Do you have any plan? Here are some ideas for you

Since few days in all UK started to snow and you have definitely the sensation to be already in Christmas. All the decorations, all the people running for shopping and lots of ice rings around the city. In Italy we use to decorate our house and Christmas tree  the 8th of December, that is holiday and it's a good occasion to stay with all the family.

So I have decided to spend  next weekend in markets and typical english events around London to look for my Christmas decorations and typical products to be ready for the 8th.

Here are 3 nice events for all the people who love food and the Christmas mood and atmosphere:

The first one is  the Real Food Christmas market taking place at the Southbank Centre Square this weekend:

"Traditional seasonal fare of mince pies and mulled wine will sit alongside other delicacies including fabulous cheeses, delicious chutneys and pickles, wild game, hams and charcuterie and all manner of chocolate delights. Why not stock up your Christmas larder with gourmet goodies and find the perfect food gifts for your friends and family"

The second one I can suggest you is Taste of Christmas held at ExCeL London, located just 10 minutes from Canary Wharf.

"Twelve of London’s top restaurants will be serving up seasonal menus of everything from traditional classics to cutting-edge cuisine - plenty to fire up the imagination, and your tastebuds."

There will be stands with the typical ingredients for your Christmas dishes and famous chefs will share their secret recipes for some special menus'.

And last but not the least, is the Underground Christmas Market organized by Marmitelover, great food blogger and creator of one of the first UK supperclubs 'The Underground Restaurant'

On Sunday the 5th of December, in her secret house in Kilburn there will be music, an ironing board cocktail bar,  a ruffle, cooking demonstrations, Christmas puddings, craft stalls and lots more! When you will buy the ticket here, you will be informed about the precise address.

Are you curious to know which one i will choose? You will see it in the next posts. In the meantime I hope you will enjoy the weekend in one of these events or just staying at home and maybe cooking a good plate of pasta.

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Let's start from here: Food in the city Warehouse

It's missing just one month to Christmas and nowhere like in London everyone is talking about the festivities: from recipes, to holidays, from homemade decorations to the classic shopping for presents.

Lots are the little Christmas markets popping up every weekend  in the city and the shops are starting to get busy between clients, boxes and wrapping papers.

Here I have a little suggestion for you: what about food presents this year? Are really few the people who won't enjoy something like this! Have you never thought about something special like  an hamper or a selection of high quality products, not easy to find in the normal shops or supermarket?

I'm sure I have in mind a place that really can make your Christmas shopping very easy: Food in the city, a very special warehouse in the beautiful St. John's Wood, where you will be able to find lots of products and of course our Italian pasta from Gragnano.

On the 27th and 28th of November there will be the warehouse Sale, where you will be able to buy all the products with a big discount.

Are you curious to try our pasta?  Do you have some great food or pasta lover in your family? Are you planning to invite people and cook for them on Christmas? Or you just fancy high quality products and to try new specialties and delicatessen from different countries? Whatever is your need, I'm sure that passing by, you will love this place.

And if you are not near the city, just go online and enjoy the sales comfortably seated on your sofa! And don't forget to check all the different shapes of pasta available from Pastificio dei Campi.

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To remind you about "Children in need" this evening on BBC

Every year in November the BBC set aside one evening of programming on its flagship television channel, BBC One, to show events aimed at raising money exclusively destined for charities working with children in the UK.

In 2009, the charity raised over £20 million! The mascot is a yellow teddy bear with a bandage over one eye, called 'Pudsey'. Introduced in 1985 it has become a regular feature and a famous character.

The attention for this event it's high in all England and everyone try to raise money or spread the news around this project in every way. Very typical is the bake sale and especially the cup cake sale, with some created from famous chefs just for this event.

So, to remind you all this important event, I decided to make a list of the favorite pasta dishes for children, the ones they love the most and finish in no time.

