BRIT-SICILIAN-INDIAN SHEPHERD'S PIE

Long ago, I used to make the great Madhur Jaffrey's "A Kind of Shepherd's Pie" from her 1994 Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook - Food for Family and Friends. However, due to the difficulty of obtaining minced lamb here and despite having tried the recipe a couple of times with minced beef, in the end I stopped making it. 

But in colder weather comfort food calls so a few weeks ago I decided to revive the recipe using the ingredients I can easily get here, so it's become a bit British, a bit Sicilian and a bit Indian.  I've kept Madhur's idea of a grilled aubergine base and I think this makes it quite Sicilian too. You can use frozen grilled aubergines, reconstituted as directed on the pack, or just slice an aubergine lengthwise and cook the slices on a tray lined with baking parchment in the oven for 10 minutes. The latter is a tip I picked up from Antonella Clerici and I find that the cooked slices freeze well. The other Sicilian touches are the use of sweet Sicilian carrots, green [French] beans and passata. The Indian part is, of course, the use of spices, though there's another nod to Sicily with the use of cinnamon.

Here's the recipe:

Brit-Sicilian-Indian Shepherd's Pie

1 aubergine, sliced and cooked as above [or use frozen grilled aubergine slices]
100 gr green beans, cooked in boiling water until tender, then drained and cut into small pieces
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
300 gr mushrooms, sliced
1 white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
500 gr mixed minced meat [a mixture of beef and pork if you are in Italy but you can use all beef or lamb]
2 goodly-sized knobs ginger, peeled and finely chopped
cinnamon
1 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
c. 125 gr butter, softened plus a little extra
200 gr passata, made up to 300 gr with water
4 tablesp olive oil
1 tablesp flour
Handful fresh sage leaves, chopped

Arrange the aubergine slices in a large, fairly deep Pyrex or ceramic roasting dish.

Cook the onion and garlic in the oil until softened, then add the carrot slices and soften these too. Add the meat and cook, stirring, until browned.

Add the beans, mushrooms, half the ginger, a little cinnamon and most of the chopped sage and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add the passata mixture and flour, season and stir well.

Turn the heat down and let the mixture simmer for 20 mins.

Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in boiling water till soft but not disintegrating.

Mix the butter with the rest of the sage leaves, a little more cinnamon and the rest of the ginger. Use this to mash the potatoes.

Now pour the mixture in the pan on top of the aubergines and spoon the mash over. Smooth the top with a palette knife. Add a few small knobs of butter and a final sprinkling of cinnamon.

Cook in the oven at 180° C for 15 mins.

Garnish with some whole sage leaves if you wish.

Buon appetito.

PASTA AL FORNO VEGETARIANA

Let's have a recipe for a change: I love pasta al forno and it's on my list of the great comfort foods of the world.  Last weekend, I invented this vegetarian [but not vegan ] version:

Pasta al forno vegetariana

First of all, peel and cube 200 gr pumpkin.  Cook the cubes in salted water till tender. Drain and set aside.

Take 2 white and 2 green courgettes and slice 3 of them as thinly as you can [or do it in a food processor].  Grate the other courgette. Heat 4 tablesp olive oil in a wide pan and cook the courgettes, stirring, until they are tender. Now add a sliced white onion and a chopped clove of garlic and continue cooking everything until these, too, are tender. [Yes, I know this is the wrong way round for making a soffritto but it works!] When the onion and garlic have softened, add the pumpkin along with 300 gr sliced mushrooms, a little chopped parsley, seasoning and 400 gr passata.  Stir and cook on a low heat for 15 mins.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 160 C and cook 400 gr rigatoni for the length of time indicated on the pack. Drain the pasta and oil a large, rectangular, Pyrex-style oven dish. Put a layer of pasta in the dish, followed by a layer of sauce and then a layer of thinly sliced provoleta or other pasta filata cheeese [about 10 slices]. Add another layer of pasta and finish with another layer of the sauce. Sprinkle some fresh breadcrumbs or pane grattugiato and some freshly grated Parmesan over the top.

