I didn’t record all their names but included in this little collection of people shots are various chefs and cooks, participants, winery people, cheese makers and smiling friends. All met and snapped during the 2012 International Wine Tourism Conference in Italy. Just a few short weeks ago. Seems an age now as we all slip back into the daily routine…

(This link should take you to the initial set of IWineTC people photographs.)

Biscotti Di Vini Cannella, sounds so much more sophisticated than simply cinnamon flavoured wine biscuits! This recipe hails from the Barberani Winery down Orvieto-way (via a post on Wine Trail Traveler site). Not being a huge fan of the original recipes aniseed as the main flavouring, I substituted cinnamon, which just happens to be one of my favourites. If I had thought about it I should have reserved some of the dough, prior to adding the spice, and mix in a pack or two of the new Beyond Dark chocolate; next time…

From the instructions these biscotti are supposed to be shapped like donuts. Perhaps it was the flour I used (Type 00) or I need not have added so much oil but the mixture was far too soft to shape. Looks aside they taste superb and should accompany many a decent dessert wine, Italian or otherwise (say the Chapel Down Nectar Late Harevst), superbly.

Where is the suave Antonio Grimaldo? Or Michael Wangbickler, Robin Shaw, Jochen Erler, Thaddeus or Mark Stafford? Wonderful people all, that, to one degree or another – across a plate of spinach drenched pasta, over a glass of Sagrantino, from a chair in the auditorium – I ran into at the International Wine Conference. Despite spending eight days in Italy I didn’t manage to take their picture.

As I have probably said several times it doesn’t matter how many photographs you take (I returned with nearly 900) there is always someone or something that you failed to capture. Annoyingly so. At my age memories are fleeting and one needs such images…

While I haven’t quite finished reviewing all those pictures I took, I halted at 20 for this post. One doesn’t want to overdo it afterall. Here though a collection of some of those great people I did manage to photograph. Thanks to all for making the conference and associated trips so much fun.

The recipe states to wrap each scallop in pancetta; half a rasher per scallop. Bugger to that for these sustainable scallops are tiny. I decide to line up five or six across the pancetta and roll them up that way. Little bacon rolls stuffed with scallops result and coated after cooking with Maple Syrup to make Sticky Pancetta Scallops. Serve with a rocket and spinach salad (topped with capers and slivers of fresh fennel ) and a light meal results. Pour out a decent white wine and you have an ‘event’!

The dressing for the salad is a mix of lemon juice flicked together with double the quantity of olive oil, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, one of Maple Syrup and one of capers.

Obviously blueberry muffin recipes are two-a-penny. Multiple variations using oil or butter, sour cream or yoghurt… so why post yet another?

Well, there is the health aspect and a desire to increase ones fruit intake (just ignore the sugar) and the need to make something from a recipe book given as a Christmas present. You just know they are going to ask if I have made anything from it yet. Those silicon cases need a try-out too. Muffins are also, of course, simplicity themselves to make.

The present is Home Bake by Eric Lanlard (you know, that French chap off the telly… Channel 4… ). Flicking through I note dozens of recipes I would like to try out; the one for Blueberry Muffins just seemed the easiest. Many a cook book that has come my way fails to inspire, perhaps two or three dishes might be enjoyable to make and a pleasure to eat, but there are plenty in Lanlard’s 220 pager.

Now while I have to admit to a sweet tooth the use of 50g of sugar in the blueberry compote plus the 200g in the muffins themselves is, I think, a touch excessive. I’d be tempted, when making them again, to reduce this a little. So here we are then, a Blueberry Muffin Recipe.

Nothing says “Thank You” like a box of chocolates. Nor “I Love You” or even a simple “Ta matey”. These little chocolate morsels pictured here just happen to be from Hotel Chocolat. In lieu of you actually popping round my place over the festive season for a chocolate please take this photo as a virtual Thank You – for reading Spittoon, SpittoonExtra and/or The FoodieList viewing my photographs and my scribbles elsewhere, commenting, criticising and keeping the enthusiasm going, for writing your own blogs and for the photographs. Oh the photographs! It is a Thank You to all so I won’t pick out individuals (for you know who you are anyway). Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

You are of course more than welcome to ‘pop round’ although remember that the white chocolate in the photo (a Christmas Mess – “Upliftingly fruity mousse, made with white chocolate and lots of strawberry and raspberry and finished with crushed meringue and strawberry pieces”) is mine. I ain’t that generous!

A challenge was set – using ingredients from the Interflora Hamper create a dish. A touch trickier than it sounds considering that the box of chocolates, the nuts and mince pies had already been consumed. Mind you what could you make out of mince pies?

