Italian | date with a plate.

Pasta with pipis

November 9, 2015 by date with a plate.

Despite living in a really great neighbourhood, I often find myself driving questionably long distances to source great produce, especially seafood. It feels like I live in a bit of a produce black-hole. There just wasn’t anything in my local area that really floated my boat with respect to good quality seafood. So when a new local small business opened its doors, I was grateful to have access to both fresh and frozen seafood. I have never thought of seafood […]

Categories: Dinner, Italian, Lunch, Pasta, seafood • Tags: chili, garlic, Italian, Italian flat leaf parsley, lemon, onion, Pasta, pipis, seafood, tomato, white wine

Roman-Jewish fried artichokes

October 13, 2015 by date with a plate.

So my other half went to Europe for a wedding a few weeks ago and spent a few days in Rome before returning home to Australia. And when in Rome…well, you eat as the Romans do don’t you? Which happened to include these amazing Roman-Jewish fried artichokes. I’ll admit I had never heard of them before, but Ollie was eager to replicate this amazing little dish. And yes, it’s as easy as you’d think and as delicious as you would hope. I love […]

Categories: Italian, Side, Snack • Tags: artichoke, deep frying, Italian, lemon, lemon juice

Fish stew Ancona-style

June 23, 2014 by date with a plate.

We don’t eat seafood nearly as much as we should, but on Sunday afternoon we spoiled ourselves with a trip to a local fish market – scoring some awesome treasures for a Sunday night feast. Oysters, fish, prawns, pipis and scallops…..I was seriously excited to get home and get cooking! Recently I bought Antonio Carluccio’s book, The Collection, and was continuously drawn to his Fish stew Ancona-style – no matter how aimlessly I thought I was skipping through the pages, […]

Categories: One Pot Wonder, seafood, Special Occasion • Tags: Antonio Carluccio, chili, fish, Fish stew, garlic, Italian, Italian flat leaf parsley, onion, pipis, prawn, scallop, seafood, tomato

Gnocchi with pancetta, tomato & basil sauce

June 16, 2014 by date with a plate.

Lazily wandering through our local grocer yesterday, the boy asked me if I could make gnocchi for dinner – considering he bought me a potato ricer months ago and I haven’t used it yet, I figured it was a decent request. Two potatoes, a small block of pancetta and a handful of basil later we were pretty much set for dinner. Gnocchi is deceptively easy to make and requires few ingredients – perfect. I think the key to a good […]

Categories: Dinner, Lunch, Pasta • Tags: basil, gnocchi, Italian, onion, pancetta, Pasta, potato, potato gnocchi, potato ricer, tomato

Ragù alla napoletana (…I really love Italians)

May 12, 2014 by date with a plate.

So it was Mother’s Day in Australia on Sunday, and rather than take our Mothers out for an average meal at a local pub, where the quality never quite matches the cost and the waiter forgets your drinks because everyone else decided to take their Mum out for a pub lunch as well – we decided to have the families over and cook for them. Not only cheaper, but more relaxed and far more enjoyable. This was our gift to […]

Categories: Beef, Dinner, Lunch, One Pot Wonder, Pasta, Pork • Tags: basil, beef, Gennaro Contaldo, Italian, Italian sausages, onion, pork ribs, red wine, slow cooking, tomato

Duck Ragù

September 2, 2013 by date with a plate.

The annual Father’s Day feast was at our house this year and I opted for an all out stomach exploding menu. We opted to cook a Duck Ragù with some beautiful homemade pasta, served it with a leafy green side salad (see previous post) and topped it off with some homemade garlic bread. *drool I have never actually cooked with duck before, yet its my favourite meat. Go figure! Anyways, I spent hours flicking through my recipes books until my boyfriend […]

Categories: Dinner, Lunch, One Pot Wonder, Pasta • Tags: duck, fennel, gourmet traveller magazine, Italian, pasta sauce, pistachio nuts, ragu

I love mussels more than muscles

April 2, 2013 by date with a plate.

An unsuccessful fishing expedition on Sunday afternoon left me slightly disappointed, hungry and with a bad hankering for some seafood. So I figured that if you can’t catch it, buy it. I subsequently visited the local fish store and left with 2kgs of fresh mussels (thankfully they come already cleaned and de-bearded – convenience at its best). Although my friends were hoping to have a fish or two at the end of their lines earlier in the day – I […]

Categories: Dinner, seafood • Tags: basil, chili, dinner, flavour, Italian, mussels, Peter Evans, seafood, tomato

Bolognese – how have I done this wrong for so long?

February 26, 2013 by date with a plate.

Inspired by a recent Google adventure in search of a new recipe for the family favourite spaghetti Bolognese I stumbled (and became extremely enthused) across a traditional recipe for Bolognese Ragu. All the recipes I began sifting through went against my comforting childhood favourite….and then it hit me…I have never had a traditional Bolognese Ragu despite having been to Italy twice?! Here’s the recipe, I strongly suggest giving it a shot. The first thing you will notice is that it […]

Categories: Dinner • Tags: Bolognese Ragu, dinner, food, Italian, Pasta

date with a plate.

food for everyday.

Tag: Italian