I think we can all agree that Italian food is just like heaven on a plate. The burst of rich flavours combined with the vibrant colours and smooth and crunchy textures will get your taste buds excited on all the feasts that Italian food has to offer. This will be a guide to lead you through all of the delicious food, such as pasta, pizza, gelato and more down by Rapallo, Santa Margherita, Portofino, Genoa and the Cinque Terre.
I'll start off with Rapallo, my favourite food place was at this hotel called Hotel Europa or as I liked to call it the pink palace, as it stood out from it's surroundings by its' vibrant colour. This hotel has a very wide restaurant space and a quiet calming atmosphere. The people who work there also seem to be Ed Sheeran fans, as there was a lot of his music playing quietly in the background, no complaints from me!😂I think it was my favourite place to eat, because the food was so creamy to the point where it melts in your mouth and it was so full of fresh flavour. I came here a couple times, the first time I had trofie al pesto, this part of Italy is very famous for this dish and was my favourite thing to eat out there. 'Trofie' is a type of pasta and it was mixed with small chunks of potato, green beans and pesto, delish! My Mum and I wanted to reinvent this dish ourselves at home, so bought a packet of trofie from their local supermarket. It was yummy but not quite as good as how the Italians make it. The second time I went to the hotel I had the gnocci that was in a sage creamed sauce, that had a piece of turkey soaked in this red, juicy, kind of tomato sauce along with a side of garlic flavoured spinach. My Mum had spaghetti alle vongole and mackerel with garlic flavoured spinach. All dish's I would highly recommend!
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| Trofie al Pesto - Hotel Version |
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| Trofie al Pesto - Our Version |
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| Gnocci, Turkey, Spinach |
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| Spaghetti alle Vongole |
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Another place in Rapallo, is the Eldòlz cafe. This is a great place to grab something sweet or enjoy a delicious cup of coffee. At this point I really wanted to try some Italian gelato. There were a selection of yummy flavours, but what drew me was the vegan chocolate one. I'm not actually a vegan, but as Italy is known for luscious, creamy ice cream, I wanted to see if they could incorporate that essence in to vegan ice cream and I'm happy to say that they did. It was intensely rich chocolate, but with a smooth, sweet, creamy texture, which is hard to do in non-dairy products. Highly recommend this, if you are in the area.
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| Eldòlz |
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| Vegan gelato |
I tell you what guys putting up all of these food pics right now is making me so hungry and wanting to dive back in to this Italian goodness. For instance, this next food item was one of the best cakes I have ever had, and it's called Torta Paradiso (Italian Paradise Cake). This literally melts in your mouth, it's kind of like a vanilla Madeira cake, topped with icing sugar on top, definitely a must have when your in Italy.
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| Torta Paradiso |
I also had some yummy dessert at La Carapina. One was a chocolate dome that had a dark chocolate mousse filling with essence of raspberry. Another was a vanilla cream dome with essence of raspberry and pistachio and by looking at their display window I wanted to try them all!
Portofino is a great destination for eating right by the blue, shimmering sea with the sun blazing down. Ö Magazin restaurant is where I first tried Portofino sauce with spaghetti, this was so silky smooth and the sauce is a combination of pesto and a tomato sauce. I then shared half a tiramisu and a panna cotta, both so creamy and rich in taste!
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| Tiramisu |
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| Panna Cotta |
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| Portofino sauce with spaghetti |
Santa Margherita Ligure is a lovely destination, especially for food, we ate at the Tratorria da Pezzi, which is a cute family restaurant with all authentic family recipes. Very lovely, jolly customer service and a quiet restaurant space. I had the spaghetti with Portofino sauce again, literally obsessed with pesto now, I even bought a tea towel from Italy with beautiful illustrations on how to make it😂. To be honest I wasn't impressed with what I had, I mean it tasted okay but I have just had better food whilst I was out there. However, the dessert was heaven. It was a meringue combined with ice cream and chocolate sauce drizzled on top. My mum had minestrone soup, which I tried and it tasted delicious. As soon as we got home, we searched for a recipe and found one on Tesco's website which tastes soooooo goooood! Here's the site for the recipe:
https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/green-minestrone-with-spinach-sauce.html. My mum also had calamari as a side, along with affogato for dessert that had hazelnuts on top. My dad had lasagne along with their signature dessert dish, which was hot apple pie with ice cream.
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| Menu |
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| Calamari |
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| Spaghetti with portofino sauce |
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| Minestrone (Restaurant Version) |
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| Minestrone (Tesco Version) |
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| Apple pie and ice cream |
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| Meringue, ice cream and chocolate sauce |
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| Affogato |
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