Mushroom Risotto

I like to save all my risotto eating for autumn, when it feels right. This one makes the most of another autumn flavour - mushroom - which can be further enhanced with a bit of truffle oil (shaved truffle if you’re fancy) and a non-traditional addition of a bit of mustard used as a seasoning. I add this to almost all my risotto recipes for a bit of piquancy, and it is always in the fridge, so an easy addition.

My recipe below is derived and modified from an original by Betty’s of Yorkshire.

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PORTION SIZE

Makes 2 moderate portions (about 375g per person)

INGREDIENTS

Risotto

8-10g dried mushrooms (wild, porcini, morelles etc.)

280ml boiling water

1 shallot or small onion

1 garlic clove

140g mushrooms

30g unsalted butter

100g Arborio rice

75ml Madeira (or Marsala)

50g finely grated Parmesan

Handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

1-2 tbsp toasted pine nuts or sunflower seeds

Salt & pepper for seasoning

1 tsp Dijon (or any) mustard

To Garnish

A drizzle of truffle oil (optional)

Ratios

• 50g risotto rice per person

• 1:3 risotto rice to liquid

METHOD

Heat oven & hydrate the dried mushrooms. Preheat the oven to 150° Fan, 170° Regular. Soak the mushrooms in the boiling water for 15 minutes.

Prep the vegetables. While the mushrooms are soaking, finely dice the shallot/onion, the garlic and cut the mushrooms into 1cm chunks.

Sweat the veg. Melt the butter in an ovenproof pan (that has a lid, can go in the oven and will fit all your ingredients) over a moderate heat. Add the shallot/onion and cook until they are soft but not forming any colour. Add the garlic and fresh mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes.

Add dried mushrooms & rice. Drain the porcini mushrooms through a sieve, reserving the liquor. Finely dice the porcini and add to the pan. Add the rice and stir until all the grains are coated in butter. Pour in the alcohol and the mushroom liquor and stir. Season with salt & pepper. Careful! Go easy on the salt. You are adding Parmesan later, so this can end up being too salty.

Bake. Cover the pan with the lid and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Season & finish. Remove and stir in the parsley, pine nuts, parmesan, mustard and seasoning. TASTE HERE! Add any seasoning you think it needs to suit your tastes. Drizzle over the truffle oil if using.

SERVE!

STORAGE & REHEATING

I find risotto does not keep – make just enough to serve and eat it all.

Turin - a winter weekend

Itinerary At A Glance

• 4 night itinerary for Turin, Piedmont, in Northern Italy

• Based on flying from Leeds in December

• Highlights include a visit to the Museo del Auto (MAUTO) and the rooftop Lingotto race track in the former Fiat factory, a marvellous deluxe food tour and some tasty sweet treats

• Based on a couple travelling, with a focus on leisurely cultural activities, interspersed with time to just relax and soak up the atmosphere

 

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Honest verdict

Did I enjoy the holiday? Does the place live up to expectations?

Truthfully, I got a middling kind of enjoyment out of this holiday. Some of my enjoyment was dampened by Covid rules - Omicron swooped in just before we left, adding quite a bit extra testing stress. Once there, everyone everywhere was wearing masks, even outside, which made for a sort of dystopian, walled-off, disconnected feeling to the city for me. Then there was the tedium of having to show your Covid pass everywhere - not into that. Plus the whole city just kind of felt subdued………..just not quite enough atmosphere which I think stemmed from both Covid stuff and the cold winter weather.

I feel the online imagery paints a picture of a properly grand and regal city which is only really true of the very very centre and even then, just a few blocks. The lovely parts are very wide and long, almost boulevard-type streets, with large ornate buildings and piazzas with the most improbable view of the snow-capped alps at the end of the street - they look close enough to walk right up to them. Beyond this though, it just felt like any city - not particularly beautiful, nor original, nor atmospheric. Parts of it were also very ugly; I have never been in any city with as many graffiti-marred buildings as there were in Turin.

Would I make another visit?

Now that I have been, I don’t think I would go back.

Did the itinerary work for the trip?

We had a pleasant few days but if asked, my advice would probably be to make Turin a 1-night 2-day stop-off on a longer trip or even a day trip from a stay in the Italian Lakes.

