On Wednesday night I took a little jaunt back to London for an evening Italian dining at the Giovanni Ranna restaurant near Great Portland Street. Along with lots of other bloggers and journalists we were presented with an evening of fizz and food to showcase the new Cioa Gusto Shop at Ocado.

Ocado is online grocery shopping at its finest and now, when searching for authentic Italian ingredients, you simply have to click on the Ciao Gusto Shop tab within the website and there you are. Over 30 Italian food and drink brands, ones you would see typically when shopping in Italy, are there at your finger tips and all you have to do once the order arrives is create something delicious with them. And here I can help with that.

We were brought course after course of mouthwatering food and in true (so they tell me) Italian style, this is how real Italians eat when celebrating. I can’t fault it I have to say, I mean what’s better than something good eat if ot more of something else good to eat afterwards.

We were served canapes and Prosecco (from two different regions) and we listened as the ambassarods from the brands talked passionately about their products. I stood with the team from Cirio who told me all about their wonderfully fresh sounding tomatoes and loved hearing from Giovanni Rana (who also has products in the range) about why he is so excited by this shop.

After this we sat down to eat, chat, laugh and really see for ourselves what these true Italian ingredients could afford us when it comes to eating at home. The wine flowed with the conversation and as each dish was brought out a hubub of oohs and ahhhs went around the room. I was sat next to Becky from Amuse Your Bouche alongside Liz from Me And My Shadow, Uju from Babes About Town and Mari from Mari’s World who has lived in Italy and assured us that all the ingredients were exactly as she remembered from shopping for food back then. She particularly recommended the Fabbri cherries which come in a blue and white ceramic pot and sure enough, when we got to try them, they were delicious.

This was my favourite thing to eat from the evening so I have to just give you the recipe before I go on.

Ingredients:

100g Medusa octopus carpaccio, 4 Amica Chips Frumi (bruscetta), 1 medium or 2 small potatoes, vegetable broth, 50g Parmalat Chef heavy cream, Filippo Berio extra virgin olive oil, white truffle-infused oil, parsley and salt.

Method:

Bring the vegetable broth to the boil. Peel the potatoes and cut them into thin slices. Place the potato slices into the pot of boiling broth and let them cook slowly, until they start to break up. Using an immesion mixer, blend the potatoes and broth until obtaining a homogeneous mixture. Flavour with t a spoonful of truffle oil and a pinch of salt. Pour some of the creamy potato mixture on each slice of bruschett. Add some octopus carpaccio on top and garnish with fresh parsley.

We also ate, as I mentioned, many other tempting delights and I couldn’t help but snap away with pleasure at each dish as it arrived to our table. Even though I had probably eaten my body weight in bread sticks while we chatted at the gathering and speeches I found room to fit everything in leaving only because my last tran had to caught before the finale of puds. Still… As you will see, I didn’t go hungry…

Were’t we all so lucky! What it has shown me is that I can create food which is both authentic Italian fodder but also that I can do it wothout back breaking work to find the right ingredients or indeed time spent in the kitchen preparing. I often think I can’t invite people over to dinner and offer them shop made pasta but hang on a minute… If it tastes like this I can and the thought of frying ravioli as a starter had never crossed my mind but was super tasty and also rather impressive.

So, when looking for something Italian to eat you simply must visit the Ciao Gusto Shop at Ocado. I can’t think of anywhere better to buy these ingredients; other than Italy of course… I have never, despite having a daughter named Florence, beein to Italy but I would so love to sometime soon. I would dearly like to take her to visit the city she shares a name with and as we all, our whole family, enjoy eating Italian food I think it could be quite a gastronomic holiday for us. Until then we shall be buying our ingredients from Ciao Gusto and making like Italy but at home.

Thanks to the Ciao Gusto team and all the brands who hosted the even for inviting me along to join you. I shall look forward to creating in the kitchen with your products soon.