Cooking with an Italian accent

By Giulia Scarpaleggia

Society & Culture Arts Food Places & Travel

What's Cooking with an Italian accent about?

Ciao, I am Giulia Scarpaleggia, a Tuscan born and bred country girl, a home cook, a food writer and a photographer. I teach Tuscan cooking classes in my house in the countryside in between Siena and Florence. I’ve been sharing honest, reliable Italian recipes for 14 years now, through my cookbooks and our blog Juls' Kitchen. If you love everything about Italian food, big crowded tables and seasonal ingredients, join us and follow our podcast “Cooking with an Italian accent“.

julskitchen.substack.com

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Cooking with an Italian accent episodes:

08.02.2023
Why I’m asking you to skip Florence on your next trip to Tuscany
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...
02.15.2023
Last but not least [Special]
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. -...
12.15.2021
2x05 - All about the traditional Tuscan sweet treats [Christmas Special]
The best way to understand the Tuscan pastry art is to have a walk in Siena with an open mind, following the trail of spices, paying attention to the colours and to the ingredients of the baked goods arranged in...
08.17.2021
2x04 - Life in Salento: in conversation with Nina Gigante
In today’s episode we’re travelling southward, towards the heel of the boot of the Italian peninsula, Salento. Today’s guest is Nina Gigante, a wellness, food, and travel journalist, and a qualified holistic nutritionist. While we were in Salento to visit...
08.10.2021
2x03 - Trentino and mountain life: in conversation with Vea Carpi of Mas del Saro
In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent, we travel to the mountains to visit my friend Vea Carpi. She is a cook, a farmer, a sourdough baker, and passionate about wool. She has a maso up in the...
08.03.2021
2x02 - Liguria e Cinque Terre: in conversation with Enrica Monzani of A small kitchen in Genoa
In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent, as promised, we have a guest that will guide us through one of the most beautiful Italian regions. This region recently filled your imagination with postcard-like maritime views, bowls of trofie...
07.27.2021
2x01 - Let's celebrate: Happy (40th) Birthday Giulia!
This is the first episode of our second season, a special summer edition, a short collection of 4 episodes. In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent I switched role and asked our friend Valentina Dainelli, known on line...
05.18.2021
EP46 - A celebration of Spring in a Tuscan kitchen
In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent we celebrate the spring season, its produce, with asparagus, fresh peas, fava beans and monk’s bears. We celebrate fresh herbs, one of my favourite ingredients in the kitchen, and the magic...
03.20.2021
EP45 - How to maintain a long-term relationship with your blog
In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent I’m going back over our past 12 years of blogging, and I’ll share with you the reasons why we still believe in blogs, and why we love it so much. I’m...
03.05.2021
EP44 - On risotto
In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent I’m sharing why I love risotto, and why I find it is a therapeutic recipe. When making risotto, let your senses guide you. Risotto is also a perfect example of the physical...
12.23.2020
EP43 - Food and motherhood
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...
08.17.2020
EP42 - In conversation with: Irina Georgescu, author of Carpathia
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...
07.20.2020
EP41 – Everything you want to know about pound cake
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...
07.12.2020
EP40 - Get to know us better
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...
06.11.2020
EP39 - Three books about Italian cooking you must have
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...
05.27.2020
EP38 - Our virtual Tuscan cooking class
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...
05.15.2020
EP37 - In conversation with: Regula Ysewijn, food writer
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...
04.24.2020
EP36 - How do you learn to cook?
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...
04.17.2020
EP35 - Cooking during the lockdown
I didn’t think my way of cooking would change much during the lockdown. I thought I was already quite organised, with a well-stocked pantry, responsible in using my ingredients and leftovers and creative when it comes to improvising. Yet, in...
04.03.2020
EP34 - What is comfort food for you?
There are two different aspects of comfort food: on one side, there’s the food that gives you comfort and pleasure when you eat it, like pappa al pomodoro, on the other side, the many foods that give you solace, a...
02.24.2020
EP33 - What is food for me
