The spaghetti which will catch your man's stomach

pasta alla puttanesca

Tonight I present you a pasta which has a mysterious legend around, connected with the ancient profession of courtesans.

It is a tasty first plate, typical from Campania (south Italy) and Lazio (middle Italy) and it is called pasta alla puttanesca.

Now lets clarify how courtesans come to the picture? Legend says that there was a bordel which had a business oriented owner who wanted to invite the customers in every possible way. One of his trick was a special pasta, his secret recipe which I am sharing with you tonight. Therefore the name (the root of puttanesca is "puttana" which means whore) of this plate and I can assure you: if you try it once, you will always return to this taste - like those customers for the bordel (though obviously there were other "tricks" happening in that place, right?)

It is a tomato base sauce, spiced up with garlic, caper, and black olive pieces. Anchovy gives a characteristic taste to the ragu and parsley brings the right harmony together. We prefer using spaghetti but it is up to you which pasta is your choice.

Wishing you "pleasant" tastes, ciao a tutti & buon appetito!
Marco

Classical Italian appetizers



classico aperitivo italiano



Tonight I share with you the secret to start a dinner in a proper, lets say, Italian way. This is the so-called "aperitivo" (=appetizers) which category contains various of small plates.

Usually we have this before dinner (as before lunch it would be too much and anyway you do not have so much time during the day, but the dinner is the time and place for socializing, meeting friends in a nearby bar where you enjoy together the aperitivo).



oven potatoes (aperitivo)



Some of my Hungarian friends told me that this habit may be the secret of keeping the "bella figura" as we do not wait until we are dying from hunger, but instead we take a little bit of this and a little bit of that, so we avoid fulfilling our stomach completely with dinner - well, you need to try it yourself to give the exact answer whether this way of eating contributes to a bella figura - and if you tried, let me know :)

So tonight I prepared a very typical and classical selection of appetizers (of which some elements I found at Vásárcsarnok market, really great place!) which contains cheese, olive filled with spices, baby onions, cucumber, mortadella, pizza pieces, peanuts, chips and seperately I made some potatoes in the oven with garlic, peperoncini and rosmarino. Not to forget the thirstiness, Campari is a must-have element of this meal, together with some white wine.
For Italians, aperitivo is something you can not miss, you can meet old and new friends in your favourite bar - or invite friends and enjoy spending time together, a real happy hour!

Hope you enjoy - tonight these tastes really brought me back the sweet memories of aperitivo I spent with my friends in Italy.

Ciao a tutti & buon aperitivo!

Marco

Pasta all'arrabbiata

pasta all' arrabbiata

As the dinner is knocking on the door (and in our stomach) let me present you a very simple plate with fresh coctail tomatoes and hot peperoncino (our hot chilli which is really spicy so you need to be careful how much you add) called pasta all'arrabbiata.

Since this pasta is spicy, you will become thirsty soon so I suggest you to take immediately a bottle of good wine - my personal favourite is red, from the region of Piemonte, north-west Italy.

Pasta is essential for Italians - like water for the body, so don't forget to eat at least one portion per day, not important which type - I will present you later more variations.

Ciao a tutti & buon appetito!

Marco