While still in Italy, we visited the Marche region and stayed with some friends from South Africa. My friend recently became diabetic and so she shared some of her favorite recipes with me. We loved her cooking style because it is essentially the same diet as “Ketogenic”. Being from South Africa they refer to this diet as “Banting” diet after the doctor who came up with this eating style.
A few days after arriving back home in California, I told my mom “If you are going to make pizza, please let me know so I can plan on it for dinner!” She said “I didn’t think you would want to eat pizza since you have been living in Italy eating the “best” pizza!” I replied “I DO want to eat pizza, I want to eat YOUR homemade Pizza!” So with a little smile on her face she agreed to make me pizza.
When we first arrived in Italy we were invited to a young couples house for dinner in San Felice, by the sea. The husband lives to dive, surf and fish in the ocean and he had caught an octopus and it was featured on the menus that night. It was strange for us to see an octopus being cooked with its strange suction cup lined tentacles and bulbous head. It was even stranger to eat one. But his octopus salad was fresh from the sea and served in a cold salad with celery, lemon and parsley. My husband who is not usually a seafood guy, absolutely loved it and dove right in. You can read the story of dinner that night on my article “Dinner for Six”.
Fudge Brownies are as much of a hit in Italy as they are in America. Who can resist that moist, deep chocolate flavor? I love this recipe because you just dump all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix it up. It’s easier than using a brownie box mix! Some things in life are just delicious and easy! This recipe is another treasure from that little blue vinyl cook book I copied years ago from my mother.