Cook in the oven for 15 mins.

Buon appetito.

PASTA AL FORNO CON ZUCCA

When I need comfort food, as I often do these days, pasta al forno is high on my list of possibilities. At the weekend, I decided I wanted to create a rather more seasonal pasta al forno, so I added pumpkin and a bit of orange zest. Here's the recipe:

Pasta al forno con zucca

First, discard the peel from about a quarter of a small pumpkin and slice the flesh. You'll need about 300 gr. Cook in salted water till the pieces are tender then drain and set aside.

Heat 4 tablsp olive oil in a large, wide pan and add 75 gr pancetta cubes [cubetti di pancetta dolce if you are in Italy]. Cook until browned, then add 1 chopped red onion and cook till the onion is soft. Add 500 gr mixed minced meat - I used a mixture of minced pork and beef but there is nothing to stop you using all beef if you want to. Cook, stirring, to lightly brown the meat.  Add 300 gr sliced mushrooms, the pumpkin pieces and the grated rind of 1 lovely Sicilian orange.  Add a dollop [or dessertspoon] of 'strattu, 200 gr passata and 200 ml water. Season, stir, turn the heat down and simmer for about 40 mins., coming back to stir from time to time. This is your ragù.

Pre-heat the oven to 160 C.

Meanwhile, cook 400 gr rigatoni or tortiglioni for the time indicated on the pack. Drain the pasta and wait for the ragù.

Oil a large ceramic or Pyrex-style roasting dish and add a layer of pasta, a layer of ragù, a layer of 125 gr crumbled ricotta, another layer of pasta, another 125 gr ricotta and finish with a layer of ragù. Sprinkle a handful of fresh breadcrumbs [pane grattugiato] over the top, along with about 1 tablesp of grated Grana Padano, Parmesan or Ragusano cheese. Cook in the oven for 15 mins.

This turned out to be one of the nicest pasta al forno dishes I have ever made so buon appetito!

It will serve at least 4 people generously.

TREAT OF THE WEEK - 14

What with all the Ferragosto inconveniences last week, I found myself much in need of comfort food and what could be more comforting than mashed potato?  In this heat, I also wanted something cold so I was pleased to find a recipe for a cold, mashed potato zuccotto in this month's La Cucina Italiana. The potatoes are mashed with olive oil, seasoning, grated lemon zest, basil and parsley and the filling contains chopped, roasted tomatoes, chopped rocket, chopped green and black olives and, in my version, capers - these last for no better reason than that I like them. [I substituted them for the onion in the recipe.]  The sauce around the zuccotto is the sieved juice saved from the tomatoes as they were deseeded prior to roasting.  A good old British pudding basin was called up for zuccotto mould duty.

FRIDAY RISOTTO

Friday night is "comfort food night" and for me, the two great comfort foods of the world are mashed potato and risotto.  As I had a supply of the Sicilian asparagus I showed you yesterday, this evening it had to be asparagus risotto.

These quantities will serve four as a starter:

What really crowns a nice, creamy risotto is a little butter stirred in at the end and for this one I made some lemon butter.  All you do is add some grated lemon rind to about 125 gr unsalted butter, wrap the butter in foil and let it firm up again in the fridge while you prepare the risotto. 

Trim the hardest stalks from c. 350 gr asparagus, then cut it into small pieces [best done with a scissors]. Sicilian asparagus has small, thin spears which you will lose if you try to keep them separate from the cut-up stalks, as some recipes suggest, so just rinse all the asparagus together, then throw it into a pan of boiling, salted water and simmer until it is just tender - 15 - 20 minutes.  

Meanwhile, chop a small white onion or half a medium one finely with a stick of celery. [Sicilian celery is very thin so you won't need much if you are using another kind.]  Drain the asparagus and set aside.

