A taste of Italy

I am so obsessed with this deliciously spicy pasta recipe at the moment. Discovered during one of my all too regular YouTube surfing expeditions for tasty Italian recipes, Curtis Stone has introduced me to a few invaluable cooking tips that make for unbeatable pasta. The first is roasting some of the ingredients first to intensify their flavours. Roasting tomatoes, capsicum, garlic and onion before you whizz it all up into a sauce makes all these ingredients taste 100% more powerful. The tomatoes become richer and capsicum, garlic and onion get sweeter. He also uses chilli flakes to bring a spiciness that goes really well with this dish. Talking to friends some find the idea of using chilli in a pasta recipe a little strange but classic Italian dishes such as pasta puttanasca and spaghetti with prawns, chilli and garlic feature chilli and are made all the more delicious because of it and are perfect in the winter when you need to get warmed up from the inside!

If you want to try another Italian recipe with chilli flakes in it you should give this tomato pasta bake recipe a go. Even easier and using fewer ingredients than today’s pasta recipe, this bake is great for feeding a hungry crowd! Want a warming winter friendly Italian recipe not featuring pasta? Then eggplant parmigiana is for you. A gluten free dream of a recipe, this more-ish bake will have vegetarians and meat eaters begging for the recipe.

And for dessert? You can’t go past a panna cotta – can you?!