Children normally like little shape of pasta because easier to eat and simple flavors. A part from the classic and simple tomato sauce pasta (made with passata, without any tomatoes chunk, or following this recipe), you can try to add some tuna too or you can cook some cheesy pasta. With  some butter and a good quantity of Parmesan, or even with another cheese they like, this pasta is really appreciated. Have you ever tried pasta wit ham, pies and cream? This is always a success and it puts together, protein, carbs and the vegetable too. Easy and quick to prepare, it's a must to remember.

Finally for the most creative and even fussy children, a good idea is to give them some cooked pasta (maybe with some butter), some cooked vegetables and other ingredients they can easily add to their plate. In this way they can decide what to eat, how much, and have the satisfaction to have cook this by themselves.

What is your secret recipe to make your children happy? Share this with us and I'm sure you will  help not just the little ones. And don't forget tonight the show on the BBC.

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All the best flavors from the autumn for a vegetarian pasta 

- 600gr pumpkin already clean (it's better the taste of the bigger pumpkin respect to the little ones)

Put the dried mushroom in a container and cover them with warm water. Wait around 20 minutes and drain them, being careful to keep the water from the mushroom. 

Put some Olive oil in a pan with the chopped onion. Cook it until goldish and then add the pumpkin cut in little pieces. Let it cook a bit in the oil and then add the sage, the rosemary, some salt, pepper and the white wine. The pumpkin will take a bit to cook and get soft (at least 20 minutes) and you will need to add the water from the mushroom every now and then to let it cook.

In another pan you will prepare the mushrooms: put some olive oil with the garlic cloves and let it cook until goldish. Then take the garlic off and add the fresh mushrooms in slices with some chopped parsley. Let it cook in the garlic oil until ready.

Prepare the saucepan for the pasta with some a good quantity of water and salt and add the pasta when boiling.

At this point add the Porcini and the fresh mushrooms to the pan with the pumpkin and finish to add the mushroom water or some stock water if this is already finished. Let it cook until is all mixed and the pumpkin is soft and then taste it, to see if you need some more salt, pepper or chili. You can even add some Parmesan now, if you like it.

Drain the Pennoni and toss them with the sauce. Let them absorb the flavors and serve it with a last touch of parmesan on the top. 

What do you think? was it enough of a treat to avoid the Halloween tricks?

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Loose Cannons will be shown on monday the 18th of October.

The London Film Festival has started also this year bringing on screen lots of international movies too. And one is particularly interesting for you, readers of this blog, because it’s very much related with … pasta.

I’m very pleased to announce the screening of a good bunch of Italian films in this edition:
 
DRAQUILA – ITALY TREMBLES by Sabina Guzzanti
LE QUATTRO VOLTE by Michelangelo Frammartino
OUR LIFE by Daniele Luchetti
DARK LOVE by Antonio Capuano
MALAVOGLIA (THE HOUSE BY THE MEDLAR TREE) by Pasquale Scimeca

But the one I was expecting the most is Loose Cannons (Mine Vaganti) from the director Ferzan Ozpetek, one of my personal favorite.

The reason why I was especially expecting this movie is because, after a long time Ozpetek makes a welcome return to comedy and in Italy everyone said it was really nice and funny. On top of that the movie is set in a pasta-factory in Puglia during a family get-together and speaks about the still taboo subject of gayness in Italy. When the family business is to be handed over to one of the sons, the things don’t go exactly as expected.

“Director Ferzan Ozpetek (“Facing Windows,” “A Perfect Day”) takes a playful approach to this family dramedy, matching a critique of provincial Southern values with an eccentric cast of characters that includes a philandering conservative father, a boozing aunt, a pair of disgruntled maids, and Tommaso’s bubbly friends. As each family member’s quirks slowly come to the surface, Ozpetek’s heartfelt film reveals that Tommaso isn’t the only one struggling to navigate between la bella figura (a good public image) and his true desires." [Synopsis courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival]

So the story is not just interesting and entertaining, but it’s also exasperated by a very traditional environment: the Cantone family, pasta makers from generation and owners of a Pasta factory in the south of Italy.