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Lessons Learnt

• Winter city breaks aren’t universally cosy. Our December trip to Tallinn made me think I love cities in winter — but really, I loved Tallinn. Turin didn’t offer the same warmth or charm, and it reminded me that not all winter city breaks deliver that feeling.

• City breaks are losing their spark. I’ve had some brilliant city trips, but they’re starting to feel repetitive. Museums, food tours, shows, restaurants — all good, but increasingly familiar. The energy I used to enjoy in cities feels quieter now, and I think the pandemic has played a part. I’m leaning away from city breaks as the main event. For now, cities might work better as day trips or one-night stop-offs — not the centrepiece. I’m more interested in travel that feels a bit less predictable.

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WHEN

December

Expect cold weather

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TRAVEL MEANS

KLM from Leeds, with a hop in Amsterdam.

Very easy, with excellent layover times that weren’t too long.

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ACCOMMODATION

This apartment from AirBnB

A beautiful beautiful place, with original painted ceilings from the 1800s and a deliciously reassuring eclectic vibe. It was warm and cosy with all the mod-cons. Recommended.

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FOOD

• Had coffee and chocolates at Mara Dei Boschi - just on the outskirts of the city centre proper and we got lucky enough with a cold afternoon warmed up with a sunny sky while seated at their outdoor tables

• Bought Roman-style pizza from Tellia which was FANTASTIC! Roman pizza is like foccacia that is baked first, then toppings added before another brief bake - it is very different from the round Neapolitan style pizza we are all used to

• Went to Pfatisch, a traditional pasticceria just outside the city centre. Highly recommended for traditional miniature pastries with coffee at the bar. I particularly loved the bombolone alla crema

• Ate at Michelin-starred Magorabin. This was high-end seven-course tasting menu, with very very attentive and knowledgeable service…….. but I wasn’t bowled over by this. The dining room lacked atmosphere, not helped by covid rules and the food felt a bit too try-hard.

ACTIVITIES

• Visited the Automobile Museum

• Took a Deluxe Street Food Tour of Turin - this was excellent, the highlight of our trip

• Went to the Pinacoteca Agnelli, specifically to gain entry to the famous rooftop Lingotto test track - not bad but not great. We could not walk the length of the test track - blocked off presumably due to some stupid covid rules - so were constrained to just stepping out onto it then back in again

• Wandered around Turin itself

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Sewing & Wearing

Vivetta jeans with heart cutouts

Gant orange lambswool cardigan

1970s Viyella wool blouse

Other City Itineraries

Turin and Monferrato, Piedmont - a twin-centre autumnal trip

Itinerary At A Glance

• Twin-centre independent itinerary for Piedmont; 3 nights in Turin, 7 nights in the Monferrato Hills in Alessandria province.

• Based on travelling in late summer or early autumn, flying in and out of Milan from Leeds with a hop in Amsterdam.

• Highlights include a tour of the Abarth Factory, a cocktail experience at the home of Martini, indulging in the famed white truffle, staying in a high-spec design accommodation, day bike tours around the rolling green hills of the Monferrato, and an exciting gourmet experience at one of the regions many Michelin-starred restaurants.

• Based on a couple travelling, with a focus on leisurely cultural activities and biking, interspersed with time to just relax and soak up the atmosphere.

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Why here?

Piedmont (Piemonte in Italian) is in the north-western corner of Italy and both the Italian and French name for the region roughly translates as ‘foot of the mountain’ which is very apt, as the region’s physical background and border along its western edge, is the Alps.

Piedmont is known for its lakes, hills, rivers and its food: white truffle, gianduja, Gavi, Barolo, and Asti. It’s also well set up for independent cycling, with mapped routes for everything from road touring to proper downhill trail centres.

This itinerary started with a visit to the Fiat Lingotto Factory and the Abarth Works Museum in Turin (my boyfriend’s a serious petrolhead). Turin itself has a reputation for royalty, industry, and grand café culture. It was the first capital of unified Italy, home to the kings of Savoy, Fiat, and Juventus. We’re expecting a quietly confident city with boulevards, motorsport, and a splash of Martini — vermouth was invented here.

Rather than heading to the lakes, we’re staying rural in the Monferrato Hills near Casale Monferrato. The accommodation felt fresher, better value, and less over-touristed. This part of the trip is for relaxing and cycling through vineyard country.