This then is one of my more ‘creative’ efforts – a cheesecake that uses as its base the Interflora supplied ‘Grandma Wild’s Milk Chocolate Coasted Cranberry cookies’ which in turn is topped with a thin layer of the raspberry jam. The topping comes from a tin of Carnation Condensed milk, some white chocolate and a tub of Philadelphia cream cheese. Oh and some lemon and vanilla. Simplicity itself really and it does use two of the hamper products. I suppose I could have mixed into the creamy topping slithers of the fudge but I’d eaten that already too. To be honest the 200g of Grandma Wild’s cookies, crushed, is a little on the thin side when squashed into the tin. It would have benefited with mixing in a further 100g of the hampers crumbles but, yep, you guessed it, I’d eaten them too. (Of course a smaller tin or individual rings would have worked better).

Did it work? Rather luscious and rich is the result, the raspberry jam is a good addition if adding to the richness. Because the chocolate melted in the hot butter the base set rather hard and is a touch tricky to extract whole. Its not that bad actually…

For those with an urge to replicate the White and Milk Chocolate Cheesecake recipe is below.

Its game season; my local butcher is crammed with pheasant, venison, boar sausages, woodcock and more. I should really return with my camera. A small purchase though of four little quail. Freshly plucked and locally reared and shot apparently, although I didn’t think to ask exactly where.

Recipe is a simple one, a take on a Nigel Slater, Hot and Sticky Roast Quail. A recipe that takes minutes to prepare and 25 or so to cook. Serve with rice and prepare to get your fingers sticky. Really sticky.

From the cupboard a 80g pack of Willie’s Delectable Madagascan 71 Dark Chocolate. From the fridge a pack of ready-made sweet short crust pastry and from the “samples received” shelf a little pot of French Glacé Cherries from “the sun drenched orchards of Provence”. I can’t help myself and eat a couple of the cherries… rather good.

I am in need of a chocolate dessert to accompany a sample of Maury sent to me by The Perfect Cellar. All the reference books suggest chocolate and chocolate desserts with this “Fortified French wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon”, so I am in mind of making little individual tarts, with frangipane covering the chocolate centre. 80g of chocolate isn’t going to fill many tarts so to bulk it out a little and to add a fruity dimension one of the glacé cherries is placed in each tart first. The chocolate, incidentally, is described as having “juicy notes of summer fruits”; something else I was hoping would match with the intricate flavours of the Maury.

Pastry rolled, cut out and placed in my silicon tart mould. Cherry dropped in the bottom. The chocolate is melted with a large knob of butter and when combined spooned into each tart. There is just enough to lightly fill six tarts.

I make a ton of frangipane. A heaped dessert spoon of the frangipane is slid onto each tart, with the remainder destined to cover tarts filled with mincemeat (a recipe in the latest Delicious suggests this). In the oven for what, 20 minutes or so, and they are done.

From my hotel in Brescia there were a dozen eateries within just a few minutes walk. Turning right along the cobbled path from the door of the Albergo Orologio and right next door is a delightful vaulted restaurant who have encased the outside tables in a glass cocoon. I ate here twice during the run-up to the European Wine Bloggers conference; the first meal included a most scrumptious layered pasta dish. A starter I believe but create enough layers and it becomes a main course.

Delicious in its simplicity it was hugely flavoursome. Washed down with a bottle of Barbera de Alba this was, to me, Autumnal Italy personified. The dish was simple – little chunks of boar’s meat and slices of chestnuts interleaving squares of chestnut pasta. A meaty, rich, sauce was drizzled around the pasta. The Italian translation I’m guessing would be something like “Pasta di castagne con ragu di cinghiale e castagno”

I enjoyed it so much I’ve been trying to recreate it since returning to damp, cloudy England. I’m not going to make chestnut pasta, and I’ve yet to discover an online retailer that sells it; so I substituted fresh lasagne egg pasta, cut into squares and boiled as you would with any pasta, until just cooked. In anticipation a little game stock was ‘created’ from left over woodcock bones, laced with red wine and thickened.

Boar’s meat is not that easy to locate either. A trial run of this recipe using meat from the local butchers Boar and Apple sausages was fine, a rather nice combination as it happened, but not really like the original. I brought a selection of game products from The Wild Meat Company last week; my selection included a couple of trays of freshly minced boars meat. No apple or other fillings to sully the flavour!

The recipe is simple – while the pasta is cooking the seasoned meat plus a hearty mix of Italian herbs is fried until cooked. Slide in a few sliced chestnuts to warm though. This mix is spread thinly between leaves of the pasta, the thickened sauce poured over and topped with a little parsley.