Have 500 gr arborio or other risotto rice ready and in a jug, have ready 150 ml white wine and 550 ml water. In a wide pan, heat 2 tablesp olive oil and add the onion, celery and just a little of the rice.  Stir it all around but don't let the onion brown. After a couple of minutes add the rest of the rice, all the asparagus, seasoning to taste and enough of the water and wine mixture to just cover the mixture.  Over a medium heat, stir until the rice has absorbed the liquid, then add half the remaining liquid and simmer till the rice has absorbed this too. Now add the last of the liquid and simmer till absorbed.  [The whole absorption process will probably take about 20 mins.]

Off the heat, quickly stir in a generous couple of tablesp of grated parmesan, grana or ragusano cheese.  Spoon the risotto into serving bowls, add a generous knob of the lemon butter to each and you're done!  

As I've said many times before, there is no secret to preparing a good risotto.  In my opinion, you just need:

- the right kind of rice

- a wide but not too deep pan

- the patience to add the liquid gradually 

- to remember that Italians like their risotto "wetter" than the Brits

- that all-important butter to stir in at the end!

This dish was just what I needed after a week at the chalk face!

FIORI DI ZUCCA ALLA MANTOVANA

In yet another homage to Mantova, I enjoyed making this dish of courgette flowers filled with a mixture of ham, grana cheese, parsley, garlic and, surprisingly, mashed potato.  The mixture is flavoured with nutmeg.  I cannot give you the whole, copyright recipe here but I do have one tip for you if you are going to make a similar dish:  make a normal amount of mashed potato and eat the rest as comfort food!

CITRUS FRUIT RISOTTO

Cold, rainy days in Sicily - yes, there are some - can, paradoxically, be more depressing than cold, rainy days in the UK., perhaps because the sky is still light, making it all seem somehow out of place and perhaps because everyone who is able to do so stays indoors, thus making the streets seem strangely deserted.  In addition, some householders regard it as "giving in" to put the heating on, preferring to wear Michelin-man-style padded jackets in their own homes and, when you do meet people as you go about your errands, there is no British "spirit of the blitz - we're all in this weather together" defiance to draw upon.

On such days, reader, the only sensible thing to do is to go home and make yourself a citrus fruit risotto:

First, chop a white onion finely and cook it gently in 2 tablesp olive oil until transparent.  Now add 350 gr risotto rice and let this cook in the oil for a few minutes too.  Now add 8 tablesp of juice from the freshest Sicilian oranges and grapefruit to the mixture and bring it to simmering point, stirring all the time.  Now start gradually adding 750 ml hot water and stir every now and then.  You need to add a little more of the water every time the rice absorbs the last lot.  This should take about 15 minutes altogether.  Once all the water has been absorbed, add 100 gr grated caciocavallo cheese and stir well.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with segments of peeled orange and grapefruit, their grated zest and some chopped parsley.

The cooked rice will comfort you and the zing of the citrus fruit will lift your spirits.

STINCO WITH PISTACCHI

Stinco di maiale, or pork shank, is a cut of meat much beloved of Italian housewives.  To be honest, there isn't much meat on it, which is why most people cook several together, but what there is can taste delicious.  There is something very rustic and homely about the aroma of stinco being cooked slowly in the oven and it is on my list of comfort foods.

For those of you who are in Italy, the recipe for this stinco in a chicken, cream, bread and pistacchio crust is in the January edition of Alice Cucina.  The first time I tried it, the crust burnt but the stinco meat still tasted good, so I decided that it was worth persevering. For my second attempt, I wrapped the crusted shank not only in baking paper, as in the recipe, but also in foil and, as you see, this worked!

PASTA AL FORNO CON SALSICCIA E FUNGHI

Pasta al forno is one of the great comfort dishes of Italy and usually I've got some homemade ragù bolognese in the freezer that I can use for it.  However, a few days ago, being much in need of comfort but without any ragù, I decided to make a quick one with what I did have - Italian sausage and mushrooms.  [A true ragù bolognese takes 3 hours to cook.] This is what I did:

Squeeze the meat out from half a length of Italian sausage and break it up with a fork. [How much is half a length? I don't know! Maybe the length of a Cumberland sausage.]   Brown it in 2 tablesp olive oil.  Chuck in a chopped red onion and brown this, too.  Add about a litre of homemade tomato sauce [I did have some of that in the freezer!] and about 125 ml red wine.  Season and add 300 gr sliced mushrooms.  Let it all simmer, stirring now and then.  Cook 400 gr rigatoni according to the instructions on the pack.  Drain the pasta and place a layer of it in a large, oiled baking dish.  Now add about 200 gr sliced mozzarella, half the ragù, then the rest of the pasta and a little more mozzarella.  Finish off with the rest of the ragù and sprinkle over about a teasp of breadcrumbs and some freshly grated parmesan.  Cook at 180 C for 20 mins.

