Adventures in Italian Cooking

On Christmas Day last year, my friend J and her husband M invited us to lunch at their house.

Among the many presents she gave me, one of them was this:

The Complete Italian Cookbook by Tarla Dalal

 As stated in my year-end blogpost, I had attempted to prepare a lasagna a couple of times last year. That in addition to my tendency to whip up some simple pasta dish whenever I felt the mood led her to believe other Italian recipes would interest me too. 

And she was right. Over the next few weeks, I ticked off one recipe after another from the table of contents.

I started off with some bruschettas which turned out pretty good, but I don’t pictures of those so I will present to you instead, Roasted Bell Pepper Crostinis!

Disclaimer: No family members, friends or distant relatives were harmed by the consumption of the following dishes.

Roasted Bell Pepper Crostini

I played safe and stuck to the simple pastas mostly, which included this colourful preparation:

Fusili with Spring Onions, Corn and Red Pepper

By this point, I had gained enough confidence to try out some soups:

Broccoli soup

And then some salads:

Neapolitan Potato Salad

Most of the required ingredients were readily available at the friendly neighbourhood grocery store. For a few imgredients like fresh basil and parsley leaves, I had to pay a visit to Dorabjee’s.

I am pleased to report that I have swept through 22 of the 87 recipes listed in the book. Not bad, but for the rest of the year my progress will run at a glacial speed, due to work reasons.

How about you? How are you doing with your annual goals list?