This week’s cookbook was Complete Italian Food by Antonio Carluccio. It’s a lovely book that sits between an encyclopaedia of Italian food and a set of recipes to cook. According to the book, the week started as most Sundays for most Neapolitans with the Gran Ragu Napoletano. This is a mixed meat stew (beef, lamb and pork), slow-cooked in tomatoes for a few hours. The meat is then removed from the sauce. The sauce is then served with pasta as a starter and meat with vegetables as the main. The sauce was delicious, though the meat had dried out a little more than we’d have liked. We served the leftovers the following day with a beautiful fried pepper recipe – Peperoni Fritti. It’s straightforward, peppers, garlic chilli and olive oil. Next up was Petti di Pollo Alla Pizzaiola – Chicken in a “pizza” sauce. This was great, chicken breasts in a garlic, caper, parsley anchovy and tomato sauce. We served it with a really rather fun Gatto Di Palate (potato cake). Think mash with ham, three types of cheese, eggs, topped with breadcrumbs and baked. I liked it, but I think the others would have just preferred some nice mash! All in all a pretty good week of cooking. We have more Italian coming this week too!!