Your troubles won't vanish but they will seem much smaller.  Buon appetito!

BAKEWELL TART IN SICILY

A rather British tea party took place in 36 Celsius in a corner of the Marina di Ragusa yesterday, when the "foreign legion" women descended upon Roberta and husband Roberto. It was nice and cool in Roberta's conservatory and the nationalities represented were British, Italian, American, Spanish, Russian, German, Danish and Bosnian. [Our Madagascan and Tunisian friends were unable to make it and where were the French?]

Roberta's table was groaning with goodies: she herself had made the brownies, sweet and savoury scones [I don't know how she gets them to rise in an Italian oven] Bakewell tart [she got the ground rice for this sent over from the UK] and the kiwi cheesecake [for which one day I am going to steal the recipe] plus lemonade [sublime when made from Sicilian lemons] whilst the apricots were from her garden. I made Welshcakes and Linda and Chiara made the fruit cake to an Australian recipe:





Below I am on the left and Roberta is in the centre of the picture:


We all had a great time and good old gossip and there was very little of all that lovely food left by 7pm! Grazie, Roberta!

HONEY STILL FOR TEA

Long ago, when I was young and even more foolish than I am now, a man left me feeling very sad: I cried, I grieved, I lost 3 stone in 6 weeks and thought of nothing but my own misfortune. Then, one day, a friend literally dragged me along to her house and fed me honey sandwiches. Ever since, I have regarded honey as a primary comfort food.

The honeys of Sicily are many and varied and a delight for the taste buds they all are. But I think my favourite has to be this pale one made from the sulla plant [a kind of red-flowered honeysuckle] which was known to the ancients. It smells heavenly and very good on a fetta biscottata at teatime it is.

MELTINGLY TENDER

One of the things I have had to get used to in food shopping is that when I ask for meat for a spezzatino [casserole / stew] it is cut in far bigger pieces than you would expect to buy in Britain. At first I used to ask the butcher to cut it a little smaller , or do so myself at home, but now, unless I am cooking something British or northern European, I go along with it. At an Italian meal, you will have possibly had antipasti, and almost certainly pasta first so it is no surprise that only a little of the main meat dish is initially served, in its sauce.

This stufato di manzo [beef stew] again from the Cucina del Sole book, is first cooked on the hob with flavourings, which include red wine and a spice bag of cinnamon sticks and 10 cloves, and then in the oven for about 4 hours, by the end of which time your living space will smell heavenly! [I have never understood what is wrong with having the aroma of good cooking pervading your home and why some people do everything to try and disguise it!] Last night I found I had committed the ultimate Italian "sin" and run out of pelati [tins of tomatoes] so I just added a couple of dollops of my favourite ingredient instead. The result was still Sicilian comfort food at its best!

BANGERS 'N'MASH, SICILIAN STYLE

"The ultimate comfort food", says Nigella of mashed potatoes and I couldn't agree more. Most Italian sausages are, however , too strongly flavoured for me [though I am a lover of spiced food]. However, this fennel and red wine type is fine, and last night [in need of comfort] I cooked this simply in the oven, with bay leaves, onion and in more red wine that had been brought to the boil first, as suggested in my new Cucina del Sole cookbook. No, I didn't eat all that lot on my own!

There are few activities more pleasurable to me than cooking my way through a new tome!

SO TO WARM MYSELF UP...