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Turin is ringed by The Alps

The rolling hills of wine region, Monferrato

Home of vermouth and Martini

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WHEN

Early Autumn - either September or October.

A little unexpectedly, October is actually high season in the Monferrato-Langhe due to the harvest and the importance of gastrotourism to this area.

It is a relatively wet place all year round so I’ll be expecting mixed weather. Averages indicate that it is at its driest in the Winter.

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TRAVEL MEANS

Flights into Turin are possible, though I found them much more expensive than flights into Milan, which is just a 2hr drive from Turin. Flight options are either of the below:

• KLM, from Leeds into Milan, with a 2hr change in Amsterdam

• Easyjet, from Manchester direct into Milan

I will hire a car for the entirety of the trip, and a bike for the second part of the trip in the Monferrato Hills

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ACCOMMODATION

Turin

I found lots and lots of ‘oldy worldy’ accommodation in Turin, which isn’t really my bag, but something else I noticed in abundant availability were modern conversions of big old industrial spaces. These would be my pick in priority order:

1. Edit Lofts - this is a former Fiat factory made into funky loft apartments. They also have a restaurant on site recommended by the Michelin Green Travel Guide. Only downside is that it is a 40 minute walk from the centre

2. Funky loft space smack-bang in the centre

3. Modern, minimalist and space-maximising design loft a little outside of the historical centre

Monferrato Hills in Alessandria/Asti province

• I found many many beautiful places to stay in this whole region, but once I found this Glass House in Terruggia, about 6km from the small historical river city of Casale Monferrato, I knew we had to stay here. The rest of my trip is designed around staying here

SCHEDULE

Turin - Day 1 to 3

Take a guided tour of the Abarth Factory Workshop

Visit the FCA Heritage Hub which opens soon in the Fiat Mirafiori industrial complex, with an exhibition of Fiat, Abarth, Lancia and Alfa Romeo

Go have a look around La Venaria Reale, one of Turin’s famous Savoy residences and one that stood out to me

Visit Castello di Rivoli contemporary art museum

Have coffee and cake at Caffe Mulassano - a grand and traditional cafe

Do as the locals do, with a pre-dinner aperitif and snack at La Drogheria in Piazza Vittorio square.

I’d book into any one of these restaurant recommendations from the Michelin Green Travel Guide

Take an an aperitivo ‘crawl’ in San Salvario - Enò | Via Galliari, 1, Affine | Via Belfiore, 16, Gorilla | Via Galliari, 20, Crumb | Piazza Madama Cristina, 2, Eria San Salvario | Via S. Pio V, 11, La Cuite | Via Baretti, 11

Take a 40 min drive outside the centre to get to know more about vermouth and Martini on this Ultimate Martini Experience at Casa Martini, the historical home of the well-known alcohol producer

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Day 4 - driving between Turin & Casale Monferrato

About 75-100km (depending on the route), 1 hr 15 mins driving

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Monferrato hills in Alessandria/Asti province - Day 4 to 10

The majority of our time will be spent on the bike, and the following routes and destinations strike my fancy:

• Take this circular route from Casale Monferrato to Valenza, the famed City of Gold, which boasts the highest concentration of gold and artisan jewellery businesses in the country - I think we’ll pay a visit to the Museo del Gioello (jewellery museum) while we’re there too (65km route - an all day excursion. Start point is 25 min bike ride from Terruggia)

• Take this route or this route for a tour around the Infernot Hills and a stop in Treville for a view of the Alps. (25km route - about 2-3 hours. Start point is 25 min bike ride from Terruggia)

• Take this short multi-looping route in and around San Salvatore Monferrato (25km route - about 2-3 hours. Start point is 1 hour bike ride from Terruggia)

• Cycle this loop in the lands of San Giovanni Bosco (62km route - an all day excursion)

• Drive or bike out to Asti (4 hr bike ride round trip from Terruggia) just for a little wander around the city and a sip of the famous sparkling wine Asti Spumante

• Cycle out to the walled medieval miniature city of Moncalvo (2.5 hr round trip from Terruggia) to walk the ramparts, visit the Marc Chagall paintings held in the Civic Museum of Moncalvo and have dinner at sunset

• Drive or bike out to Montegrosso d’Asti (4-5 hour round trip from Terruggia)

• For a wide variety of cycle routes across the whole of Piedmont that can be downloaded as GPX files, I found PiemontEscape to be superb

