This recipe is totally invented, being a mix of Brasilian, Chinese and Thai style cuisines. I feel I should warn you that the preparation is quite lengthy and the washing up quite heavy (inevitably you end up using every single utensil in your kitchen), but I can assure you that the result will be worth […]

The whole of Italy is in this dish, with a simple recipe that puts together flavours and shapes from the Alps to Sicily. And please acknowledge that on purpose I left out my home land – Romagna – to avoid accusations of being 'campanilistic'. However, if you wish, you could replace orecchiette with the mythical […]

A ten minute recipe for when you come in from work and there's virtually nothing in the fridge except two close-to-gone-off courgettes, an onion and an open packet of diced smokey bacon. Actually, make sure the eggs are fresh!! If you didn't even have the chance to stop by the bakery, serve with toasted wholemeal […]

If the Sicilians have their Pasta alla Norma, to honour Mr. Bellini, well, in Emilia-Romagna we can rightly celebrate the great Maestro, Giuseppe Verdi, with this simple and tasty recipe! What you need (for three people): 2 courgettes (or zucchini)60 gr. courgettes flowers80 gr. pancetta (or bacon) ½ onion250 gr. tagliolini (o taglierini, very thin […]

My best friend and flatmate used to prepare this fantastic dessert whenever we were both homesick while living abroad, and it truly managed to 'pick me up'!! What you need : 6 eggs10 scarce spoon of sugar500 gr. mascarpone 10 small cups of bitter espesso coffee250 gr. savoiardi, or other sponge biscuits1 bar of dark […]

Although gramigna (short, curly pasta tubes) is at its best with meat-based sauces, this vegetarian variant combines the sweet flavour of the peppers with that sharp of capers and chilli peppers, and it is a perfect summery dish. What you need (for two people): half a yellow pepperhalf a red pepperdeseeded black olives an handful […]

My friend Marisa, who is a dietician and from Barcelona, always says that this is the perfect recipe for a light spring or summer dinner. The main ingredients are white beans (she uses fesols de Santa Pau, which correspond roughly to cannellini beans) and bacalao (or else bacallà, or baccalà, i.e. dried and salted codfish, […]

This is an extremely simple dish; to prepare it, virtually nobody in Italy follows a recipe. I want to include it in this issue of Three Monkeys Online as a suggestion to all those who have not much time on their hands to shop for groceries or to cook, were not endowed with a natural […]

Recipe for Avocado dip (Guacamole) – from 'La cucina delle spezie' by David Sheen, with the kind permission of Panozzo Editore, Rimini , tried and tested, and translated by Franita in the kitchen, for Three Monkeys Online. It was the Aztecs who discovered avocado: they considered it a sacred object, with aphodisiac powers, and it […]