Calling all Italians, will you share your recipes and tips??

[gio71]

Pleeeaaase and help a Brit living in Italy who's attempts at Italian cooking provoke a wide range of responses from dp from the sometimes positive to but always always with a "forse un po piu ... o un po meno....." helpfully tagged on. He of course is a great cook but since I am at home all day and he isn't it's down to me...
I live in fear of the day ds will come home from a friends house and ask why I can't cook like Fabrizio's Mamma!
Help!! I will treasure any recipes you send me.

just buy jamies italy cook book and pass it off as your own stuff

I'm a brit and my dh Italian. Personally I'm sick to death of eating italian food (we live in London and there's so much else) but I guess living there you have no other option.

So

Basic tomato sauce - olive oil and soften (not burn) garlic. Have the garlic in big pieces not little ones (or they burn) soon as softened add tinned chopped tomatoes and fresh basil and simmer to reduce (how dense you want it is up to his mum I guess!). Might want to take a hand blender to it to get rid of any big lumps of tomato.

And this is for pasta and you can add to lots of dishes eg.

courgette bake
slice courgette - dip in batter and shallow fry and then layer with mozzarella (can't spell, sorry), parmesan cheese - tomato sauce - (I also add more basil and a tiny amount of oregano. On top add a layer of mozzarella and then more parmesan and then tomato (don't put the mozzarella on top or it will burn). Note that in Italy they might go nuts about using tomato sauce with garlic in it for this dish (also for the aubergine bake) - BUT - if you put mozzarella and courgette (or aubergine) together - that's one lovely bland mess in my opinion. It needs a touch of garlic to lift it. Even my dh has come round to this!

Alternatively, make a nice stir fry or a lovely curry!!!!

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On this subject, if anyone has a recipe for the wild boar with white beans, in a gorgeous tomato sauce (very Tuscan apparently), I'll be forever in your debt.