• Book for dinner at Il Cavallo Scosso in Asti - a young and modern restaurant as recommended by the Michelin Green Guide

• Faletto 1881 - a modern restaurant in a farmhouse-come-hotel-and-venue just outside of Casale Monferrato

• Accademia Ristorante in Casale Monferrato - local and seasonal Piemontese cuisine, as recommended by the Michelin Green Guide

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FOOD AND DRINK - SPECIALITIES & CUSTOMS

Piedmont is extraordinarily rich in food and drink both grown and invented here:

• drinks wise, there is Barolo and Gavi wine, bicerin (a coffee mixed with cream), and vermouth.

• pasta-wise, there is agnolotti, plin and tajerin.

• cheese-wise, there is stracchino (creamy, soft white cheese), toma (a light, semi-hard cow’s milk cheese), robiola (delicate and sweet, often preserved in oil), raschera (made with a combination of cow, goat and sheep’s milk coming from the high pastures of the Monferrato).

• other food items include gianduja (chocolate-hazelnut spread), truffles (most famous ones come from Alba), bagna cauda, bonèt pudding, baci di dama, Savoy biscuits, grissini breadsticks and panna cotta.

• Traditionally, aperitivo is meant to whet the appetite before dinner and is accompanied by a variety of appetizers (stuzzichini) such as cold cuts, cheeses, salads, olives, bite-sized pizzas and other savouries. However, such is the popularity of this time honoured tradition, a new concept of apericena has been introduced in recent years that closes the gap between aperitivo and dinner and acts as a less formal alternative to eating out in a restaurant. Now, sumptuous buffet tables in bars and cafes all over Turin groan with a mix of the traditional bites plus pasta and rice dishes, grilled and freshly chopped vegetables, couscous and quinoa salads, cakes and more. The buffets usually start at around 7pm and can go on until 9pm/10pm

Tastes of Italy

Noto Valley, Sicily - a Spring trip

 

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Itinerary At A Glance

• 10 day independent itinerary for Southeastern Sicily (the region is often referred to as the Noto Valley) staying in hilltop town Scicli

• Based on flying in and out of Manchester into Catania on Sicily’s east coast, in April or May

• Highlights include taking a tour up Mount Etna, strolling around Sicily’s historic hilltop towns, and seeing ancient Greek architecture at the Valley of the Temples.

• Based on a couple travelling, with a focus on leisurely outdoor and cultural activities, interspersed with time to just relax and soak up the atmosphere

Honest verdict

Does the place live up to hype or expectations?

Not for me, no. Unfortunately, not one of our better trips and not somewhere we would necessarily recommend or visit again. Main complaints for us were issues with the accommodation but also (controversial opinion I’m sure) we didn’t find the island landscape beautiful really; it is marred with flytipping and endless endless fields of polytunnels for tomatoes. The towns we visited were pretty in the main streets, but the outskirts aren’t.

Does the itinerary work for the trip?

No.

10 nights was much too long for us, with not enough of what we like to do to occupy us for this length of time, particularly where we stayed in Scicli - many of the activities we enjoyed were actually quite far from our base. This has taught me to start finding an itinerary of activities first, and then find accommodation to suit that, not the other way round.

Would I make another visit?

I wouldn’t return Scicli or the Noto Valley, and couldn’t recommend it. In hindsight, I think a better base for us in Southeastern Sicily could have been Syracuse/Ortigia island, though Sicily is not on the top of my list after this trip.

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WHEN

May

We experienced warm pleasant, sunny weather. I wouldn’t call it hot - we needed trousers and long sleeves, plus a jacket or cardigan most of the time. Despite how hot Sicily will get in the summer, it wasn’t that hot at this point.

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TRAVEL MEANS

Manchester direct into Catania, with Easyjet

We hired a car for the entirety of our trip, and it would be impossible to do without it.

Scicli is a 2 hour drive from Catania airport

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ACCOMMODATION

Villa Saracena, Contrada Croce, 97018 Scicli, +39 349 648 3018

I cannot recommend this accommodation - we couldn’t stay there the first night (some issue which I can’t remember) so we stayed in one of their sister accommodations. Then part way through the trip we lost all power and water for two full days. This, unfortunately, became a memorable downer on the trip as it became quite stressful not to have those basic amenities. The staff were trying hard, but really, it just felt unacceptable and sort of ruined the stay.

