Tonight's menu at cookery class - minestrone soup and bread sticks (grissini, poppyseed and plain). It's been a bit of an Italian food fest this week - what with a bolognese sauce last night, and a great recipe for potato gnocci to follow this weekend (one that Gennaro Contaldo demonstrated a couple of weeks ago on Saturday Kitchen).

I spent a happy half hour yesterday evening weighing out my ingredients for tonight - it felt just like being back at school preparing for a cookery lesson. Ah, the delights of learning how to make pastry with Mrs Smith.