It’s the same Ozpetek to admit at The Tribeca Festival how important the location was to him in shooting his film…

“Eight years ago I visited Lecce in Apulia for the first time and simply fell in love with it. There is a marvelous atmosphere in Lecce with the beauty of its architecture, the surrounding landscape and the excellent food, all of which chimed with the story. It is very rich in traditions, just like the family in the story, and the setting became almost an additional character.”

So here is another way to know and speak about pasta and this specific Mediterranean atmosphere that you can experience with this movie: you can almost smell the grain, touch the pasta just made and feel our tradition.

 
I hope you will enjoy this movie like it happened in America after the Tribeca Festival and if you don’t have the chance to come to London, from December it will be at the cinema nationwide.

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From TV to markets, from food events to food bloggers... it's all about enjoyment!

This morning on Stylist, the free press magazine you get in the tube here in the UK, I read an article called "Food for Thought".

Basically the journalist brings to the attention how much the food culture has grown up in the latest 10 years in the UK, how much more attention and care there is about the food English people eat, the care they put to feed their children, the interest in the food they can find around, the traditions, recipes and enjoying food all together.
This is all quite new for an italian point of view: in every italian family you have a mother or granny ready to cook for you and pass you all the food learnings you need. We grow up knowing which are the best traditional ways to put ingredients together and to make a nice dinner for friends without use ready meal stuff. Pasta is in our DNA.

So when I came to London I straight away realized this difference, already in the supermarket, where you have lots of  ready meals and not so many fresh products as in Italy we are used to. But certainly is true in these years, the food culture is increasing a lot: in TV it's full of cooking programs that teach you how to do everything from some simple stuff to very complicate recipes. Chefs here are seen like big stars and publish books, present TV programs, run all different kind of restaurants, have magazines, make interviews and even have the power to bring an argument like the food at school on the main agenda of the government (this is what Jamie Oliver did). There is even an italian chef always in Tv, young, funny and with a very strong accent, Gino D'Acampo. It's impossible to close the TV when he starts his recipes.

All this is great. Being witness of all these changes is great, and see how much people are enjoying to take their time to buy nice fresh and healthy products and cook them or even discover the particularities of the food from other countries. In Italy we have various restaurants with cuisine from Asia, or India or even Africa, but these are really rare. Here it's an explosion of tastes and flavours when you go around in the streets of London.
Lots of events are coming up as well about food, from festivals with the best restaurants showing their dishes, to local events to know different typical products from a lot of countries. From Italian cooking courses, like the one in Cucina Caldesi, that's look amazing,  to the food bloggers... they are definetly the mirror of this growing passion in UK. Check the blog of Lizzie, Niamh, Meemalee, Helen, Ms Marmite lover and there are even guys like Dan or Nick... and you will see what I'm speaking about: real food lovers.

This is exactly the aim of this blog, helping you knowing a bit more of the Italian culture, good ways to cook italian food, where to find the best products and events connected with our traditions and enjoy all this in the best way ever.

Loving food is the new English moto! What about yours or your relationship with food ?

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The last pasta recipe from the summer

I wanted some fish in it, but also some classic italian summery flavor like the one from some fresh chopped basil or nice black olives. And because the day was so good, why don't prepare something to bring outside and eat in the park or even to bring to my friends' barbeque.

So i finally prepared cold pasta with prawns, black olives, basil and buffalo mozzarella! I can't miss Italy in this way. The pasta is "Calle" from Pastificio dei Campi and it was created  for Gennaro Esposito a very famous chef in Italy who found this elegant shape and its smooth surface particularly adequate for fish dishes and sauces ... and i followed the suggestion.

Calle Pastificio dei Campi (Duetto - 250 gr)

280 gr fresh prawns

Cook the pasta in salty boiled water for around 10 minutes. When will be cooked but still "al dente" (just a bit crunchy) drain it and pass it under cold water to stop the cooking process. Then add just a bit of olive oil to don't make the pasta stick.

Put some olive oil in a pan and cook the prawn for 2-3 minutes. In the meantime cut the olives in slices and the mozzarella and tomatoes in little cubes. Mix all together with the pasta, the prawns and some finely chopped basil.

Add some salt and pepper if needed and put it in the fridge for a bit. Serve it cold!

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