Olive Magazine August 2018

Escaping to Italy once the heat of the English summer abates is becoming an annual thing for me. And I fully blame the Olive magazine team for this – there are only so many bowls of buttery pasta, sharp lemon granitas and golden, olive-oil-drenched breads from the test kitchen (preparing for our yearly Italian issue), that I can take without booking my flights. Last year it was Ischia, a tiny isle in the Bay of Naples. We rented a boat and stumbled across a new restaurant that had opened for the summer, clinging to the cliff face. A boat came out to meet us, helped us moor up, and we began the climb up the hill. Finding a table in the shade, watching the turquoise waters twinkle below, we tucked into…

Espresso martini tiramisu 30 MINUTES + SETTING | SERVES 12 | EASY strong black coffee 400ml (use a cafetière)brown sugar 2 tspvodka 4 tbspKahl Kahlú 4 tbspmascarpone 500 500gdouble cream 600 600mlicing sugar 3 tbspvanilla extract extract 1 tbspinstant espresso espresso coffee powder powder 2 tbspsavoiardi sponge sponge fingers 300 300gdark chocolate 50 50gcocoa powder for dusting • Mix Mix the black coffee, brown sugar sugar, vodka and 3 tbsp of the Kahl Kahlúa in a shallow bowl.. Mix the mascarpone in a separate bowl for 2 minutes to break it up, then beat in the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla with electric beaters until it forms soft peaks.. Spoon out/3 of the cream into another bowl. Mix the coffee powder with the rest of the Kahl Kahlú and stir in to…

TRENDS TRANSLATOR Each month, the Olive team spots a new trend appearing in restaurants, street-food stalls and supper clubs across the UK, and then translates it for you to cook at home. This time we’re giving arancini a quirky twist. » Spaghetti carbonara arancini 45 MINUTES + CHILLING | SERVES 4 A LITTLE EFFORT mozzarella 75g, cut into 2cm cubesplain flour 50g, well seasonedeggs 2, beatenpanko breadcrumbs 100gvegetable oil for deep fryingsea salt flakes CARBONARA diced pancetta 77g packgarlic 1 clove, bashedegg yolks 2black peppercorns crushed to make ¼ tspGrana Padano 75g, finely grateddouble cream 3 tbspspaghetti 150g, broken into 2cm pieces • To make the carbonara, put the pancetta and garlic into a cold frying pan and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the fat has rendered from the pancetta and is really crisp, and the…

LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS Carbs, beige, fried – and Italian: this Neapolitan street food is ticking a lot of trend boxes right now. Known as crocchette di tagliolini or frittatine di pasta, they date back to the 19th century and lay somewhere between a croquette and arancini but without the faff of making a béchamel or a risotto. Chopped spaghetti is bound with cheese, cream, ham, at its simplest, and then rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. What’s not to love? We’ve taken the flavours of one of our favourite pasta dishes as inspiration – the carbonara – and added our own twist, by stuffing it with extra, oozy, mozzarella. You could use left-over spaghetti carbonara, or another pasta for that matter, or make it from scratch, as we have done. Just be…

I’LL DRINK TO THAT! What are we listening to? In this informative drinks podcast, former sommelier Levi Dalton and co-host Erin Scala interview a wide variety of wine experts, from sommeliers and small producers to wine writers and famous personalities in the industry – all in Levi’s tiny New York apartment. Why you should download it The interviews go into great detail about particular grape varieties and regions. Expect plenty of wine geekery and expert recommendations for unusual and great-value bottles to buy, so you can put your new knowledge into practice at your next dinner party.…

SIGHT SMELL TOUCH TASTE SOUND What’s it about? Award-winning writer Sybil Kapoor has taken the basic underpinnings of any recipe – taste, flavour, texture, temperature and appearance – and used them to give the reader an accessible crash course in kitchen theory, exploring how understanding each tenet will take your cooking to the next level. Why you should read it Theory and jargon is kept to a minimum, and the recipes are straightforward and appealing. In a chapter on the importance of marinades, Sybil uses lemon juice and spices to cut through the fatty richness of lamb shish kebab, and lets kombu add umami flavour to grilled sea bass. In another section, she explores infusing by showing how to create a fragrant, herby olive oil for charred leek salad, or macerating lemon peel in…