Now, I’m no expert of Milan by any means and I don’t even visit it as often as I would like to, however one of my goals for the next months is to visit it more frequently and discover new pretty places. You know I love to share, so I decided to start a little blog series where I bring you along in Milan finding out new places where to eat delicious food. Hopefully this will help some of you that are visiting Milan for only a few days, to choose a few places where to go and eat something nice, or just for you to enjoy seeing Milan from a screen for the moment!

Let’s start with some classics…

California Bakery is a place you want to visit. It has such an interesting history behind it and when I entered the little café for the first time and started wandering around looking at their delicious desserts I couldn’t help but think about the founder’s travels in the USA that made it all happen. It has a few Pinterest worthy cafes located in different areas of Milan, and there’s something about the decor, the white rusty floorboards and the retro vintage-ish feeling that makes everything more magical. This is definitely the place where I would love to work at my laptop all day, peaceful but alive at the same time. Their cakes and desserts look amazing and me and my boyfriend have decided we need to try them all at some point, however their pic-nic, brunch, bagels & sandwiches options all sound pretty amazing too!

Our favourite? The Cream Cheese Kid’s Brownie, mmm!

Via Larga 19

Whether you’ve been a tourist or you have lived in Milan for a while, you should have tasted a Luini‘s panzerotto at some point. However if you weren’t aware of the existence of this little spot of paradise, you won’t miss it out the next time! This is such a classic, if you’re in Milan you need to eat one of their panzerotti at least once, and I’m not even a fan of Luini’s prices however I can’t deny I still succumb to the temptation sometimes. Luini is an historical bakery right behind the Duomo that fries and sells the most delicious panzerotti in Milan. You’ll probably recognize it by the queue of people waiting for buying some at every hour of the day really, and even though their panzerotti wouldn’t make for a healthy mid-afternoon snack, I wouldn’t suggest to decide to visit it around dinner or lunch time (just trying to avoid you a good half an hour or more of waiting!).

Our favourites? The classic tomato and mozzarella panzerotto, and the ‘vegetarian’ with ricotta and spinach, yum!

via Santa Radegonda 16

I’ll be completely honest with you guys, when I was asked to enter the SACO Kitchen Challenge I was way too excited for it and immediately thought it was the right time for uploading something on my YouTube Channel; however the video I was thinking about isn’t similar to this one by any means. It turned out fine, but I wanted something more special and personal and I have refused to write this post down until now just because I wasn’t completely happy with the video. I guess YouTube it’s totally not my thing, I’m too severe with myself and my skills for something so tricky!

However back to the challenge! I was asked to imagine to be in one of the SACO kitchens and prepare a meal for two, two different course under £20, in less than 2 hours, whatever I wanted to cook! You know I love food and baking and this was just my kind of thing. I prepared one of my all time favourite main course, au gratin potatoes to be precise, which is also something my boyfriend quite love too since I introduced him to it, and since it take a little while to bake in the oven, I decided to pair it with one of my favourite quick and easy 10 minutes total desserts, that you might remember as my Lava Cakes For Two. You’ll find the full recipes right below, they took me less than 2 hours and definitely less than £20, and hopefully this post will inspire some romantic dinners!

AU GRATIN POTATOES

For two servings:
. 2/3 medium potatoes
. 200ml milk
. 2 tablespoons of butter
. 40g grated parmesan
. 2 tablespoons of white flour
. Pepper & salt to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 210°C.

2. Peel the potatoes with a vegetable peeler or a classic knife and cut them into thin slices trying to make them have all the same thickness to avoid that some will be more cooked than others.

3. Take a small glass oven dish, line it with some wet parchment paper and start placing a first layer of potatoes to cover all the surface. Add pepper and salt to taste above the first layer and then create a second layer in the same way. Again add pepper and salt.

4. In a saucepan melt the butter on a low heat, then add the milk all at once and start stirring along the way. Throw in the flour which will help at making our cheese cream thicker, and continue to stir until it starts feeling thick enough.

5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add all the grated parmesan when the cream it’s still warm – this will help melting the parmesan and creating a smooth cream. Taste the cream and add salt if needed.

