Spicy pumpkin ravioli

Pumpkin season is upon us and I intend to experiment with it in the kitchen as much as I can. This week a good friend of mine came over for dinner and I made fresh pasta. It was a while I didn’t use my Imperia pasta machine and I went back to it gladly. I…

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Slow food vs comfort food

comfort food tastes of carolina

A Piedmontese version of the empanada with a rabbit and mushroom filling, countless experiments with fresh pasta, including one for ‘uovo in raviolo’, gin-cured halibut and a quick and easy version of the bakewell tart with caledonian cream: these and many more were the foods I couldn’t wait to try in my kitchen on my return…

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Home and away chilli sauce

This might land me into trouble. I brought food back from Africa: a bag of really hot kambuzi chillies I bought on the road to Blantyre and then stashed in my suitcase. With a tropical, fruity flavour similar to that of habaneros, kambuzis are about a quarter of the size, small misshapen yellow cherries full of…

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Africa, my tough love

    Welcome to Africa. I felt exhilarated but displaced. For the first time in many years of travelling, I felt like I didn’t plan it right, like I landed in the wrong destination with a suitcase meant for another trip. I didn’t expect such an unpredictable place. I missed the safety of knowing what…

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Escape the bollito in the room of surprises

I am saving them jealously. Old copies of the National Geographic magazine from 1899 and 1900, found when I was around 12 years old while rummaging in what used to be my favourite room in our big family country home. A dusty windowless store room, with old wooden cabinets packed full of books, letters and…

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