I had always loved the spaghetti alla vongole (along with, of course, the good old traditional spaghetti bolognese!) served up in my local Italian restaurant so, when I went to Bellagio on Lake Como a few years ago, I was hoping it would be on the menu. We were celebrating a special occasion and staying at a superb hotel complete with a Michelin starred restaurant. Sadly spaghetti vongole was obviously deemed insufficiently grand for it to make an appearance, so the following evening we decided to head off into town to see if we could seek it out.

The mission was easily accomplished; in fact it seemed to be on most of the menus. When my meal arrived I was slightly shocked to see a lack of tomatoes. It transpires that you can have vongole rosso or bianco, the former having tomatoes in the sauce and the latter not. If I had thought that my local Italian served up a good vongole, I was about to enter a different zone. The dish was absolutely delicious and despite extensive tasting I have yet to find another to come close.

The dish is in essence quite simple to prepare at home, even for people who normally just stick to Schwartz recipes. It revolves around a combination of garlic, olive oil, clams, parsley and white wine. My first attempt was, however, rather disappointing. Feeling slightly apprehensive of cooking clams myself, I copped out and bought a jar of clams. What a disappointment! They simply did not have the taste of fresh clams and what’s more were so tiny that they were hardly worth the effort of taking them out of their shells. My next attempt used fresh clams and in fact there was nothing much to cooking them. The main thing to remember was to remove them as soon as they opened so as not to allow them to dry out. It is also important to discard any with broken shells or ones that don’t open. They are dead and should definitely not be used.

Unfortunately I would only give myself six out of ten. I’m not sure where I went wrong (maybe not using expensive wine or perhaps the olive oil was not the same as the one used in Bellagio) but at least it gives me a good excuse to return to Italy soon!

Trying a new cuisine from somewhere you have never visited on holiday can be daunting. However, it can also be one of the most rewarding culinary experiences you will ever have. Those who have tried out Thai or Greek recipes will know what I’m talking about here, but another fantastic one to try when you get the chance is Japanese.

Contrary to popular belief, sushi does not entirely comprise of raw fish. There are many different varieties and some can even be made according to vegetarian recipes (not to be confused with fish-eating vegetarians or “pescatarians”). The basic ingredients to sushi are:

- Nori (the seaweed wrap)
- Shari (the short-grained sushi rice, often mixed with vinegar)
- Neta (the primary ingredient(s))
- Condiments

Sushi is an art; you are not going to perfect it on your first attempt. However, you really shouldn’t be put off by this. When you get into the rhythm, rolling the perfect sushi can provide such satisfaction and variety from your usual meals.

The ingredients are not too hard to find; there may not be entire isles dedicated to nori and shari but you can find them at supermarkets, or even find the more authentic, imported ingredients at Asian markets.

Putting together the ingredients is not the difficult part of the process; it is all in the roll. They are going to fall apart again and again and again but there are some techniques to help you through the learning curve.

To begin with, you are going to want to use a vegetable as the filling as this will be much easier. Start by laying the sheet of nori smooth side down; you will be able to feel which side is smooth and which side is slightly rough.

The shari is notoriously sticky, so you will need to keep your hands wet when handling, which will make your work a lot less frustrating. Put the rice into a bowl and grab a handful, gently rolling a ball in your hand. Place this ball in the middle of the nori and delicately spread it evenly across the sheet. It is very important not to overstuff the sushi roll, so make sure that there is only a light layer, removing some rice if necessary. The entire sheet should be covered by rice, except two centimetres at the top and bottom which will help you when it comes to rolling.

The next step is to put your neta into the roll. For beginners, I would recommend using asparagus or cucumber as they will be sturdier for when it comes to the time to roll. The cucumber would need to be sliced to fit and a width of about 1.5cm is ideal for the filling. Line the cucumber or asparagus along the edge of the nori, next to one of the margins we left in the previous step. For now, we’ll just leave it with the one ingredient.