A whole chicken can be a very good friend to you if you are on your own, although to buy one may seem, at first, extravagant. But you have a homely, hot meal for one day, cold meat to see you through the next two, or to make sandwiches with and I always use the carcass to make and freeze stock. The butcher still gives me a funny look when I ask for a whole chicken, as it is not an Italian habit to roast the whole bird: "You don't want it cut up at all?" he asks. "Well, you can cut off the head and feet but otherwise, no", I reply. The poor man always looks so disappointed, as though I have stopped him from showing off his art! My all-time favourite whole chicken recipe is here and this is my second favourite, which I have adapted from the excellent Elisabeth Luard:

Simple supper chicken
Put a chopped-up lemon, a halved onion and a bunch of fresh herbs of your choice [include a fresh bay leaf if you can] into the cavity of a chicken. Place the chicken upside-down in a roasting pan. Pour on 6 - 8 tablesp olive oil, about 5 finely chopped garlic cloves, some chopped fresh thyme, a little ground cumin and cinnamon, a little garam masala and some freshly ground black pepper and coarse seasalt. Roast the chicken at 180 C for at least 90 minutes, turning it the right way up after 45 minutes. Baste it as best you can at this point. Note: I don't bother trussing the chicken: the legs will be looser that way and at the end of cooking, the chicken should be ready to fall apart, making carving easy. You can use the hot juices to dress a bowl of salad leaves. Note: this is a totally unposh, unrefined dish!

I like to serve my spiced potatoes with this: Boil some unpeeled new potatoes, or unpeeled old ones chopped into large chunks, until just tender, then drain well. In a wok or other wide pan, melt a little unsalted butter and about 3 tablesp sunflower, groundnut or corn oil. When the oil sizzles, add spices of your choice: I find that cumin seeds marry well with potatoes, and also add a few mustard and fennel seeds, some ground chilli pepper, fresh, finely chopped ginger root and some crushed garlic. Stir the spices around for a minute or 2, then add the potatoes and keep stirring , over a low heat, for about 10 minutes. Add some coarse seasalt at the end. Garnish with chopped parsley or coriander leaves if you wish.

CLOUDS, CASTLES AND COLLATIONS

A quick diary of my trip back to the UK:

Let’s start with arriving at Catania on Wednesday 3rd: I always get off the bus at the airport as it’s easier to find a taxi there than at the town stop when you are laden with luggage. “50 €”, declared the driver when we arrived at my hotel. “That”, I informed him, “seems a lot to me. I live here and I know what the prices should be.” “Oh, 30 €, then”, said he, apologetically, then shook my hand but still looked as if he was expecting a tip. What he got was a lecture about not judging by appearances: “I may be pale and blonde but I am neither unfluent in Italian nor stupid”, said I and with that I swept off. Hopefully he’ll be more careful next time! Silly man – had he asked for 30 or even 40 € in the first place I’d have given him 10 more, as I was in a benign, holiday mood. Then a wander around Catania, a city which has always treated me kindly, in the evening and back for a wonderful meal in the hotel restaurant: You see it above, beginning with an orange salad flavoured with fennel, dressed with olive oil and garnished with anchovies and toast. No, I still don’t eat fish and could have ordered it without, but I wanted to see how they would use the anchovies. This is such a simple idea and so easy to copy. I don’t normally care for fennel, though it is much beloved of the Sicilians, often, in season, taking the place of fruit at the end of a meal, for it does clear the palate. I do like it like this, though. As a second course I partook of veal scaloppine served with a mushroom sauce and finally treated myself to this semifreddo of almonds. I seem to be known at the hotel now, so got my liqueur and coffee free, which sort of made up for the naughty taxi driver! One thing that struck me was that I see the same maître d'hôtel and other waiting staff there year after year; there doesn’t seem , in hotels at any rate here, to be the quick staff turnover that we have in Britain.

