The Week in Bites | 10th July 2011

Traditional Pasta

This week FDL brought you the third installment from the famous pasta twins The Simili sisters. In previous videos the twins have shown FDL how to make traditional egg dough pasta and how to make tagliatelle and tortelli with ricotta filling.

In this new, exclusive video they take pasta to a new level. The charismatic duo gave a step by step guide on preparing traditional spinach dough perfect for authentic Lasagna, Tortelli, even Bow-tie-pasta.

FDL were also lucky enough to get two recipes from the sisters, one for a traditional Béchamel sauce and the other for a green lasagna Bolognese. And if after watching their video you'd like to know more about the sisters there's a biography here.

Salt of the earth

Salt is applied to most dishes at multiple stages of preparation and cooking and once packaged, grated and sprinkled on food - it's hard to imagine salt in its rawest form - what it looked like before being packaged and just where it came from.

This week FDL took a closer look at this magical, symbolic and geographically miraculous substance. There was a picture gallery of some of salt mines around the world and showing salt in a different light.

There was also a look at the many variations of salt available, a great recipe for steak on a bed of salt and a round up of some of the most stylish salt shakers around.

Social eats

Would you dine with a stranger? This is the question asked to the FDL community this week after publishing an article on the new online craze of social dining.

The piece examined the rise of this unique dining experience and documented some of the big resources available for those interested in the idea of meeting random foodies around the world to enjoy a meal and get to know each other at the table - truly digital conviviality.

There was also a look at secret supper clubs and a new online system that allows users to partake in comunual cooking in which neighbours and communiy groups agree to feed each other.

Also this week

There was a look at the Hol(e)y war involving Switzerland, America and cheese and a great Eggplant parmesan recipe from none other than the Michelin starred chef, Alfonso Iaccarino.