Petraia


    One of the exciting things about my new home in the Swiss Chablais is the mind-boggling array of world-famous cheese produced all around me. This is where raclette, Switzerland’s most iconic melting cheese comes from and I have recently discovered a beautiful mountain farm I can hike to that produces an excellent version of it. The regions of Emmental, Gruyere, Abondance,…

  Hello Everyone! This is a long overdue update to let you know I am alive and well and living in Switzerland. I’m sorry I have not posted much since the big move from La Petraia, but alas I lost my muse. Petraia was the inspiration for so many of my posts and after leaving her I have needed some time to…

    Fifteen years ago Michael and I followed a 3km mule track into the Chianti Mountains through a tangled oak forest and past an alley of four hundred year old mulberry trees to arrive at the door of a thousand year old casa colonica. La Petraia’s expanse lay before us, abandoned as a working farm for over…

  If you happen to be going to a farmer’s market this weekend you’re likely to find some fresh local grapes. Here’s a great way to enjoy them. As promised in my last post this is my version of the delicious grape bread made every fall in Tuscany to celebrate the vendemmia (grape harvest).  Over the years I’ve…

A basic dough for flatbreads of all kinds. This recipe is easy and it produces excellent results. And its great for a heatwave. Lately we’ve been experiencing Europe’s worst heat wave of this young century so I’ve been trying, as much as possible, to stay out of the kitchen. We’ve been eating a lot of pizza, flatbread and…

I’ve been serving sesame snaps made with our honey for years and I’ll admit I’m a bit an addict. Like most of our recipes, this one is a little difficult to pin down because it abides in a perpetual state of evolution. Each time we make them I tweek the formula a little. But in the past few months they’ve been getting…