Pesto alla trapanese

This deli­cious raw sauce comes from west­ern Sici­ly. It might be far less famous than its broth­er from Gen­o­va but I often pre­fer it to it because of its fresh­ness. Nor­mal­ly it goes with a pas­ta called “busi­ate tra­pane­si”, a kind of twist­ed spaghet­ti, but you can sure­ly use reg­u­lar or “alla chi­tar­ra” spaghet­ti. I learnt this recipe…

Artusi’s cantucci

Pel­le­gri­no Artusi is the leg­endary author of the clas­sic Tus­can cook­book “The Sci­ence of Cook­ing and the Art of Fine din­ing”, appeared in 1891. This book has aged so well that most of its recipes still work won­ders; I use it very often and these bis­cuits are some­thing I make reg­u­lar­ly, they are sim­ple and…

Pasta con le sarde

This is a tra­di­tion­al first dish from Sici­ly that uses some of the best flavours of this land togeth­er with sar­dines, a fish that I love very much because it is very good, cheap, healthy and eth­i­cal. It also uses wild fen­nel, a plant that grows spon­ta­neous­ly in the Mediter­ranean lands. If you can’t find…