Next day at the airport you could, as ever, immediately tell who was British, for the women wore clothes of understated elegance – every one of them dressed at least partly in beige – whilst the men seemed ill at ease in the lighter apparel of late summer. And however well turned out, British women don’t “walk tall", telling the world they know they look good in the way that Italian women do. I also noticed the impatience of the British, strutting around as if we still ruled the waves and some even turning quite nasty when told that an airport shop would not open before 8 am. A couple of years ago that would have annoyed me too but now I look on with amusement and pazienza. Help! I might be acquiring the latter!! There is a smart new terminal at Catania: it lacks places to sit before you go through security and there is no bookshop after the x-ray machine but otherwise it is a much better place to wait in than the old one, apart from the facts that the bar has nothing remotely recognisable to a Brit, American or even a Frenchman as breakfast fare and they have started to charge for trolleys. Why?! If the busiest airports in the world can survive without introducing such a fee, I don’t see the necessity at Fontanarossa. Where do they think anyone is going to take the unwieldy things?

The flight was on time and I got my Cardiff bus but, with the Laurel and Hardy of National Express driving, although we left Gatwick on time, we were 45 minutes late out of Heathrow, for Messrs L & H weren’t very good at checking who had reservations and who was on standby. Bring back the dragon hostesses, who were “jobsworths” as far as what hand baggage you took on board but who would have sorted this in an instant! Then we hit the traffic so it was 7pm before I could text my friend Christabelle, with whom I was to stay, with the magic word, “bridge!” [meaning crossing into Wales] and I was an hour late getting to her – and a gin and tonic. [You can see Chris and me in picture 9.]

The first thing I noticed in Britain was how much closer to you the clouds seem and the second was the tapestry of green. Yes, I cried! And I also cried at the majesty of Caerphilly Castle [near Christabelle’s house] and I unashamedly offer you a photo of it in the middle of a blog about Sicily.

On Friday I walked around Cardiff, took a photo of an English breakfast for Raffaele the hairdresser, who doesn’t believe my description of one, and neither, come to think of it, does Gina, who, although she has spent plenty of time in the UK, asked me the day before I left if we ate “fresh green” beans in the morning. John Dickie is correct when he writes, in Delizia, that "the very notion of frying anything so early in the day is enough to make most Italian stomachs turn". Then I met a friend who, arriving in her car, asked, “Where do you want to go?” “Tesco!” said I.

Saturday brought the highlight of my trip and the real reason why I went at all: the annual Cheltenham Literary Festival. I had to get up at 5am in order to get there in time for the midday lecture I had booked as there was railway engineering work between Gloucester and Cheltenham causing delays. Here the true genius of the British is revealed : stage a prestigious event and then ensure maximum difficulty for the travelling public in getting to it. The talk was by Germaine Greer - I hear you groaning now, James! – and as mornings and I don’t get on I was not a happy bunny, until she spoke, that is. I can honestly say she is the best speaker I have ever heard, on any subject, anywhere and it was well worth the effort to attend. She has written a book on Mrs Shakespeare, to whom she believes history has been unfair. After that, I wandered around elegant Cheltenham, bought a few more books in the tents and had lunch in an Italian – of course! – restaurant. This was pleasant and reasonably priced for Britain, but I wondered why an Italian establishment listed pasta dishes under antipasti, unless it was to discourage the British from ordering them as a main course, which they never are in Italy. Then a rush back to Christabelle’s for dinner with friends there.

Sunday and I met a former teaching colleague for coffee – I am finding that I can no longer take the British “long” coffee or brodo [broth] as a friend here calls it – lunch and a shopping expedition. I was shocked to learn that so many of the people I worked with in one particular school have forms of cancer, have had breakdowns or are otherwise ill. I can only suppose that the stress of such a situation catches one up and I truly feel for all of them. How lovely it was, later, to read the papers as papers and not as online editions! The very process is so different.

