TTI Monthly Italian Food Round up – March

This monthly Italian food round up is an absolute banger. New Venetian cookbooks for us to peruse, delicious inspiring recipes, fabulous Italian travel foodie tips and much more!

Recipe

Found this lovely recipe, in the Independents food section. Perfect as a starter or a light lunch I would say. Burrata is from Puglia, a buffalo milk cheese made with mozzarella and cream. Outer shell is tough like mozzarella, but inside is filled with a soft texture of stracciatella and cream.

Purple sprouting broccoli with caper sauce, lemon breadcrumbs and burrata

Carbonara is probably one of the most popular pasta dishes to ever come out of Italy. I find at times it can be so misunderstood as some people believe that it has cream in it, therefore its unhealthy. WRONG! Felicity Cloake at the Guardian shares her step by step masterclass recipe for spaghetti carbonara.

If you’re a vegan or vegetarian, do not fear. The team at Olive magazine have got a vegan carbonara for you guys to try.

Cauliflower carbonara with roasted leaves and pine nuts

Spring is meant to be upon us, which means leaving behind those big hearty stews. I always find that my eating patterns change season to season and cooking seafood always gives me the feeling that sunnier and warmer times are upon us. At the Guardian, Joe Trivelli’s share his seafood recipes including a Puglian classic, mussels, rice and potato bake, a favourite of mine.

Cookbooks

This month, two cook books have been published on Venetian home cooking and I’m so excited to add these two to the ever growing cookery books collections.

The Times have done a feature on Skye McAlpine’s where she shares a few of her seafood recipes from her new book – A table in Venice

The second is Russel Norman’s (the man behind the restaurant business, Polpo) book – Venice Four season of home cooking, which as the title suggests is about Venetian seasonal cooking. The Guardian share a few of this recipes here, Russell Norman’s classic recipes from Venice.

Travel

Tuscany is one of Italy’s popular tourist destinations. I am actually going there at the end of May and I can’t wait. So I got really excited when I came upon this fabulous article by the team at Saveur. 8 REASONS TO FALL IN LOVE WITH FLORENCE. It shares all the foodie things you must experience when visiting this beautiful city.

I recently went on a foodie weekend in Bologna. It’s got so much Italian food heritage, art and history, its a great place to go for a long  weekend. The Times have just recently written about Where to stay and eat in Bologna on a budget.

Welcome to Umbria. Not as well known as some other Italian regions but its actually a foodie heaven secret. Read about what to eat, traditional dishes and where to go at Great Italia Chefs- The complete foodie guide to Umbria.

Eating out

Here are a few reviews on some of the latest Italian food inspired restaurant/pop up openings.

Though Stevie Parle’s pasta restaurant has been opened for a little while, read here the Independent’s review.

Pastaio, restaurant review: London’s newest Italian is childish pleasure

New Amalfi inspired restaurant, Sorella, in Clapham has been under scrutiny by both Giles Coren at The Times  and new Guardian restaurant critic, Grace Dent

Finally latest pasta pop up, Fat Tony’s pop at Bar Termini Centrale, is reviewed by the guys at Olive magazine

Fat Tony’s pop up at Bar Termini Centrale

Media

If you enjoy a good podcast, then you’re up for a treat. The latest podcast from Delicious magazine is the Italian episode.

Pizza

For those of you who love Pizza, I have a couple of interesting things for you guys.

Olive magazine have shared their 12 best pizza places in London. From the best sour dough pizza to who has the most unusual toppings. How many have you been too?

Also, the London Pizza festival is back at Borough Market. Read all about it at Hot dinners, to find out who’s going to be there, where you can get your ticket and other cool facts.

Hope you enjoy this months round up!