Authenticity is the key.

I've been coming to Italy all my life - my dad's Italian - and I've always been fascinated by the choice of food here. When I was a kid, I remember watching (and helping) my nan make fresh pasta and then cut it into strips by hand - incredible! We'd get to lunchtime and I'd challenge anyone to find two strips of tagliatelle of a different width.

Obviously, there's very little need to cut pasta by hand these days, but if you wanted to give it a go, you'll find an Italian pasta recipe here together with tips on how to choose and cook the perfect pasta to go with the perfect pasta sauce.

Too many calories?

Just the opposite actually! Ask a nutritionist, the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest in the world. Why? Because each and every ingredient is fresh and natural.

The deeper you get into Italian food culture, the more you understand the importance of fresh ingredients (fresh ingredients = healthier food = healthier you = happier you) and you'll soon find yourself with pots of basil and rosemary on the windowsill and able to recall the recipe for homemade pesto - without looking for it in a book!

Did you know that 100 grams of pasta without sauce is more fattening than 100 grams of pasta with sauce? This obviously depends on the sauce, but basically, the sauce aids digestion so it's absorbed more quickly.

Great Italian recipes are all about simplicity.

Sure, there are a few basic rules to follow (like how to really cook pasta), but they just make the preparation more interesting and change the way you think about eating what you prepare (and I'm not just talking about twirling spaghetti around your fork).

Fresh ingredients are the key to great Italian recipes - if the ingredients are fresh you're more than half way to creating a successful dish.

This also goes for the combination of tastes - for example, a real Italian tomato sauce isn't overloaded with herbs and spices, a couple of leaves of basil will do the trick.

Italy is an incredible country (despite what you hear in the news).

Italy is chock-a-block with nature's freshest and finest produce. I've been living here for 8 years now (in the Abruzzo region, on the Adriatic coast) and the quality of life is brilliant, family values mean a lot here.

Families eat together, not at every meal, but at least once a day and mainly in the evening, it's a great way to connect and share. Get the family (or a group of friends) together and cook them a traditional meal of Chitarra con le Pallottine (spaghetti and meatballs) and you'll soon see what I mean.

What kind of recipes will you find here?

Anything from appetizers to desserts - and everything in between!

Browse through the menu on the left and see if there's something that catches your eye.

There are 2 sections you can choose from; 'Collections' and 'Quick and Easy'.

Under 'Collections' you'll find collections of recipes together with helpful insights into great Italian cooking. Authentic Italian recipes take time to create - so if you've got the time, just start from the top and work your way down.

The 'Quick and Easy' section is for those in a rush - these are single, simple recipes that require minutes rather than hours to prepare. Every time I come across something that I think can be prepared in under 30 minutes, this is where you'll find it.

I'll be sending out one new Italian recipe every week (on a Wednesday, that way you'll have a couple of days to get everything you need for the weekend), and every time I get 50 recipes together (it wont take 50 weeks, I promise) I'll put them together in a handy e-book for you to download.

Subscribe to the weekly recipe and from time to time, I'll get in touch with other great tips and tricks too.

Get in touch!

I'd love to hear from you! At the end of each section, you'll find a comment form. Please let me know if you try a recipe and it worked for you, or if you changed it in some way and made it better.

Add your own recipes too and if you're looking for something in particular, let me know and I'll try and find it for you.

In the mean time…

Have a look through these authentic Italian recipes and tips and let's see if I can tempt you...

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