have killed it in a couple of days but guess what... it's April and he's in perfect shape. There are so many recipes out there that the choice becomes overwhelming. I experimented tons of them ending up with uncooked or burnt dough, flat pizza etc. You also need to pick

I arrived in USA two weeks ago. And if there is something that will never let me down is Avocado. They are super good here, perfectly ripe, different colors and sizes. Every time I welcome my guests my Guacamole is a must. I obviously use it to dip my home made nachos but also on toasts in the morning. The simplest recipe with the best result. MY GUACAMOLE: 2 ripe avocados 1 tomato half red onion 1 garlic clove half lime half teaspoon salt pepper crushed red pepper coriander

Like any respectful Italian immigrant I stuffed my suitcase with italian food coming to Knoxville. My boyfriend was shocked... "did you think u were going to Africa??!". But I mean... I can't find all the delicacies we have at home or if so, you pay them like gold. So for Christmas I brought a couple of Panettone from my fav "Pasticceria" and a few good cheeses. Since I have a lot of time at the moment, I decided that is time for me to become a Jam girl and serve it together

One of my fav dishes. So many variations: potatoes, pumpkin, ricotta cheese, chestnuts, alla romana. So simple and so good, so many memories behind them... the Thursday lunch at grandma(why Thursday I don’t know but we respect Italian traditions). Today I talk about potatoes gnocchi. There are a few tips to make them perfect: The choice of potato is key. Old potatoes are the best ones as they lost big part of their water. In this way the texture of the gnocchi will be more co