Now comes the roll. It will be difficult but keep soldiering on. You will need to take the edge of the nori and close it around your ingredient, attempting to make a rectangular shape. The key here is the rectangular shape and trying to make a circular one will result in it falling apart a lot more. Once the nori is around the ingredient, make sure it is tight and fitting so there is no room to fall out. Make sure you are applying pressure from all three sides and continue with the roll, keeping it tight at all times. Once you have reached the end of the roll, it should be nice and compact.

To finish, use a wet knife to cut the roll in to six or eight pieces. Serve with some condiments on the side, such as soy sauce, wasabi and horse radish. Gari, a sweet ginger, also goes well with sushi.

Once you are confident with your abilities, you should try putting a light sprinkling of condiments on top of the vegetables in the roll or including more in it. Then, move on to putting fish it and combining it with vegetables. Here is a list of popular sushi rolls for you to try out:

- Salmon
- Tuna
- Prawn & Chive
- California Roll
· Avocado, Crab Stick, Cucumber
- Philadelphia Roll
· Raw/Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, Cucumber/Avocado

There are lot of different kinds of pasta in Rome. It looks beautiful and it’s really tasty.

Actually to make perfect homemade pasta is not difficult as you may think. There are various different pasta resipes online with ratings, reviews and cooking tips.
Then you can choose the most suited recipe to try to prepare homemade Italian pasta.
All what you need is
1. Flour (200g)
2. Eggs (2 big or 3 small)
3. salt by taste
4. water
You even dont need a pasta machinecut but cut your pasta with a knife.

Someone said that wine in itself is an excellent thing and that is reaaly so but not only. All those who enjoy the occasional glass of wine, who believe that a meal is not complete without the bottle of good wine, so they know what I mean. Beer is made by men, but wine by God! “The scope of the subject of wine is never ending, so many other subjects lie within its boundaries. Without geography and topography it is incomprehensible; without history it is colorless; without taste it is meaningless; without travel it remains unreal. It embraces botany, chemistry, agriculture, carpentry, economics – any number of sciences whose names I do not even know. It leads you up paths of knowledge and by-ways of experience you would never glimpse without it.”

Bottle of perfect wine is also superb gift for someone you love. Everyone has his or her own preferences for wine. A to me I prefer red and dry types of wine like Merlot, Cabernet sauvignon or something in Bordeaux style wines. But preparing for hest one should take into accaunt such important points as the types of foods with which the wine can be paired and your guests’ preferences of course. Oh, what I am talking about you know it pretty well.

Tout se mêle en un vif éclat de gaieté verte
O le beau soir de mai ! Tous les oiseaux en choeur,
Ainsi que les espoirs naguère à mon coeur,
Modulent leur prélude à ma croisée ouverte.

Time and again I would tell myself to start and follow a natural weight loss regimen. One time, I would really get excited and plan my daily diet, including the foods that I need to eat and in what amount, for the entire week. This will really get me all challenged and thrilled. Every single day I am happy that I will reach my goal for that day alone.

But you see, after that first week, I would go back to my old bad diet. I don’t seem to keep up with what I set my mind into and follow my natural weight loss regimen for the continuing weeks. What seems to be the problem here? Well, of course it’s me. Lack of determination, perhaps. But I found out that a weight loss program will be more effective if you have support, like a diet buddy that you can relate to, share your everyday goals to or join you for a 30-minute jogging or other similar activities.

You need a buddy, not a date (or it could be a date), and you can surely find someone if you go through your lists of friends. Coaching is also very important for a healthy diet program to work. You can have a dietician or a nutritionist to plan out your daily diet plan to and update him or her with your daily achievements and improvements. Doing so will help you persevere more to keep up with your goals.

Aside from good and health foods that should be in your meal everyday, a successful natural weight loss regimen should also include vitamins. This may in forms of supplements which you can find in your nearby drugstore or online. It is a good thing to consult with your doctor so he or she can evaluate your health condition and your weight status so you can be prescribed the right vitamins to supplement your diet.