I think I might have taken it on the chin a bit better if the accommodation had been extremely reasonably priced, but it wasn’t - it was comparable with any luxury accommodation in any European destination - so it just felt like they had failed to match their service with the kind that would be expected for that price.

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FOOD

It’s hard to have bad food in Italy, and this was certainly the case for our trip, but neither did we have food that was so outstanding I feel compelled to recommend here. If you do go, be absolutely certain you buy yourself some fresh ricotta, and eat it simply on fresh bread, topped with proscuitto and olive oil. This is sublime and you can’t replicate these flavours at home in the UK. A lasting memory of the trip and the island.

Photo by Antonio Sessa on Unsplash

Photo by Valentina Locatelli on Unsplash

Photo by Regös Környei on Unsplash

Photo by Renzo Vanden Bussche on Unsplash

ACTIVITIES

• Mount Etna 4x4 & Cable Car tour - this was a superb part of the trip, but it is a very long drive from where we stayed in Scicli, at least 2.5 hours each way. Two things to point out - one, be sure to book in advance, and two, you really do need to dress for extremely cold weather for reaching the top. Jeans and a jacket will not cut it, no matter how warm and mild it is at the base of the volcano. This may sound like an very obvious thing to say, but the tour company did not give us any instruction on this point, and while we were much more appropriately dressed than the majority of our fellow tour-goers, we were underdressed for the wickedly strong winds and snow at the summit and it impacted on our ability to enjoy it.

• MTB & Sea Kayak Tour Sampieri coast - this would have been great……if my boyfriend didn’t get severely seasick about 20 minutes into the trip. Francesco, our guide, was superb about the whole thing.

• Valle dei Templi (Valley of the Temples) in Agrigento - Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, the Valley of the Temples contains one of the largest archaeological sites in the Mediterranean and is one of the most extensive, representative and best preserved archaeological sites of classical Greek civilisation who were settled in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of the boot of Italy Magna Graecia (Latin, "Greater Greece"), since it was so densely inhabited by Greeks. This was an absolutely fantastic way to spend the day, and is humbling to wander around the magnificent and ancient structures.

DAY TRIPS & WHERE TO WANDER

• Noto - One of the Baroque gems of Sicily and rebuilt from scratch after the 1693 earthquake. We spent a pleasurable half-day wandering around this town and had lunch outside on the pretty main street.

• Modica - In the 15th Century, when Modica was under Spanish control, chocolate (xocolatl) was brought from the Aztec areas of South America and they still make chocolate using the ancient recipe. Like Noto, we spent a few hours just wandering around, tried the chocolate and had a coffee. I’d give it 3 out of 5 - not necessarily as awesome as so much online content makes out and I wouldn’t recommend making this your destination - better to stop off here as a way to break up a longer journey to some other place.

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Ideas for another visit

• Stay in Syracuse/Ortigia island

• Riverwalk in Cassibile Gorge - with AirBnB experiences. Just south of Syracuse, a vast, 10 kilometre-long, 300m deep gorge has been bisected by the emerald green Cassibile River, through which a series of fresh water pools and waterfalls tumble. Spend a day hiking, clambering and (if you’re brave enough) taking a dip in the ice-cold water. There are beautiful wildflowers, butterflies and several interesting archaeological ruins here too.

• See the troglodytic (cave dwelling) culture of Cava d’Ispica - If you have the time and energy, you can follow the gorge all the way to Ispica town (12km / 3-4 hours), supposedly a lovely walk in springtime.

• Vendicari Nature Reserve - A mixture of salt lagoons (pantano), sand dunes, rocky coastlines, and sandy beaches, and thousands of migrating birds pass a few days here on their way to or from Africa with flamingos, herons, storks and cormorants regulars during autumn. It’s reputedly a wonderful environment for a good seaside walk and a picnic. There are no lidos or bars, so it is essential to take what you need with you – water, something to eat, swimsuit and towels. There are three entrances to the park, all off the main Noto-Pachino road. The middle entrance, signposted Torre di Vendicari, gives you the opportunity of heading north or south. Wherever you decide to enter, you will have to park you car and walk some way, though this is a generally thought of as a pleasurable experience.

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Sewing projects for a Spring trip