Luiz @ The London Foodie

Having lived out in Italy for a while I too am ‘picky’ about pasta. I was able to get some wonderful stuff out there (well; many wonderful & varied ingredients, full stop) & I miss the quality & variety we could choose from, there.

I learned that some of the simplest meals can be the most delicious: you don’t need loads of complex ingredients; just a few simple, fresh, fine quality ones.

I still can’t get to grips with mozzarella, though. My apartment was “around the corner” from a modest mozzarella factory; my flatmate loved it; & used to tuck into a plateful every evening after work. To me it had the flavour & consistency of eating balls of Kleenex…& in that specific part of Italy, when you eat out, it’s pretty much “mozzarella with everything”.

Actually I love to make the stuff; creating those glistening white mushroom spheres is extremely satisfying & therapeutic. And I have tasted some deliciously delicate pearls of exquisite buffalo mozzarella in my time….

The ultimate irony is that here in Wild West Wales, I now again live….”around the corner” from a mozzarella factory. Well; it’s actually about 15 minutes away from the farm; but it’s the first industrial edifice you reach when driving into our lovely little local market town (one of the few surviving without a major multiple…although one has applied for planning permission despite massive local opposition….they’ll win, as they always do; so stand by to see the soul sucked out of this lovely little town).

Anyway, back to ingredients etc: hence the reason we now professionally craft gelato…ice cream in the UK just isn’t the same.