Hauptgang

The kitchen has turned into a pasta production centre. This was only a small part of the whole (160 tortelli in total). First off, make an egg-rich dough (250g flour „00“ grade, 250g semolina, 4 egg yolks, 3 eggs, 1 cl olive oil and 5g salt makes enough pasta dough for six hungry people). Tortelli …

Austrian cuisine is hearty. It’s mountain food: the sort of calorie intake that is allowed because you have just had a massive calorie outpouring climbing up and down the mountain. This is the savoury version – potato dumplings which, when cut open, reveal pork scratchings in a rich sauce, topped with crisp fried onions. Add …

The original spaghetti carbonara: take good quality spaghetti, trenette or linguine (ideally „al bronzo“ ie with a roughed-up surface so that the sauce sticks better), use guanciale (cured and air-dried pig’s cheek, not smoked) and not bacon, please, as well as eggs with additional egg yolks rather than cream, Pecorino cheese (ideally from Sardinia), parsley, …

Store cupboard supper: you know it only too well – that kohlrabi lingering in the veg drawer of the fridge shouting „cook me“ – and the bulk buy of smoked salmon from a couple of months ago taking up too much space in the freezer. This calls for a flight of fantasty from Burnt the …

Actually, we can’t remember what the celebration was all about. But we do remember what the food (and of course the wine) was: saffron risotto with Dublin prawns. Bernd loves a risotto. He learnt how to make this archetypal Italian dish in Milan with Gualtieri Marchesi, the first three Michelin star chef in Italy. And …

Don’t you just love a bit of alliteration. To be more precise: this was salmon teriyaki (with miso, lemon zest, honey and jalapenos) with pan-fried green asparagus and shiitake mushrooms seasoned with coriander and mint. The herbal green notes in the dish harmonised beautifully with the capsicum and tomato leaf, clean-as-a-whisktle character of this 2020 …