Monday was the big day when I at last met Liz and Shirl [photos 6 and 7] and some of the details are already on our lunch blog [and it was clever Shirl who put the link to that in my sidebar!] I am going to post there again tomorrow. We got on famously, as I knew we would and I had a lovely time. Kind Shirl gave me the “make-up” fridge magnet which you see above, a little book of “friendship” quotations [in the last picture] and some chocs which I can’t show you – guess why?! I don’t know why but I navigated [with clear instructions from Shirl’s husband, Pete] Liz to Shirl’s place in Bristol, then got her lost back in Cardiff on the way to Penarth where I was to meet Christabelle and my former neighbours for supper! Sorry, Liz! This couple have just adopted a dear little girl of two and here’s a secret : I’m scared of 2-year-olds and the like, because I haven’t had children and was not used to little ones in my own family, so I don’t know what you’re supposed to say or do around them! Give me a hall of unruly teenagers, however, and I’d be fine. However, this little girl is especially delightful and has already learnt to say “Cheers – together!” so she is being well taught. My friends cooked me this stunning shepherd’s pie and had crumbled a little of the Sicilian oregano I had brought them into it. Just what I needed!

British early dining - although not as early as American evening meals – was a shock to my system throughout the trip, though. Here it is not unusual to dine as late as 10 or even 11pm and certainly no one would think of it before 9. That suits me, with my “owl’s blood” as my Dad used to call it.

On Tuesday I met my friend Jo the artist for a leisurely lunch in Cardiff and afterwards we wandered around Borders, where, the Dodos will be pleased to learn, Jo asked me, “Now, what book can I buy you for Xmas?” and I pointed to theirs. I’ve been wanting it for a while and I’m sure it will cheer up my winter. Jo had also brought me some more "Welsh" fridge magnets and you will see that they have joined the conglomeration on the door above. [That’s the best photo I could take – sorry.] In Borders I also bought an inflatable daffodil – how did I live without one for so long, I wonder? – and, as you see, I got my “Klippits” from Lakeland!


And suddenly that was the end, for I was travelling back to London for an overnight hotel stay on the Wednesday. [I can no longer do the midnight coach plus a 1200 mile flight plus a further 2 hours to get to Modica in one go.] I have to say the loo at Cardiff Bus Station remains disgusting: people grumble about the facilities here but, although some of the contraptions may lack a seat, they are not dirty. At Gatwick I noted, anew, the impatience of the British: “Huh! You wait around for 2 hours and then you have to spend 20 minutes walking to the gate”, huffed one of my compatriots when boarding was announced. I thought: “You are obviously fit and on holiday; you are going to a lovely place; what’s the matter with you?”

In Cardiff I even passed the man’s house several times on my way to and from from London and en route to other places: it doesn’t hurt any more and I’m not even sure I could pick out which one it is in the row now. It’s just a memory. "Forgive yourself", said Shirl on Monday and I rather think I will. I also managed to walk by what was my own house – or the building society’s – and it seemed somewhat forlorn. I could have coped with that better had the present occupier made some alterations to the outside!

The visit was tinged with sadness not only because of the former colleague situation I have mentioned, but because there is one friend who is not well and who has deteriorated so much that I fear I will not see her again. Admittedly, parting is always difficult, for who knows what the future holds for any of us? But it was a little harder to leave my father’s land this time.


However, it seems that in Britain, if al-Qaeda doesn’t get you, bedbugs on the London underground will, so on the whole I am glad to be back, with Simi, on my other island. I have returned to a temperature of 25 C but the women have decided it is autumn, apparel – wise, and I am glad of that. There just comes a moment when I want to don my blacks, shoes rather than sandals and tights! “Welcome home!” my kind neighbour who always brings me packs of mineral water when he visits the supermarket shouted from his balcony last night. “Do you need any water?” And at lunch time yesterday I was given a very big box of torroncini as a ben tornata present by the manager of the Altro Posto. Most importantly, Simi is here: I got into the apartment at 7.30 pm on Thursday, unpacked a bit, but then found myself wandering around sighing, “I want my baby!” until she arrived, as beautiful and as full of energy and wagginess as ever, at 8pm with “Mr Enzo”. Then I knew I was home! Oh, yes – I cried when I landed upon the soil of the “land of lands”, too!

AND FOR SUPPER...

This is a Greek dish which I have adapted to the ingredients available here. My mother used to make it for me as comfort food, and I think it is definitely in that category:

Chicken with Tomato Rice

2 large skinned, boned chicken breasts, cut into pieces

1 clove garlic, halved

'strattu [tomato paste, not purée]

coarse seasalt and freshly ground black pepper

4 oz unsalted butter

8 oz long-grain rice

Heat the oven to 160 C.

