Slow-Cooked Venison Shank in Red Wine for an Italian Date Night Dinner This is the second of our date-night menus, which we are sharing just ahead of Valentine’s Day. If your taste is more for British food and an all British date-night, then do take a look at our English Sparkling Wine with Scottish Seafood […]
Italian Beef Casserole with Red Wine
Pairing Italy and Portugal with Food and Wine As summer draws to a close, I crave tender, slow-cooked casseroles with rich wine-infused gravy and meltingly tender meat. Dishes like this Italian Beef Casserole. While I love French style boeuf bourguignon and British (or is it Irish) beef in Guinness, ale or stout, I wanted to […]
IT Restaurant Review – From Ibiza to Dover Street, Mayfair
Mayfair meets Ibiza at IT Restaurant London. I wonder if the owners of IT London realise what an It girl is? A perfect fit for this, the third restaurant in the Italian IT group, each with menus from chef Gennaro Esposito, I suspect the name is an abbreviation for Italian rather than the definition I’m […]
Capricci Deli and Restaurant – Review
Capricci on Bankside – Perfect Pre-Theatre Dining: Less than a minute’s walk from Tate Modern on London’s Bankside, Capricci is both a deli and a restaurant. At lunch and dinner time it is a restaurant in a deli. It is particularly chic in the evenings when the lights are low and the surrounding glass-fronted office […]
Mercato Metropolitano – Bottles and Battles Italian Wine Bar
Italian Heaven in Elephant at Bottles & Battles A stone’s throw from Elephant and Castle Tube Station, opposite the Southwark Playhouse there’s a gateway manned by security guards in the evenings. A club perhaps? In a way, Mercato Metropolitano has become just that. Despite being just three years old, this massive space of indoor and […]
Pasta Nostra – Old Street’s new restaurant for pastaficionados
Mission highly possible: to make the best pasta dishes in town Pastaficionado – what else do you call someone who loves pasta? And who doesn’t? It’s no surprise that Italian food is officially the most popular cuisine in the world, and this love is led by pasta, eaten in its myriad shapes and sizes. While […]
Twist Kitchen – An Excellent Independent Restaurant in Marylebone
Challenging the Marylebone Food Scene – Twist Kitchen Review. What happens when a couple meet through work, fall in love and decide to follow their passion and set up their own restaurant? In the case of Twist Kitchen, a quirky independent restaurant in Marylebone, the result is one I’d urge you to try for yourself. […]
Hotel Leone, Montelparo – Compact Boutique Hotel With Much More
Wine Lover’s Break to Hotel Leone, Montelparo, Marche. *Stop Press* as you might expect, the team at Hotel Leone are tackling the challenges to the tourism industry with typical positive thinking. They have a fabulous payitforward crowdfunding campaign so that you can help them out AND save money when we are all able to […]
Pesto Recipes to make your Pasta Perfect!
Classic Pesto and some Classy Variations – How to make the Perfect Pesto. The word pesto literally means pounded. So although there’s a common belief that pesto should be made with basil, there are plenty of rather delicious alternatives around. Classic Genoese pesto is, of course, made with basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and […]
Mediterranean Red Pepper and Feta Filo Pie – Store Cupboard Supper:
Red Pepper Filo Pie with Ponti Zero Oil Range: I have a bit of a fetish for those little jars of preserved vegetables that you can buy from the deli counter so I jumped at the chance when I was asked to create a recipe to use some of the Ponti range. Life is now […]