After 11 years of blogging, a love born by stirring a ciambellone on a kitchen stool with mum, 5 cookbooks, a podcast, countless projects never launched or lost along the way, and numerous dreams kept among the pages of a...
02.01.2020
EP32 - Chestnuts and chestnut flour in Tuscan cuisine
Today buying good quality chestnut flour can be difficult, and it is certainly more expensive than it used to be. A good local organic stone ground wheat flour costs about 2€ a kilo. If you want to buy an organic,...
01.24.2020
EP31 - Celebrating the citrus season
Today I am here to celebrate the citrus season, with their brightness, the joy they add to cold winter days, the liveliness they lend to rich dishes, or the depth of flavour they give to the simplest salads. In this...
01.15.2020
EP30 - (cook)book review: “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” by Samin Nosrat
I learnt to cook from my grandmother, watching her patiently stirring a pot of ragù, or foraging herbs in the fields to make a salad, or an omelette. I learnt to cook because I was hungry for delicious, diverse food:...
01.08.2020
EP29 - My 2020 word: intentionality
Until a few years ago, come January I would write a list of goals and good intentions. I felt productive, optimist, effective. Within a few months, though, that list would mark the measure of my failures. Now I choose a...
12.23.2019
EP28 - Have yourself a very Tuscan Christmas!
How would I describe my ideal Christmas? Which are the first words that come to my mind when I think about Christmas? This year, I would pick humble. Humble as the unassuming log that the head of the family would put...
12.16.2019
EP27 - My favourite Christmas cookbook: Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles [Bonus Track]
This is a bonus episode, a small precious gift for you in the days waiting for Christmas. Today I’m going to share with you my favourite Christmas cookbook, Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles. If you liked the bonus track, there will...
11.23.2019
EP26 - Milan, foodie tips to explore the city, with Myriam Sabolla
Until a few years ago, when we wanted to be inspired, try new foods and restaurants, breath some fresh air and live an exciting adventure, we would fly to London. In the recent years though, especially after the 2015 Expo, we...
11.06.2019
EP25 - Italians and overcooked vegetables
Today’s theme is vegetables, but not any kind of vegetables. I am here to praise the charm of overcooked vegetables. Not all vegetables give their best when cooked for long time, some get soggy and unpalatable, but take French beans,...
10.26.2019
EP24 - In conversation with: Frantoio Pruneti about Extra Virgin Olive Oil
One of the ingredients that has always caused more questions and doubts during my cooking classes is olive oil. I’ve grown up worshipping olive oil as key ingredient in Tuscan cooking, it is still my favourite one. I’ve given for...
10.19.2019
EP23 - A Tuscan pantry
If you are passionate about Italian and Tuscan cuisine and want to explore the staple ingredients, if you are about to move on your own and you need to stock up your pantry from zero, or if you, like me,...
10.04.2019
EP22 - Juls' Kitchen Tuscan cooking classes
This has been the most intense and rewarding cooking class season so far. Today I want to bring you with me during a cooking class. I’ve been teaching Tuscan cooking classes for 8 years now, since I left my 9-to-5...
09.11.2019
EP21 - In conversation with: Juliana Lopez May
I’ve bene knowing Juliana Lopez May for three years now. She is an Argentinian chef and cooking instructor that every September brings a group of women from South America to Italy, and to our Studio. We spend a day together...
09.04.2019
EP20 - September: Grape harvest and grape recipes
September as the new January, September with that back to school feeling: a new diary, blank pages, a sharp pencil. September as a month to begin again, a time for new goals, new resolutions. I love September for all these...
08.28.2019
EP19 - Let’s cook together: ricotta crumb cake
Since a June dinner in Val d’Orcia at Villa Pienza, I’ve been making a ricotta crumb cake at least once a week, during cooking classes and when we had friends over for dinner, trying out different combinations of flour, fruit...
08.21.2019
EP18 - Siena, foodie tips to explore this medieval city
This is a special episode inspired by the Siena with gusto foodie guide we recently published for Travel WithGusto. Siena is a medieval city, my university town, the place where we love to go out during the weekend, or for...
08.14.2019
EP17 - Preserving the season: Summer
Both my mum and my grandma influenced my love for preserving. It would be reductive to describe it as a habit or a hobby; I feel an ancient urge to bottle, can, or preserve whatever the season offers with abundance. It...
07.24.2019
EP16 - In conversation with: Luisa of Agriturismo Il Rigo
A chat with Luisa Cipolla of Agriturismo il Rigo, in Val d’Orcia, about one of the most beautiful parts of Tuscany, about life in an agriturismo, food and wild flowers. Recipes mentioned in this episode: - A few photos and a recipe...
