Cooking with an Italian accent – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent, I’m asking you to skip Florence on your next trip to Tuscany.

I’m sharing my two cents on tourism and overcrowded destinations, but I would love to know your thoughts on this, as well.

We talk about travelling during the low season and your option to slow down and enjoy the provincial life of a small town. 

We introduce our immersive three-day seasonal cooking masterclass: https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscan-cooking-classes#threeday

Our Colle Val d’Elsa foodie guide: https://en.julskitchen.com/other/travel/where-to-eat-in-colle-val-d-elsa

So now listen to the episode and join the conversation online on our newsletter Letters from Tuscany on Substack: https://julskitchen.substack.com/p/why-im-asking-you-to-skip-florence

Find me online >> Newsletter: www.lettersfromtuscany.com | Blog: www.julskitchen.com | Instagram: https://instagram.com/julskitchen/ 

Podcast realized by https://instagram.com/tommyonweb  

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent, after a year of absence, I tell you a little bit more about the things that have happened:

- This podcast is not dead, it is just on a break.

- Our newsletter on Substack, Letters from Tuscany, is where most of our writing and recipes will live from now on.

- For the past two years, we’ve been working on a new cookbook, Cucina Povera, The Italian Way of Transforming Humble Ingredients into Unforgettable Meals. It will be released in April 2023.

So now listen to the episode and join the conversation online on our newsletter www.lettersfromtuscany.com on Substack.

Preorder our cookbook Cucina Povera here.

 Find me online at www.julskitchen.com or on Instagram https://instagram.com/julskitchen/ 

 Podcast realized by https://instagram.com/tommyonweb

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

From the last episode of this podcast, a few things have changed. Summer has gone, leaving space to a bright, mild Tuscan autumn, and now it is winter, well, it’s Christmas in a few hours.
On August, the 28th, we welcomed Livia, our baby girl, into this world. It has been long, exhausting, and emotional beyond words.
The old life, the 2019 life, seems so far away for more than one reason. I barely remember how it was before, as so many things happened that turned our life upside down.
Food, as always, has been the red thread through the multiple levels of change, the key to understand those changes, and to make memories indelible. Food played a memorable role also into my labour and during the first hours as a new mum.
In this episode I talked about all the best food memories, the dos and don’ts of pregnancy and motherhood, food wise.
I’d be curious to know which are the rules, the dos and don’ts of pregnancy and motherhood, food wise, in your culture, and which was your experience, either as a new mum or as a close friend or relative taking care of a new mum.

Recipes mentioned in this episode:
- Pesto: https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/fresh-pasta/pesto-ricotta-lasagna
- Baked apples: https://en.julskitchen.com/dessert/baked-apples
- (Artichoke) carbonara: https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/pasta-first-course/artichoke-carbonara

Find me online at www.julskitchen.com or on Instagram https://instagram.com/julskitchen/

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

Before a well-deserved pause to welcome our baby girl into the world, and to get used to a completely new life, I’m so happy to share the latest episode of Cooking with an Italian accent, a conversation I had a few weeks ago with Irina Gergescu about her cookbook, Carpathia.
I like how she intertwines recipes, traditions and superstitions, like when she mentions garlic, or when she says that eating horseradish before Easter will bring you health all year round, or when she explains that Romanian people welcome official guests with bread and salt, the first to celebrate an alliance, the latter for prosperity.
We talked about the Romanian sense of hospitality, how she grew up Bucharest under the communist rule, about Romanian cuisine, typical ingredients, the unique tradition of borş and ciorbă, coffee and desserts.

Learn more about Irina Georgescu here:
Web site: https://www.irinageorgescu.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irina.r.georgescu/

Find me online at www.julskitchen.com or on Instagram https://instagram.com/julskitchen/

Join our Facebook Group Cooking with Juls’ Kitchen: https://www.facebook.com/groups/775325049335625/

Podcast realized by https://instagram.com/tommyonweb

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s episode we’ll be talking in details about the pound cake, known as quattro quarti in Italian. This is probably the cake I make more often, especially in its version made with extra virgin olive oil, the most appreciated during our cooking classes, but also the one I rely on when I don’t have a clear idea on what to bake.
The original pound cake contained one pound each of eggs, sugar, flour and butter. Hence its English name, pound cake, and its French or Italian name, quattro quarti, four quarters.
What you need is therefore a scale to weigh the eggs, with their shell. The weight of the eggs will then give you the amount of sugar, flour and butter to use. Listen to the episode to learn how to adjust the four ingredients to make endless variations to the basic recipe.

Discover more on the blog: https://en.julskitchen.com/podcast/episode-41-everything-about-pound-cake

Find me online at www.julskitchen.com or on Instagram https://instagram.com/julskitchen/

Join our Facebook Group Cooking with Juls’ Kitchen: https://www.facebook.com/groups/775325049335625/

Podcast realized by https://instagram.com/tommyonweb

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

We reached the 40th episode of our podcast "Cooking with an Italian Accent"! So it's time to celebrate and to recap what we’ve done so far in these 15 months spent together, what you liked the most, why we love this podcast so much and how it perfectly integrates in all that we do. We’ll talk also about who we are, what we like and what is going to happen soon in our lives! Join us for a little celebration!

