Mariella Bliss - Blissful Italian food

Courgette Gratin 🇫🇷 I made this almost immediately after seeing post .
Being in Naples at the moment, I got the courgettes and everything needed just down the road .
Moments like this are what I miss most about Italy… even after 28 years.
That feeling of “scendo un attimo a comprare zucchine, riso e formaggio’ 😉

I successfully googled the recipe by Mireille Johnston, and also found this beautiful read about her life Mireille Johnston | | https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/oct/28/guardianobituaries1 .
I shall look for the book next.

Like Stefano, I added courgette flowers to the mix, skipped the bacon and slightly adapted the quantities to what I had at home. Nutmeg is a game changer.

Absolutely delicious for a hot summer evening and a great dish to prepare ahead.

Grazie Ste! 🙌

Sunday 10th May, 12–4pm
Join the village garage sale
I’m ridiculously excited as this will be my very first one!

For your coffee and a map of all the listed garages, head first to the village hall… then come and see me!
😃😃😃
Olive ciabatta, focaccia, pizza slices, brioches, glorious sandwiches ,  breads and almond croissants together with brilliant cookery books, kitchen bits and bobs, clothes and all sorts of treasures at bargain prices.
There is no such thing as a garage sale in Naples… which might explain the excitement 😉

What a weekend!
Family time in Devon… that somehow turned into a baker’s meeting, part semi planned, part pure coincidence.
A quick “invasion” of the Queen of Fika .exeter while she was prepping for her market.
She offered (we scoffed!) cardamom and cinnamon buns and decided to go back to her Topsham market for more and stayed to the end!
I love a good Town Hall market: linen shirts, jams and marmalade , bits and bobs, object from the past, wooden tools and little treasures you didn’t know you were looking for… Beatles matryoshka for Edward Bliss !? 😉
We bought more than 10 buns for the whole family , it’s 6pm now and they have all gone . Just the best , the very best ! Grazie Annika x

Walking through Dartmouth we came across two bakers owning a Rock Master oven by Completely by chance 💛
Nice to meet you and

Days like this remind me the reason I decide to stay in England!
Happy Bank Holiday everyone 🥰

One of the dishes I always crave after a busy 🍸 weekend: FAVE E CICORIA - Creamy fava bean purée, wild chicory and good extra virgin olive oil.
A humble Puglian classic that proves how much you can do with just a few ingredients.

Here is my old recipe , learnt many years ago from the Pugliese Chef Antonio De Rosa.
Wild bitter chicory, hard to find, can be replaced with other bitter greens, or those mixed with spinach or chard

🥬 Fava Bean Purée with Chicory 🥬
Fave e cicoria

Ingredients
* 500 g dried white fava beans
* 200 g potatoes
* 1 bay leaf
* 20 g white onion
* Salt and extra virgin olive oil
* 1 kg wild chicory ( or a mix of greens)
* 40 g sweet red onion
* 100 g toasted semolina bread
Method
- Soak the dried fava beans for two hours. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. As soon as they reach boiling point, drain and rinse under cold water.
- Cover again with cold water and add the sliced potatoes. Add the white onion and bay leaf.
- Cook over low heat with lid on , without stirring during cooking.
- Season with salt and pass/blend the beans until you obtain a smooth, homogeneous purée. Whip/mix in extra virgin olive oil (better with a food processor)
- Clean and wash the wild chicory or greens. Boil them in plenty of salted water. Once cooked, run them briefly under cold water to soften the bitterness.
- Serve the fava bean purée with the hot boiled chicory, topped with thinly sliced red onion ( raw or sauteed) and toasted slices of stale Altamura bread.

- Finish with plenty extra virgin olive oil.

My Tackley pop-up and two smashing Pizza & Focaccia classes with Sue at : glorious setting and weather and brilliant students!

It’s fun and interesting for me to explore different pizza styles together even without mozzarella (Rossa in teglia) or tomato sauce also known as Bianca (white). We topped it with Friarielli greens and smoked mozzarella). A big big hit despite the initial reservations 😉

Impossible not to mention one of the highlights of our classes: the marvellous Antipasto board skilfully assembled by Sue… appears like magic just when the focaccia comes out the oven 💛

Next classes (link in bio) :
18 May evening - Pizza Shaping and baking
5th July - Pizza and Focaccia classes
Both at
21st May just outside Newbury

A few days in Naples.
The usual rush, endless coffee at the bar, sea views, traditional pastries and new creations (wonderful cinnamon buns and refined viennoiserie have reached Naples 🙌), market joy, wine with friends, and most importantly, precious time with my mum and dad.

Some highlights:
- An exhibition I’d wanted to see for a long time at gallerieditalia , featuring one of my favourite Caravaggio Il Martirio di Sant’Orsola.
- at the SeaFront Napoli Pasta Bar The unforgettable Margheritine con crostacei e broccoli baresi’ Still thinking about it. Impeccable service and higher quality ingredients.
And of course, casatiello and pastiera , pastiera and Casatiello ‘a più non posso’ 😂 (endless)

Back now 💛
Baking and teaching again this week for:

Friday: Pop-up bake sale in Tackley, 3–6pm
Saturday: Pizza class at Sue Brown ( one place available)
Sunday: Wolvercote Community Market 10-12pm

I hope to see you very soon 🥰

A class that takes me back home every time: the Amalfi Coast on your table, in the beautiful setting of (Honesty Cookery School).

And when the class happens just a day after my Italian trip, the students get the freshest ingredients straight from my suitcase 😉 , artichokes included!

We cooked:
• Fresh Scialatielli
• Pasticcini al limone
• Limoncello with proper 96% alcohol 😵‍💫
• Sciuè Sciuè tomato sauce
• Seabass on potatoes
…and plenty of blissful stories along the way.

Thank you to the marvellous Honesty team ❤️

I really thought January would be quiet 🙄
Instead…
I started the week with my Focaccia and pizza class at , then a sourdough class at ( the watsapp group is very lively with questions and pictures of loaves! ) and, to end the week , today I had three lovely people learning all about pasta in Tackley . Look at those videos of very careful ravioli making… they were not beginners indeed!

My last picture is a little recommendation from my foody aunty’s bookshelf : Dear Francesca by Mary Contini.
“We eat at the table, but with very little fuss. The cutlery is simple: spoon, fork and knife, laid together on a side plate with a serviette. Two glasses are placed at each setting, one for wine, one for water. Bread and salad will be laid out, but no butter or olive oil.”
A wonderful heartwarming read and ever so true. ❤️

Thank you to everyone that has joined my classes allowing that precious happy bridge to Italy 🇮🇹

I first tasted ‘Scamorza in foglie di limone’ in Positano in the 80s . It’s one of my favourite combination: very lightly smoked scamorza (or even fior di latte) baked on lemon leaves.
Nothing else … and it’s everything! ❤️

Those lemons travelled with me 🧳 but this delicious scamorza can be found at together with many other Italian specialities (Amalfi lemon included) . Alternatively… book your holiday soon ☀️😎

Now, I’ve been playing with the same idea on focaccia, adding crispy onions too . The broken lemon leaves under the piece of scamorza really add a special touch.
I might be off to the garden centre soon 🍋 🍋