07.17.2019
EP15 - Fragments of Summer and seasonal effortless cooking
Recipes mentioned in this episode: - Effortless summer cooking: https://en.julskitchen.com/seasonal/summer/effortless-summer-cooking - French bean salad with hard boiled eggs and olives: https://en.julskitchen.com/salads/french-bean-salad - Pasta with tuna, parsley, basil and capers: https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/pasta-first-course/pasta-with-tuna - Fried green tomato frittata: https://en.julskitchen.com/main/fried-green-tomato-frittata I’d love to hear from you: which...
06.26.2019
EP14 - Eating during the summer heatwave
Recipes mentioned in this episode: Panzanella: https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/tuscan-panzanella-tomato-bread-salad Caprese: https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscany/tuscan-panzanella Baked eggplants: https://en.julskitchen.com/side/baked-eggplants I’d love to hear from you: how do you face a heatwave? Do you cook or you just avoid it as long as you can? Which is your perfect...
06.19.2019
EP13 - Let's cook together: Zuppa Inglese
Before listening to this episode, be sure to have these ingredients in your pantry, as we’ll cook together: -500 ml (2.11 cups) fresh whole milk -1/2 vanilla bean, split open -2 eggs -4 tablespoons sugar -2 tablespoons corn starch -80 g (2.82 oz) dark chocolate -Alchermes -Savoiardi,...
06.09.2019
EP12 - Get hungry with Tuscan PDO and PGI products - Buy Food Toscana
BuyFood Toscana is an event organized by the Region of Tuscany and PromoFirenze, aiming to the promotion of the Tuscan PDO and PGI products to international buyers and journalists. They asked us to introduce the audience to some of the...
05.29.2019
EP11 - About inspiration
A talk on creativity and lack of inspiration and a list to keep you inspired, no matter what, from reading to gardening, from walking to visiting new places. I’d love to hear from you: what is that keeps you inspired instead?...
05.22.2019
EP10 - In conversation with: Judy Witts Francini
A talk with Judy Witts Francini, Italian life coach, culinary concierge and guide, about Italian and Tuscan food, cooking classes and food tours in Puglia and Sicily, learning how to cook and eating out in Tuscany. Learn more about Judy and...
05.15.2019
EP9 - Street Food in Tuscany
Things we talked about in this episode: - street food in Tuscany - street food in Florence: panino al lampredotto - street food on the Tuscan coast: torta di ceci or cecina - schiacciata - bomboloni and frati - gelato Recipes mentioned in this episode: -...
04.17.2019
EP8 - An Easter menu
Things we talked about in this episode: - A Tuscan Easter menu - Eggs for Easter - Lamb for Easter - Ricotta for Easter - Spring vegetables Recipes mentioned in this episode: - Spinach and ricotta tortelli https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/fresh-pasta/spinach-ricotta-tortelli - Torta pasqualina https://en.julskitchen.com/vegetarian/torta-pasqualina-my-mums-spinach-and-ricotta-pie - Roasted...
04.03.2019
EP7 - Vegetarian, vegan, Gluten free, but totally traditional!
Things we talked about in this episode: -Tuscan people and their love for beans -Vegetarian and vegan recipes in Tuscan cuisine -Gluten free recipes in Tuscan cuisine Recipes mentioned in this episode: -Pappa al Pomodoro: https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscany/best-pappa-al-pomodoro -Panzanella: https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscany/tuscan-panzanella-tomato-bread-salad -Ribollita: https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/soup/bean-and-bread-soup -Acquacotta: https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscany/acquacotta-tuscan-soup -Potato...
03.23.2019
EP6 - In conversation with: Tessa Kiros
Today’s episode is quite special. We recorded it a few days ago at the St. Mark Cultural Association for Florence Writers, where Tessa Kiros and I had a conversation with David Orr about cooking and writing. Tessa Kiros is the...
03.17.2019
EP5 - Food Markets: what you can buy there
Things we talked about in this episode: - Markets of Tuscany, A cookbook - Indoor and historic markets in Tuscany - Weekly markets and what you can buy there - Farmers markets in Tuscany Recipes mentioned in this episode: - Pork loin with...
03.08.2019
EP4 - Carnival time. All I love about carnival food.
Things we talked about in this episode: Recipes mentioned in this episode: - Cenci: https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscany/carnival-fried-dough-the-tuscan-cenci - Frittelle: https://en.julskitchen.com/tuscany/italian-carnival-rice-fritters - Schiacciata alla Fiorentina: https://en.julskitchen.com/dessert/schiacciata-alla-fiorentina-a-sweet-flatbread-for-carnival - Bomboloni: https://en.julskitchen.com/dessert/bomboloni-the-italian-doughnuts I’d love to hear from you: do you like Carnival? Is there a special treat you...

