The recipes

I have lived in Italy for over 30 years, gathering hints, tips and inspiration, and most of the recipes posted on this blog developed through my own Italy-influenced experiments: unless otherwise specified, they are my own rather than traditional Italian ones. Any mistakes, too, are mine, and if you come across them, I apologise in advance.

I am a vegetarian, or rather a non-meat-eater: fish, I love; dairy is fine. Anything with legs (as a friend pointed out to me helpfully long ago) I don’t eat. This, of course, is reflected in the recipes I have posted here, none of which contain meat or meat products.

I don’t use salt; if you do, you’ll have to add it to the recipes yourself to suit your tastes.

Where I write ‘olive oil’, I’m referring to extra virgin olive oil. Using really good oil, even for frying onions in the early stages of a recipe, is vital. Once you get used to the real thing, you can taste cheap oil through any amount of other ingredients.