A little bit of Italy ... in Ireland

Amo l'italiano

(I love italian) At least that's what I hope it says. Babelfish have a lot to answer for if not!

In the middle of tidying up this evening I suddenly thought "I really fancy penne luganica from Carluccios".

Don't ask me how or why that came into my head, it just did. It was my favourite dish in one of my favourite restaurants.

Anyways before I start waffling on about all the other things I'm now thinking about and missing in London I decided to have a quick look online and see if I could find a recipe. I was expecting to find 'a' recipe but not 'the' recipe!!! How excited was I! How bizarre though - it's part of their annual report which you can find here along with their mushroom risotto recipe.

So after printing it out and pegging it to my new recipe display thing me bob (aka a sheet of glass I found outside and now use to peg recipes to when I'm cooking). It's fab as you just wipe the glass down and your recipes don't get ruined).




Ok I'm waffling. So off I go to see if I have all the ingredients. Hmmm I'm afraid there was a bit of substitution i.e. Irish pork sausages in place of luganica ones and fromage frais in place of the double cream. Apart from that I had everything else. I even went out down the garden to pick the fresh rosemary!




And the result ?



Delicious ... not as good as Carluccios, obviously! However, a very very good substitute and best of all there's leftovers for tomorrow :o)

Keeping with the italian theme I finished off with a double espresso and biscotti.



I have a feeling this could be a late night :o)