Amalfi Coast Birthday Trip - The Food!

The food in Italy is amazing. They don't like to mess around with lots of ingredients preferring instead to focus on the quality of what they use instead. So everything is quite simple but the flavours are pure.

These bomb-like items above are firm smoked cheeses similar to mozzarella called scamorza affumicata that we found hanging in the local supermarket. We took one to Capri on my birthday for our picnic and it was divine. You think the cheese will be inside a rind, but you kind of just cut it open and eat it. My ex took a couple of these home in his suitcase which was one of the reasons we got stopped coming through customs - the other reason was my corkscrew with a knife on it!

The deli counter in the supermarket

They have tiny little pastries - ricotta-filled Cannoli, flaky chocolate or hazelnut-filled Sfogliatelle (my favourite so thank God they sell them in an Italian cafe here in Brighton!), and Cannoncini. You buy them by the weight rather than individually so they are so cheap it's embarrassing - you can fill your boots and not make a dent in your wallet!  And what do we have...? Greggs and Forfars. It's no wonder we lost the empire.

hot chocolate on a rainy afternoon in Sorrento

Caprese salad - which as I'm sure you know is tomato, mozzarella, and basil with a drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt - originates from Capri because that's where the ingredients are best. We had this with nearly every meal because the ones here in the UK are shite. The tomatoes actually taste of something in Italy and the Mozzarella is so creamy it makes the ones you get here seem like cardboard in comparison.

The remains of my cheese platter. Scuse ex's hand!

The tomatoes were astonishingly cheap as well. A bag of on-the-vine cherry tomatoes that we bought for two of us to have a picnic with came to 0.39 Euros which is cheaper than chips (as we say here) these are the most expensive tomatoes in the UK and would be around £1.80 for the same kind of amount. This is why they eat so well over there - the fruit and veg is actually affordable.

We spent quite a lot of time sitting around drinking coffee and having long lunches while reading our books or watching the world go by. I had the Gnocchi Sorrentina quite a few times which is basically just gnocchi (which I've made at home before - it's easy) covered in a rich mozzarella and tomato sauce. I can highly recommend it. The one above was baked and, although it looks a bit of a mess, I can assure you that it was a delicious comfort of a meal.

No lemons in this photo though!

Sorrento is famous for its lemons which make the stunning Limoncello digestif. I still haven't had a go at making this yet but it's on my list of things to make for Christmas presents along with the usual peanut butter fudge, vanilla biscuits, rose and peppermint creams, chocolate truffles, and lemon curd.

The above photo is very dark as it was taken in a dimly-lit restaurant but it was the antipasti platter that the owner bought out for us. Lots of lovely meats and the creamiest mozzarella I had ever tasted. He was a brilliant salesman actually and gave us complimentary prosecco and ice-cold Limoncello afterwards.

Italy is a big place and I so look forward to being able to try more of its food some day. The nearest thing I've found since I returned is the pastries in the Italian deli here and the photos in my new recipe book 'Two Greedy Italians' where Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo take me on a culinary tour of Italy. I think Gnocchi Sorrentina is going to be the first thing I make!