Rub the chicken pieces all over with the cut sides of the garlic and then with tomato paste. Place them in an oiled roasting dish. Season with the pepper and salt then dot with the butter. Bake for 45 minutes.

Cook the rice till just done in c. 2 pints water, then drain.

Bring a further 1 pint of water to the boil then add it to the chicken with the rice. Make sure the chicken pieces are on top of the rice.

Cover with foil and bake for a further 30 minutes.

Take the dish out of the oven and replace the foil with kitchen paper towels [which will absorb excess moisture - yes, they will!] Let it stand for 15 minutes before serving.

You only need some good bread and a salad to accompany this.

PASTA AL FORNO

There are times when only pasta al forno [oven-baked pasta] will do and there are as many recipes for it as there are cooks making it. I like to use William Black's recipe from his book, Al Dente, though, as with any recipe, I don't follow it to the letter: I add some slices of mild salame instead of using an uncooked Italian sausage and I leave out the hard-boiled egg ,which is supposed to help keep the filling together; so what if it crumbles a bit, in a dish like this? I truly think this is one of the great comfort foods of the world and Black tells the tale of a very elderly lady , from a village near Amalfi, who would choose it as her last meal.

INVOLTINI DI MAIALE

This is another dish from the cookbook that never lets me down, Marcella Cucina - pork bundles containing smoked pancetta and slices of gherkin, cooked with garlic, sage and tomatoes. I didn't use to have much success cooking involtini in Britain as the cuts of meat were either that little bit too thick and didn't brown properly, or else too thin and they would break up during cooking. But here if you tell the butcher you are going to prepare involtini he will know exactly what you need. This is a dish which is on my "Italian comfort food" list.

Chicken, veal and aubergines can also be used to make types of involtini.

MODICA GETS PREPARED

From Saturday, for just over one week, our little town will be very important in Sicily, as, for the third time, Modica hosts the Eurochocolate Festival. So there was much bustle and activity in Modica Bassa when I was down there yesterday morning. During this festival the town really comes into its own and shows how well it can organise and stage events when it tries: there will be tastings, exhibitions, lectures, films and even a beauty parlour featuring products made with chocolate! Free transport from this district to Modica Bassa is provided and everyone is happy and proud of their town. The theme this year is chocolate and films because someone has had the bright idea that a bar of chocolate, divided into sections, resembles a roll of film. Personally, I think that is quite brilliant and innovative. I have written about Modica's most famous chocolate maker here and there is some more information in Italian about the festival here and , in English, here.

ANGLO-INDIAN-SICILIAN SHEPHERD'S PIE!

A comment of Liz's a while back made me want that ultimate comfort food beloved of the British, Shepherd's Pie. For a long time, I have used Madhur Jaffrey's Anglo - Indian version [from Madhur Jaffrey's Cook Book, a general collection rather than a specifically Indian one] but when I make it here I have to modify it further: I can't get minced lamb, so I use beef and, as this makes the dish "heavier" I use half the quantity of meat given in the recipe. Then I "cheat" by using the ready-grilled aubergines in oil which are sold here rather than grilling them myself. [You can get these in some delicatessens in Britain and you used to be able to buy them at one stall in Cardiff Market, but I have not found the quality good by the time the packs arrive in Britain.] MJ does not tell you to peel the tomatoes and I don't, but I rather think Sicilians would. She does, however, tell you to peel the potatoes but that is something I rarely do, so I don't for this dish. [Serving unpeeled potatoes to the Sicilians results in their spending the whole meal trying to get the cooked skin off, though, so I do sometimes concede when entertaining.] I used red chilli peppers instead of green ones and this time, I didn't have any thyme to sprinkle on so I used oregano. Above you see the layers of aubergine and tomatoes, the potatoes laid on top of these and the meat [which has been fried with the spices] ready to go in the oven and the finished dish - true fusion-comfort-food!