An Italian dinner party in York

An amuse-bouche // hors d'œuvres (I can never remember the difference) of artichokes, peppers, these delicious cheesy bite things, olives and riiight over there in the distance, sundried tomatoes.

York has always been a weird one for me. I have tried to live there twice now but it just never works out. The first time round, I lived at the university, in accommodation that was so dilapidated and awful-looking that it was nicknamed “Cell Block C”. It has since been demolished and rebuilt.

Here is a quote from “Barny” on the Student Room forum: “Yep, theres (sic) no denying cell block c is a hell-hole, its (sic) called cell block for a reason. Was voted worst uni accommodation (sic) for 3 years in a row I think!?”

Anyway, that’s enough from you, Barny. I stayed there for 10 weeks and then decided mid-Christmas holiday that I was done. So my mum, brother and I drove furiously up to York and packed everything up into bin bags. Belongings included my duvet, which was covered in sick because I’d puked up a few days before we broke up for Christmas and hadn’t bothered to wash the sheets and a 4-way plug also covered in sick (in hindsight, a very vomity hazard). We drove home, relieved.

I think the problem with York is that it’s not a city. I mean, it IS a city but it shouldn’t be. The mentality of a lot of the people there is one of small-town. Why did the Vikings settle there? I have no idea; maybe they didn’t care about being cosmopolitan, decent nights out and having a cool youth culture. I mean, it can’t be a city just by virtue of having a Minster because Rotherham has a Minster and well, yeah – I needn’t say anything more.

But now – now I don’t live there – I’ve started to like it a bit more. I go up there every now and then because one of my most wonderful friends lives there (the Italian). She is the most talented chef (she will deny this) and she knows exactly where in York to go to buy the most wonderful ingredients. Perhaps she is the love child of Antonio Carluccio and that other famous Italian chef Nigellissima. She almost MAKES me want to live in York again – third time lucky?

So last Friday evening, I popped up for a night of sophistication, deliciousness, good company and astonishing generosity from the Italian. I might bully her into writing out one of these recipes for the blog because when I ask “HOW DID YOU DOOOO THIS?” she names a cheese I have never heard of and then says: “I made it into a quiche!”

Starter #1 - a homemade mushroom (and loads of other nice stuff) sort of pate wrapped in filo pastry.

Starter #2: Asparagus and burrata quiches (sooooo good).

Starter #3: Brie on bread, drizzled in truffle oil, mmmmm.

Main course: Homemade saffron gnocchi (sooo good, never eaten properly-made gnocchi before) and a creamy sauce with some nice herbs, I forget which.

And then....a TRIO, yes a TRIO of desserts! L-R: white chocolate and caramelised walnut semifreddo (WOW), a chocolate brownie recipe ("which I just adapted") with cherries and finally, a superb pistachio cheesecake.

And then, the morning after, I was treated to a special edition hazelnut espresso. For me, a weekend doesn't really get much better. 

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