What's Cooking with an Italian accent about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Cooking with an Italian accent episodes:

Why I’m asking you to skip Florence on your next trip to Tuscany

Last but not least [Special]

2x05 - All about the traditional Tuscan sweet treats [Christmas Special]

2x04 - Life in Salento: in conversation with Nina Gigante

2x03 - Trentino and mountain life: in conversation with Vea Carpi of Mas del Saro

2x02 - Liguria e Cinque Terre: in conversation with Enrica Monzani of A small kitchen in Genoa

2x01 - Let's celebrate: Happy (40th) Birthday Giulia!

EP46 - A celebration of Spring in a Tuscan kitchen

EP45 - How to maintain a long-term relationship with your blog

EP44 - On risotto

EP43 - Food and motherhood

EP42 - In conversation with: Irina Georgescu, author of Carpathia

EP41 – Everything you want to know about pound cake

EP40 - Get to know us better

EP39 - Three books about Italian cooking you must have

EP38 - Our virtual Tuscan cooking class

EP37 - In conversation with: Regula Ysewijn, food writer

EP36 - How do you learn to cook?

EP35 - Cooking during the lockdown

EP34 - What is comfort food for you?

EP33 - What is food for me

EP32 - Chestnuts and chestnut flour in Tuscan cuisine

EP31 - Celebrating the citrus season

EP30 - (cook)book review: “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” by Samin Nosrat

EP29 - My 2020 word: intentionality

EP28 - Have yourself a very Tuscan Christmas!

EP27 - My favourite Christmas cookbook: Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles [Bonus Track]

EP26 - Milan, foodie tips to explore the city, with Myriam Sabolla

EP25 - Italians and overcooked vegetables

EP24 - In conversation with: Frantoio Pruneti about Extra Virgin Olive Oil

EP23 - A Tuscan pantry

EP22 - Juls' Kitchen Tuscan cooking classes

EP21 - In conversation with: Juliana Lopez May

EP20 - September: Grape harvest and grape recipes

EP19 - Let’s cook together: ricotta crumb cake

EP18 - Siena, foodie tips to explore this medieval city

EP17 - Preserving the season: Summer

EP16 - In conversation with: Luisa of Agriturismo Il Rigo

EP15 - Fragments of Summer and seasonal effortless cooking

EP14 - Eating during the summer heatwave

EP13 - Let's cook together: Zuppa Inglese

EP12 - Get hungry with Tuscan PDO and PGI products - Buy Food Toscana

EP11 - About inspiration

EP10 - In conversation with: Judy Witts Francini

EP9 - Street Food in Tuscany

EP8 - An Easter menu

EP7 - Vegetarian, vegan, Gluten free, but totally traditional!

EP6 - In conversation with: Tessa Kiros

EP5 - Food Markets: what you can buy there

EP4 - Carnival time. All I love about carnival food.