6. Pour the cheese cream over the potatoes and level it with a spoon in order to create a smooth surface.

7. Place an aluminum foil to cover the oven dish and cut the latter in the middle so that the steam will have a way out. Then place the oven dish in the oven for 1 hour (210/220°C).

8. After one hour remove the aluminum foil and check if the potatoes are soft using a knife or a fork. If the potatoes don’t look cooked, just leave them in the oven with the aluminum foil for a little longer before going on. If yes, just leave them there for 15/20 minutes more until the cream on top starts becoming crunchier and golden brown in some spots.

9. Lastly remove the potatoes from the oven and serve two generous portions on your dinner plates!

LAVA CAKES

For two lava cakes:
. 125g dark chocolate
. 30g unsalted butter
. 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
. 15g white flour
. 2 tablespoons of white sugar
. a pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (if you followed the previous recipe your oven should already be at the right temperature and you’ll probably start with the lava cakes recipe while your potatoes are still in there).

2. Cut the chocolate into little cubes so that it will melt more quickly. Pour it into a large mixing bowl with the butter and melt them in the microwaves checking them a few times and mixing them along the way until you’ll have a smooth creamy mixture.

3. Leave the chocolate mixture to cool a little bit then add the egg and egg yolk, the flour, the sugar and the salt and mix well with a spoon.

4. Pour an equal quantity of the obtained mixture into two ramekins (find mines here) or in two mugs or dessert bowls using a spoon.

5. Place the ramekins/mugs/bowls in the oven for no longer than 10/12 minutes and then leave them to cool just until the bowls are cool enough to handle.

6. Flip them over two dessert bowls or pie dishes; decorate with a strawberry on top and enjoy the melted heart when still warm!

What about your favourite recipes for a dinner for two?

I’ve already introduced you to this amazing garden before and if you’ve read me for a while you’ll remember how many times I mentioned I wanted to visit it. This summer wasn’t helpful with its always cloudy and rainy weather, but we somehow managed to find the perfect hot summer day to visit it and I couldn’t have been happier! Even though the drive was the longest road trip driving I did in my life, I just felt like a little girl when we arrived: I’m a fool for pretty flowers, beautiful gardens and breathtaking landscapes and the Parco Giardino Sigurtà ticks all the boxes at once. Of course we snapped a lot when we were there so now I have the opportunity to bring you along for a tour of my favourite parts of the garden!

THE MEDICINAL HERBS GARDEN

My number one favourite had to be the medicinal herbs garden: it was such a pleasant olfactory experience to walk through all those amazing flowers and herbs which smelt all incredibly nice. I love lavender and its scent so this was for sure going to be one of my favourite spots of the garden, plus look at those beautiful flowers!

THE AVENUE OF THE ROSES

Can we please take a minute to talk about how beautiful this avenue of roses looks? Just think there’re more than 30,000 roses blooming there every year, which is crazy! It looks like a dream and it was the perfect place where to stop and eat something for lunch. I’d had loved eating something fancier than a pizza but there wasn’t too much choice and we were super hungry; however it was delicious, don’t get me wrong! And also excuse me for the gif but it was due!

THE WATER GARDENS

Oh I love little turtles, such a curious but peaceful animal! Looking at them swimming and laying there in that fresh little pond was so relaxing. The water gardens were as amazing as they sound and look: I think water lilies are now on my list of favourites flowers as they were truly beautiful. This was probably the most relaxing half an hour of our trip and this is maybe the reason why I didn’t really wanted to leave this lovely dreamy spot of paradise!

THE MAZE

Have you ever got lost in a maze? We had. Not that I had ever been in a labyrinth before, but it’s one of those things that don’t look as complicated as they actually are. I have to admit I quite enjoyed the feeling, but the most satisfactory part of the whole thing was being able to actually locate and arrive on the gazebo right in the middle, and then finding the way out too!

THE IRIS BAR

The little kiosk right next to the golf carts and cars parks was definitely fancier than where we ate our lunch: so quite and beautiful in every details. I personally loved the white romantic tables and chairs which made resting there after five hours (or more) worth of walking so relaxing, cozy and peaceful.

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The whole garden was even better than what I expected and I can’t suggest give it a whirl more whether you live in the north of Italy or anywhere else and you get to find yourself near it – just reserve an afternoon for it when the weather is nice and you won’t be disappointed.