Italian X-mas desert

Buy a Pandoro (very light Italian X-mas cake), and make french toast (pain perdu in French, soggy bread for people from the UK) with it. You can add a little bit of Amaretto or cinnamon to the eggs. Serve with caramelized apples and some ice cream. Delish!

Cure for the flu and summer

A crappy summer brings the necessary cold and flu symptoms, so here's my cure: make a juice cocktail from all the kinds of citrus fruits you can find around the house (oranges, blood oranges, grape fruits, limes, lemons, clementines) and take 2/3 juice 1/3 vodka. The juice will give you the extra needed vitamins and the vodka will kill all the germs :-) If you don't feel better after one, just drink a couple more, I promise you will feel a hell of a lot better!

Italian summer salad

OK, cats ... start purring coz this is my fave salad! A couple of balls of the best mozzarella you can find (please try to use the authentic Mozzarella Di Bufala ... it's really different from the chemical crap you buy in supermarkets), a couple of handfulls of argula/roquette salad (rucola), fresh ripe figs, fresh ripe tomatoes (no water culture greenhouse suckaz), some A.O.C. prosciutto (Italian cured ham), organic runny honey, good grassy olive oil (only extra virgin cold pressed, anything else is shite!) a couple of basil leaves (red, green, whatever). Basically, you toss everything together on a serving plate ... peppery crunchy rucola, chunks of mozzarella, slices of ham, crossed figs, tomatoes, drizzle with honey and a nice swig of olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Usually I drink Prosecco with this. Njoy!

It's such a simple recipe, so it comes down to using the best ingredients you can get. A guaranteed killer for your next dinner party!

Jacked ribs

For 2 -4 racks of spareribs (I prefer babybacks). For the marinade: in a bowl, mix a can of coke (real coke, no pepsi), 100ml of soy sauce, 100ml Jack Daniels and 100ml Maple Syrup, a good squirt of ketchup, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, some crushed bayleafs, a couple of turns of freshly ground black pepper and some hot sauce for that kick. Mix and throw together with the spareribs in a ziploc bag, marinate for 24hrs in the fridge. Get your barbie smokin' hot, and grill those ribs, occasionally turning and moistening with the marinade. It's a guaranteed killer!

My Carbo

Fresh pasta or very good linguine (I like the brand Di Cecco), al dente
Bacon or pancetta cut in strips
2 cloves of garlic
couple of eggs
1/2 cup or 250ml of double cream
handful of freshly grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
1 small diced tomato
some chopped flatleaf parsely

Gently fry the pancetta or bacon with the whole cloves pf garlic. Whisk the eggs, cream and cheese together. Take your pan of the heat and remove the garlic. Now add the boiled pasta to the pancetta, give it a good stir and then add the egg mixture.
Now it's up to you, I like my carbonara smooth & silky and others like it scrambled egg style. So smooth and silky means you take it of the heat and mix in the diced tomato and parsley. Otherwise you heat it through a little bit more on low heat (and stir often) and afterwards you can add the tomatoes and parsely. And serve directly with some extra grated parmesan cheese on top.

Tip: you can add a tiny bit of white wine or lemon juice just so the acidity will cut through the fat of the cream.

Mile end BLT

Mile End BLT makes 2
2 bagels (from St Viateur, no questions asked)
roman lettuce
tomatoes
2 eggs sunny side up
mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (it's a little bit sweeter)
honey mustard dressing (basically runny honey, French dijon mustard, little bit mayonaise, black peppar, salt and some finely chopped flatleaf parseley)
crispy fried bacon

Slice the bagels in half and grill on 1 side. Spread them with mayonaise. Put some big leafs of lettuce, some slices of tomatoes (you can add some dill pickles as well), then the bacon with the dressing on top and finish with the egg and finally the other bagel halves. You may need a toothpick to keep everything together. Oh and the actual eating is very messy, but that makes it so grrrreat.