Saturday menu

Yesterday I cooked for my teacher girlfriend Dana. Dana tells me that she doesn't cook...I don't quite understand how this works but I like cooking and am happy to feed people. It must be something I inherited from my mother.

Lunch yesterday we had pasta with lentils, fresh crunch bread rolls, green salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and potato, tomato and onion bake with oregano. Dana is the perfect guest, the sort of person who eats anything, and eats just about as much as you can put on the table.

The annoying thing about cooking in our urban cave is that the oven is temperamental. Actually it's the electricity supply. We can't operate the airconditioner and washing machine at the same time. Similarly we can't have the water heater and air con on simultaneously. Keep in mind that the the refrigerator is always on. But the oven is a beast. While it is heating up it blows the power fuses continuously. I unplug everything except the fridge, turn off all the lights and it still blows. I was outside to flick the safety switch six times while the rest of lunch was cooking.

I love this potato, tomato, onion bake recipe (borrowed from Remo, a male friend of my mother-in-law's), it's easy (except I hate peeling potatoes), tasty and inexpenisve. But this whole oven thing is a real disincentive.

After three hours for lunch we wandered down the main shopping street as I tried to finish my Christmas shopping for family at home. I am going to trust these gifts to the postal system again...which is slightly ridiculous when you consider the track record that we have with packages and Poste Italiane.

Saturday night dinner was at Remo's place with Gi's mother Rosa and sister Irene. We finally started eating sometime after 9.30pm, with plates of steaming penne pasta and a delicious tomato, garlic and basil sauce. This was followed by a simple casserole of beef and peas, the gravy mopped up with chunks from a fresh loaf of bread. Then vegetable side dishes appeared: diced eggplant with tomato, and steamed potato with balsamic, olive oil and parsley. Rosa then produced an assortment of cheeses, luscious mounds of fresh, milky mozzarella, another dish of freshly smoked mozzarella cheese and a caciacavallo cheese, a slightly rubbery, very mild tasting cheese.

Of course this was all followed by the traditional tray of local pastry sweets, and I watched as Gigi, Irene and Rosa indulged on the creamy, chocolate and hazelnut flavoured desserts.

Thank goodness we don't eat like this every day of the week.

We have friends coming for dinner tonight too. I think I'm going to have to declare Monday and Tuesday's diet days to recover from the weekends.

Buon appetito!