Read more: https://en.julskitchen.com/podcast/episode-40-get-to-know-us-better

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

Today we are talking about cookbooks. When I was organizing my cookbooks on the bookshelves, I rediscovered some favourites from the past that needed some more love, and realised there are cookbooks that I barely opened after the initial I-desperately-need-this-book enthusiasm. So, I thought I would share some of my favourite cookbooks here on the podcast, as you might find them interesting, too.
Today we’re talking about cookbooks on Italian cuisine, but do not expect the last cookbooks published by new famous food writers, we’re going back to the past: in this episode, we will talk about Pellegrino Artusi, Ada Boni and Paolo Petroni, with plenty of recipes from the blog to experiment.

The recipes we mentioned in this episode: https://en.julskitchen.com/podcast/episode-39-three-books-about-italian-cooking-you-must-have

Find me online at www.julskitchen.com or on Instagram https://instagram.com/julskitchen/

Join our Facebook Group Cooking with Juls’ Kitchen: https://www.facebook.com/groups/775325049335625/

Podcast realized by https://instagram.com/tommyonweb

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

Juls’ Kitchen is a family business. Tommaso and I work together to teach classes, develop recipes for clients, taking photos, producing the podcast, and writing the blog and the newsletter, along with cookbooks and articles. It has its highs and lows, but this is our job, and career. We do not have a backup plan, and, to be honest, after the hard work it took to get where we are, I do not want to change my job, as this is what brings me joy, what I am good at.
That’s why we had to rethink our offer to change it according to the completely new situation. I am sure we will be back teaching classes in our studio in the countryside, meeting people at the local café to begin the market tour, working for clients and brands to create recipes and organizing workshops and gatherings, but for the moment, we had to find a compromise. A compromise which is revealing itself rewarding, fun, and something we will keep for the future in our business plan! This is how our virtual cooking class was born.
In this episode, I’ll tell you more about it, I’ll share some behind the scenes of our tutorials and I’ll share also some projects for the future.

You can join our virtual Tuscan Cooking Class here > https://www.udemy.com/course/tuscan-cooking-class/?couponCode=TUSCANMAY27

Find me online at www.julskitchen.com or on Instagram https://instagram.com/julskitchen/

Join our Facebook Group Cooking with Juls’ Kitchen: https://www.facebook.com/groups/775325049335625/

Podcast realized by https://instagram.com/tommyonweb

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

This is a special episode with a dear friend, Regula Ysewijn. We met in London in 2011, at the Food Blogger Connect, and since then we’ve become best friends, supporting each other through life and work endeavours.
Today we’re here to celebrate her new cookbook, Oats in the North, Wheat from the South.
This book is Regula’s love letter to British baking, and to Britain, its bakeries and shops, its traditions and ingredients.
We’re talking about what it takes to write a cookbook with a solid food history background, something she is an expert about, but also about how geography and weather influence the baking traditions of a country. We’ll talk extensively about buns, the afternoon tea ritual, oatcakes and griddle cakes, but also a very special wedding cake from Britain.

Learn more about Regula Ysewijn here: http://www.missfoodwise.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missfoodwise/
Order her book here: https://amzn.to/3bupvSJ

Find me online at www.julskitchen.com or on Instagram https://instagram.com/julskitchen/

Join our Facebook Group Cooking with Juls’ Kitchen: https://www.facebook.com/groups/775325049335625/

Podcast realized by https://instagram.com/tommyonweb

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe

One of the few positive aspects of this eternal lockdown is that I had the chance to learn new recipes and techniques. Usually, I am too busy trying to respect deadlines, juggling cooking classes and assignments, so I just play it safe.
Week after week, I cook those old reliable recipes that are part of my cooking repertoire. Comfort comes from repeating a ritual, a set of flavours.
But where is the excitement of learning a new dish? Of discovering a new technique?
This feeling of excitement and adventure probably is not shared by everyone who is approaching cooking for the first time. If you have to learn to cook as an adult, because your family was not very much into cooking, or because you discovered this curiosity towards food just at a later stage, you might have the same question in mind: and now, how do I learn to cook?
Being also a cooking class teacher, I’m often asked to share my tips on how one learns to cook. And this is the theme of today’s episode, where you will find also some tips from friends who are cooking class instructors and food writers.

Our virtual Tuscan cooking course on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/tuscan-cooking-class/?couponCode=TUSCANMAY27

On the blog:
- Citrus pound cake https://en.julskitchen.com/dessert/cakes-pies/citrus-pound-cake
- Easy tomato sauce https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/pasta-first-course/pasta-with-tomato-sauce
- Spezzatino, beef stew https://en.julskitchen.com/main/meat/florentine-beef-stew
- Peposo, red wine and black pepper beef stew https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscany/black-peppercorn-beef-stew-peposo
- Tuscan ragù https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/pasta-first-course/my-tuscan-ragu
- Carbonara https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/pasta-first-course/artichoke-carbonara
- Focaccia https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscany/tuscan-schiacciata-with-walnuts

Listen also our episode about a Tuscan pantry here: https://en.julskitchen.com/podcast/episode-23-a-tuscan-pantry

Thanks to:
- Enrica Monzani @asmallkitcheningenoa
- Paola Bacchia @italyonmymind
- Domenica Marchetti @domenicacooks
- Judy Witts Francini @divinacucina

Two very useful online tools to convert grams to cups:
- Grams To Cups Conversions: https://www.gourmetsleuth.com/conversions/grams/grams-to-cups-conversions
- Baking conversion tools: https://www.weekendbakery.com/cooking-conversions/


Find me online at www.julskitchen.com or on Instagram https://instagram.com/julskitchen/

Join our Facebook Group Cooking with Juls’ Kitchen: https://www.facebook.com/groups/775325049335625/

Podcast realized by https://instagram.com/tommyonweb

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe