When history collides with the kitchen …… cooking from home no. 2

The challenge is a simple one.

Take a handful of ingredients from the kitchen and come up with a favourite meal, while at the same time exploring its history.*

So, the ingredients are some tomatoes, a handful of olives and capers and an option on a bit of garlic.

Gently fry the tomatoes with a good dollop of olive oil adding some tomato puree with salt and pepper  until everything is soft and a golden red colour, add the olives and capers and continue cooking for a tad longer.

Then as they say in all cookbooks …. “set the sauce to one side, boil a pan of salted water, add the pasta and cook till it’s ready”.

Mother would employ that age old test of fishing out a strand of pasta and throwing it at the wall, telling me "if it stuck then the pasta was cooked"..  

I have to say it was spectacular but never worked.  

True the pasta did sometimes stick but it didn’t guarantee it was ready and just left a mess on the wall. 

Far easier just to take a piece let it cool and bite into it.

Once the pasta is ready just add it to the sauce, warm through and serve it straight away.

Finishing off with more black pepper.

My Wikipedia tells me that pasta with olives and capers most resembles “Spaghetti alla puttanesca invented in the Italian city of Naples in the mid-20th century, typically made with tomatoes, olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, chili pepper, and extra virgin olive oil".**

That said the same article explores in more depth the history qualifies its place of origin and suggests that while there is one variation from the region of Lazio, the Neapolitan version omits the anchovies.

I like Wikipedia did go to my copy of Silver Spoon that bible of Italian cuisine which boasts 2000 recipes and couldn’t find my dish.***

But as I often observe there is no uniform way to cook and present most dishes, which are influenced by regional variations, the availability of ingredients and the whim of the individual cook.

Now given that I love the food of southern Italy the chances are that I picked up the basic idea from something I ate in a restaurant, but never being hidebound by rules and with a poor memory I guess I just came up with my pasta, olives and capers all on my own with a sideways nod to Naples.

It seems to me it goes well with spaghetti or linguine but my favourite at present is bucatini which is a long slightly thicker pasta with a hole running through it and the tube manages to catch a bit more of the sauce, adding to the pleasure.

Location; our kitchen

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2026

*When history collides with the kitchen, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2026/10/when-history-collides-with-kitchen.html

**Spaghetti alla puttanesca, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_alla_puttanesca

***The Silver Spoon, 1950, first published in English in 2005

Our stories …… and other voyages from the kitchen … part one

I have been thinking about the stories of ourselves which are revealed from what we eat, the food choices we make and that complicated mix of family tradition and the sheer variety of food on offer.

Simplicity ... olives, tomatoes and pasta. 2026

Now there is nothing new in any of that.  

Shepherds' pie with out the Shepherd, 2026

It is an obvious observation that we are what we eat and what we eat is conditioned on what we were given as children, as well as on income, availability and the power of consumerism to lead us into new eating habits and new foods.

All of which was reignited by a blog from my old friend Lois, and the account of her Aunty Audrey’s Curry of Mixed Vegetables. *

It is a beautiful blend of family history, people she loved and how we ate seventy years ago, and in particular that Curry of Mixed Vegetables.  

The recipe will date from the late 1950s or early 1960s and may indeed owe its origins to a time further back.

As Lois remarks “If you do feel tempted to try it, you may need to update it – vegetable oil instead of lard, and for example there is a lot of liquid in the preparation of the vegetables.”

And I guess it is a recipe of its time with the reliance on lard, the boiling of the vegetables and fruit in the curry.

My mother made her own curry which was also heavy on fruit and may have had a passing nod to that very 1960s boil in the bag Vesta Curry.

Spicey lentils, peas and tomatoes, 2026

At which point someone will leap in with a heap of authentic curry dishes piled high with fruit, and certainly I remember those amazing cold salads from the Ceylon Tea Centre which included curried rice, and fruit. **

If like me, you were born in the first half of the last century lard will have walked with you at many meals as did that byproduct of the Sunday roast which was beef dripping.  

Collected at the end of the meal, stored in a large pudding bowl and used as a spread on bread.

I remember it well and the bit I liked best was the brown liquid bit at the bottom of the bowl which offered up a powerful salt hit.

As an instant snack it has probably been around for centuries but was very popular during both world wars when food shortages and rationing meant you made the most of what you had.

And given that both of my parents were born in the early decades of the twentieth century beef dripping would have been a natural part of their diet.

Making salad, 2024

They will also have experienced new foods made or grown in far flung parts of the British Empire and conveyed first in those fast “tea clippers” and later in refrigerated ships.

So, while “the Hungry Thirties” and wartime rationing limited choice and quantity the explosion of 1950s consumerism brought new foods which just kept coming as technology and changing fashions in food drove what we thought we wanted to eat.

I was in my early twenties when I first had pizza, olives, and sweet corn and it was not till then that I regularly visited restaurants nor will I be alone in that.  

Eating out in southeast London as a child was confined to the occasional toasted fruit bun at a Lyon’s Corner House.

We didn’t even have a chippy take away, with mother and grand mother sniffily observing “why pay someone else to make something that I can cook at home”.

Pizza, 2025

And as I pass my 77th birthday I have slid into the same world, telling Lois my incomprehension with people walking up Beech Road with cups of coffee from local shops which they then consume at home, albeit a tad colder than if they had made the espresso or fancy coffee indoors.

Making pesto, 2026

But I am not a King Cnut holding back the food experiences of the world. 

Our family is spread out across Europe and Canada and with that come new dishes which I have embraced along with those from holiday destinations in southern Italy and the Greek islands.

Once mastered the adventure is to play with them always remembering that dishes through history have always been adapted because of seasonal variations, availability of ingredients and the whims of the cook in the kitchen

All of which will come together with Christmas which in our family will see bits of Italian, Polish and German festive food mixed with the folk memories of what mum and dad brought to the table which in turn owed much to their families stretching back across Scotland to the east Highlands, the east and west Midlands and to Cologne Warsaw and Naples.

Pesto, potato, green beans and pasta, 2026

And running through all of it will be that simple guide, which is “keep it simple, where possible cook from scratch, err on the side seasonal stuff using up left overs and just make it fun".

Which led me to recreate a pot of orange curd made using a recipe from 1948, when food was still rationed.

Orange curd from a 1948 recipe, 2026

It was a sheer bit of sheer silliness driven on with a curiosity.  Given rationing I was surprised at the amount of sugar which was required.  Needless to say in deference to my teeth I scaled back on the amount of sugar and turned out something which looked good, tasted ok although the jury is out on whether I would attempt to make it again for family and friends.

But then it was made from scratch over the kitchen cooker and was fun to do with the added interest that it might well have been something mum made for me.

And that is it, leaving me just to thank Lois for her Aunty Audrey’s Curry and a pause to think about what to make tonight.

As ever we shall see.

Location; the kitchen

Pictures, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Aunty Audrey’s Curry of Mixed Vegetables, https://loiselsden.com/2026/10/25/aunty-audreys-curry-of-mixed-vegetables/

** Ceylon Tea Centre, St Peter’s Square, Manchester, and London, circa 1970s

One out of two ain’t bad …. travels through a bit of history

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single cook in search of something new must have failures.*

So, there I was having successfully returned to making pesto when I went a pesto too far.

Green pesto is simple enough, just basil leaves, cheese, nuts and some olive oil to which I may or may not add a bit of garlic, depending on whom I am meeting.

Pretty much always a success.

And so emboldened by this minor culinary win, I went on to revisit my red pesto, which requires the addition of sundried or roasted tomatoes.

I went for roasted rather than sun dried simply because I didn’t fancy the walk to the shops and anyway, I had heaps of tomatoes.

All went well, the roasted tomatoes roasted well but having added them to the other ingredients it was less a red colour and more green.

Undaunted I roasted more tomatoes, threw them into the mix, whizzed again and created something which was no longer pesto but something else.

The grainy appearance from the leaves and tomatoes had become smooth, and the taste was sweeter with a hint of smoke.

All of which I guess was the fallout from using roasted tomatoes and over whizzing.

All of which in the story of cooking from home is just one of those things.

But again, it got me thinking of how dishes can become frozen in time and you have to follow the recipe to the letter when all through history what turns out on the table is a combination of seasonal availability, regional variation, cost and the whim of the cook.

So maybe no longer pesto but pleasant enough as an accompaniment to a bit of pasta and peas.

Would I have it again?  Possibly, but the chances that I could replicate it are slim.

So, one to put down to experience.

Location; Our kitchen

Pictures; Pesto Day, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Apologies to Jane Austen

Take four ingredients …. and explore a bit of history

Pesto made from just basil, nuts, garlic and cheese has become one of those all-time sauces, which turns up on pasta, in sandwiches, wraps, pizza, and a variety of other dishes.

So much so that in some restaurants it litters the menu and walks with starters, mains, and nibbles.

Not that I have any objections, it is simple to make and can lift many meals from bland to supreme.

My Wikipedia tells me that it is "also known as pesto Genovese, traditionally made with leaves of Genovese basil, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan or Grana Padano, Pecorino sardo, pine nuts, and garlic. 

It originated in the Ligurian city of Genoa and is used to dress pasta". 

Added to which "it is thought to have had two predecessors in ancient times, going back as far as the Roman age. 

The ancient Romans used to eat a similar paste called moretum, which was made by crushing garlic, salt, cheese, herbs, olive oil, and vinegar and sometimes pine nuts. together. 

During the Middle Ages, a popular sauce in the Genoan cuisine was agliata, which was a mash of garlic and walnuts".

Surprisingly the use of the basil leaves only dates from the 1850s and while I do stick to the basic four ingredients, our Saul often uses walnuts instead of pine nuts, and I am equally partial to tomato pesto which uses either sun-dried tomatoes or small roasted ones.

And of course, like so many old dishes it will vary across time, space, and just the preferences of a cook along with the availability of the ingredients.

Which I suppose means it could be sloppy and incorrect to refer to a tomato pesto  as pesto but then the word derives in Italian and Latin from the word to pound or crush which in an earlier age was the way to make the sauce.

Ah I hear Eric mutter that “is still the correct way, so banish that blender”, but I am lazy.

And that really is it.

Leaving me just to admit that today having made a mash of potatoes, carrots and avocado I threw in a bit of pesto just to see what it would be like

Location; our kitchen

Pictures, the finished pesto, that masterly mix of pasta, potatoes, green beans and pesto, and a shamefaced use of pesto in a dollop of veg mash, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Pesto, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesto

Walking with history …….. Bucatini Cacio e Pepe

It is one of the obvious observations that some of the simplest of dishes remain both fun to make and above all are totally delicious.

Bucatini Cacio e Pepe

So, it is with Bucatini Cacio e Pepe which combines my favourite pasta with cheese and pepper.

I have been making a variation for over forty years mixing pasta with olive oil, grated pecorino cheese and heaps of black pepper.

Our kids all grew up with it and will still opt for it as an alternative to chilli and garlic pasta.

But I had never tried the equally simple and quick Bucatini Cacio e Pepe.  

One source records that it originates with Italian shepherds who wanted something quick to make while out in the fields and originates in the region of Lazio.

And it is quick, only requiring you to cook the pasta mix it  to a bowl of grated pecorino and add a quantity of the pasta water which forms the sauce and then finish off with as much black pepper as you want.  

Three ingredients made in the time it takes to cook the pasta.

That said maybe I didn’t use enough cheese because the sauce was not as gooey as I suspect it should have been, but it was a first attempt.  

On the other hand, I might just revert to the even simpler pasta, olive oil, cheese and pepper.

The dish will be centuries old and reflects that basic peasant cooking which does the best with the minimum.

Ingredients for Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino

And that will also explain Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino, or Spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli.

Now my Silver Spoon Cookbook says I should just fry the garlic and chillies in some olive oil and add the spaghetti by pulling the pasta out with a fork rather than draining it which keeps the pasta moist and just softens the dish.*

As a variation I prefer using linguini and throw in just enough tomato sauce to add a bit of extra colour. 

At which point purists will sniffily point out that I have wandered into making Spaghetti All’ Amatriciana, which blends my chilli, garlic and tomato mix with diced pancetta, which is close, but as a vegetarian would never include meat.

A variation on Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino

But then this Neapolitan dish like all peasant meals will change slightly depending on what ingredients are available and on the preferences of the cook.

So, with that in mind tomorrow I may look at what exists in the cupboard and the fridge to ring the changes on these two basic friends.

Location; our kitchen

Pictures; wot I cooked, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

 *The Silver Spoon, 2005, 2000 Italian recipes

When me and Leonardo da Vinci walked the same way

Yep ….. it is a little-known fact that me and that Italian master of all things were vegetarians. *

Roast peppers

That said some clever traveller of obscure knowledge will correct me with arguing he merely advocated it.

Either way it got me reflecting on my choice which I took over four decades ago.

There wasn’t one burning reason for giving up meat it just happened and I have never missed meat or fish nor regretted the decision.

And in so doing I have discovered those great meatless cuisines of the world which have their roots in an abhorrence to eating living things and the more basic one that in most peasant communities’ meat was a very expensive item, and almost out of reach of many.

I can’t say I have been a vociferous advocate but when challenged I have stepped up to the mark.

And of challenges there have been many.  Most are cheap jibes thrown out in expectation that they are witty and clever comments but are in fact banal uttered by people who would be better employed cataloguing their collection of dried worms.

Moreover, they miss the rich variety of dishes that are out there.

Pasta, garlic and chilli

My favourites are invariably those from southern Italy an area which as late as the 1960s was far poorer than the northern regions of the country.

Pasta and beans

Roasted peppers, aubergines cooked in a heap of different ways and those old staples of pasta, beans and chickpeas.

Of all these my go to choice is simply pasta and olive oil with perhaps a bit of garlic and chilli thrown in and sometimes some homemade tomato sauce.

And what I find amusing is that it is often the deriding meat eaters who fall on these dishes.  Which takes me back to an event many years ago.  

We were in the Sangam in Didsbury and sharing our table were a mix of meat eaters and vegetarians, and by bad luck the vegetarian starters came first, which everyone fell upon and all pronounced excellent.  

Sadly, the arrival of the meat starters left some of us with nothing more to eat and reduced to watching.  The added insult was the comment from one meat eater that she was finding it difficult to finish her starters because of the number of our dishes she had already consumed.

                                                             Green beans

At which point I should really launch into a description of the history of vegetarianism but it is out there for all to read.*

Instead, I will venture into that dark area of convenience foods and share my own non animal convenience.  I don’t eat many but will when lazy fall on those alternative sausage and burgers.  It’s not that I am wanting pretend meat it’s just simply that they are quick.

It was as George who ran Sunflowers on Beech Road once said to me, “why should meat eaters have all the convenience foods”.

Tivall convenience

Location; where ever there are vegetarians

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*History of vegetarianism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_vegetarianism

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ....... part 161 .... avocado, sweetcorn, mango and a dollop of Vesta curry

 The continuing story  of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Five foods on the plate, 1948

I wonder how many of these would have featured in the diet of Joe and Mary Ann during their time in the house.

To be fair they were here for just under 60 years and as Britain’s eating habits changed during the 20th century, they may have encountered all five.

But I wonder because by 1970 I had only come across peas and beetroot. True as kids we did get pasta, but it came served with milk and sugar and was a treat, so I guess it doesn’t count.

Mango, 2022

And me, and Joe and Mary Ann won’t be unusual in the absence of peppers, pasta and sweetcorn.

In my case I can remember the first time I came across sweetcorn, pasta, mangoes and even curry.  It was as a student in 1970 that I first had sweetcorn, and a good few more years before I ate pizza, and pasta and not till the 1990s that mango and avocado featured on my plate.

As for curry, in the late 1960s that was courtesy of Vesta Curry, that mix of rice, dehydrated chopped beef and vegetables in a spiced curry sauce.  The boil in the bag rice was cooked while the “other” bits were added to water in a saucepan and simmered away for about fifteen minutes.

Mum replicated this with a home-based mince version which was heavy on raisons, light on the curry powder and came with heaps of rice.

The pizza you make at home, 2024

My first experience of an authentic curry would wait until I was a student in the 70s and went for the three course businessmen’s meals which most Asian and Chinese restaurants offered up at lunchtimes for the staggering price of just three shillings, [15p].

Avocado, 2022

Even more exotic were the salads from the Ceylon Tea Centre in St Peter’s Square, where cold spiced rice vied with bowls of diced fruit, shredded carrot and portions of peppers, peas and meats which were oceans away from the plates of tomato, cucumber on limp green lettuce of my youth.

Leaving the delights of  pizza and pasta to the Bella Napolli on Kennedy Street in the mid 1970s.

Now there is a point to all this which is less a nostalgic trip and more a reflection of just how fast our eating habits changed, under the impact of raising living standards, the push to processed foods aided by advertising, supermarkets  and the hunt for new products from the world’s cuisines to which can be added the fridge and home freezer.

All of which made it possible to move away from the daily trip to the grocer, the butcher, the fishmonger and green grocer, to shopping for the week, secure in the knowledge that it would remain fresh  and allow you to offer up more “interesting” meals along with the quick convenience foods like fish fingers, and that amazing invention of the TV dinner.

Pasta and borlotti, 2023

Mum discovered TV dinners in the mid-1960s ....all you wanted for a roast meal or fish supper in a tin tray which you heated in the oven. They were expensive, tasted awful but mum liked the idea of novelty.

Happily, it was a passing fad and we returned to deep fried corn beef in batter, plates of peeled Italian tomatoes and bacon which vied with potato pancakes and potted beef and fish sandwiches.  To which I can say other sandwiches were available of which sugar, apple and banana ones were popular.

But our Elizabeth reminded me of a whole set of meals that mother made from scratch from soused herring, heaps of pies and puddings and cakes to die for.

That said sweetcorn, mango and avocado were not on the list and nor I suspect would they have walked through the door when Joe and Mary Ann lived here.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; five foods on the plate, Meta Givern’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, 1948, Chicago, Mango fruits – single and halved, and Ivar Leidus, 2022, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: w:en: Creative Commons, You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work and pizza and pasta dishes, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The simple pasta .... with tomato sauce, 2021

*The Story of a House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

Stories from the back streets of Naples ……. and a Neapolitan cookbook

There are many different categories of poverty, from not having the means to heat the home, provide food for the family or secure a decent education for your children.

Down a Neapolitan street, 2018

And up there with them is the absence of running water, which at the very least can mean a tedious frequent trip up and down stairs to the neighbourhood tap and at worst a long walk to a communal pump. 

With buildings that reach to the sky, 2019

Today, we take fresh and clean running water for granted.  It is one of those key steps forward in the provision of public health during the late 19th and early 20th century.

In my own family I would have to go back to my great grandmother and the 1870s and 80s, to be able to record stories of the communal water tap in the shared courtyard, and to my grandparents in the 1920s who shared an outside lavatory.  

But progress was in the air and by the time I regularly visited them three decades later, the lavatory had become their personal one, even if it was still located outside at the bottom of their yard.

And then in a casual conversation with Rosa who was born in Naples in 1940 I was reminded that drawing water from a tap in her home was as alien to her as it had been for great grandmother.

We had just had pasta for dinner, and as I went to start washing up, Rosa pointed to the huge saucepan of “pasta water” and suggested I use it to wash the pots and plates.

It struck me as odd, but it was still warm, and more to the point had I been back in Naples in 1940, I wouldn’t have entertained wasting water ….. not if it meant going down and coming back 4 flights of stairs with a fresh supply.

A Napoli Si Mangia cosi

From there the talk drifted to one of the cook books which has sat in our house for over 20 years.  It was published in 1986 and is entitled A Napoli Si Mangia cosi', which means In Naples you eat like this.

It was one of the things Rosa gave Tina when she left home to come to Britain a full 35 years ago.

Fritto alla napoletana

It is much used, held together in part by sellotape and a book I occasionally flip through.

Now, I can’t speak or read Italian, despite many embarrassing attempts, and so having looked at the pictures I would put the book back.

What I didn’t know was that it is not written in Italian, but in Neapolitan which for some Italians can be as incomprehensible as any foreign language.

And even now she will often say to me this is the Italian for something, but in Naples we would say …….

All of which leaves me to decide if I should give up on Italian and go straight for Neapolitan.

We shall see.

But I now know that Fritto alla napoletana is a selection of vegetables and zucchini flowers dipped in batter and fried.

Pictures; from A Napoli Si Mangia cosi' and Naples Street, 2018-19, from the collection of Saul Simpson and Balzano

Cooking with Nana ….. potato pancakes

 Yesterday I made potato pancakes.

The humble potato

Now there shouldn’t be anything unusual about that.

They are after all just a mix of grated potatoes, egg, flour and flavouring which you fry up.

And to spice things further you can always add onion or apples.

Not that my German grandmother added such things.

She stuck to the simple potato, flour and eggs and cooked them to perfection.

Mother tended to be a tad heavy handed and sometimes hers departed from the thin crispy variety with an ossy centre and became bigger and heavier.

Either way they were a staple dish in our house and often came inside two slices of bread, compounding their calorific content.

Pizza

But we knew no better, and potato pancake sandwiches sat beside, apple sandwiches, sugar sandwiches, and bread with dripping and bread with meat or fish paste.

And for 63 of my 74 years, I have on and off attempted to replicate the perfect potato pancake.

Sadly, always with little success.  It never occurred to me to look up a recipe, just followed what I thought Nana and mum did it.

Had I followed a recipe I would have spotted the binding agent of the egg.

And the rest as they say is easy peezy.

They now sit beside those other favourites of home made pizza, parmigiana di melanzane, heaps of pasta dishes, and that triumph of gooey potato pleasure which mixes slices of cooked potatoes, mozzarella cheese topped with tomato sauce.

                                                Lasagna

Historically what all of them have in common is that they are peasant food, low on meat and high on cheap products easily available.

Pesto and pasta

In the case of potato pancake which can be found across middle Europe the challenge and the fun is what goes in, from onion to apple or whatever is available.

Like pasta and pizza they are easy to make,  are filling but offer up all sorts of variants.

And that is that.

Other than to say what was once simple peasant food has been transformed or as the Italian side of the family would say stolen.

That simple pesto sauce which accompanies pasta and is just a mix of fresh basil, pine nuts and cheese with lashings of olive oil is now to be found in salads, and sandwiches.

But sometimes adaptions do work, and the new kid on the block which is red pesto, made from sundried tomatoes is a favourite.

But why should I be surprised .... because the simplest peasant foods were always up to be adapted as food supplies changed. 

Pizzoccheri della Valtellina

And sometimes the oddest simple ingredients make stunning dishes.

So Tina's mum who is from Naples long ago embraced a northern Italian dish, which is Pizzoccheri della Valtellina, which put simply is a mix of pasta, potatoes, savoy cabbage and spinach and three types of cheese. Pizzoccheri is a type of short wide tagliattelle made from a mixture of buckwheat flour and wheat flour. The buckwheat gives the pasta a brown speckley look which I have to say was different.

She cooked the potatoes and cabbage together and then layered these with the cooked pasta and the diced cheese with more grated cheese on top and bakes for about 15 minutes.

I have to confess that greens do not do much for me. I guess it dates back to overcooked green cabbage which was served up in my primary school. Even now I have vivid memories of the agony of forcing it down under the stern gaze of the dinner lady wanting to be anywhere than facing this plate of torture.

But her  Pizzoccheri is very heaven.

More pizza

Our Saul has always made a heap of different pesto's depending on what "green ingredient" he can put his hands on .

Potato pancake

In the same way pizza that classic street food has evolved and on the way has been been claimed by lots of nationalities, but at home in Italy and here in Chorlton we are all agreed pineapple ain't a good topping.

Pictures, potato pancakes, pizza, and parmigiana di melanzane from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Eating Neapolitan on King Street West ……. and coming across a bit of history

We found Capri’s by chance and what a stroke of luck.

Tina is Italian and is very picky about eating Italian food which often disappoints but not yesterday when we dropped into Capri’s on King Street West.

It helped that the food was authentic Neapolitan, which is where the family come from, and in conversation with the owner and his daughter it turns out that they are from the very next suburb to where Tina’s mum and dad were born and grew up.

But it was as ever the food which made the visit.  Tina went for the Spaghetti alle Vongole which is pasta with clams, garlic, chilly, parsley and datterini tomatoes and I had Pasta all ‘Arrabiata which is tomato sauce, parsley, garlic and fresh chilly.

They are the dishes Tina grew up with and the ones her mum cooks regularly.

We had been in town visiting the two exhibitions at Central Ref** and debated where to eat and slowly meandered past several Italian restaurants, as well as a few which are our favourites, but on that day none quite fitted the bill.

Still Tina fancied “some fish and pasta” and so we pushed on to King Street West, which as a historian is one of those forgotten areas of the city which included a gas works and the Shambles.

Now you won’t find New Shambles or Pork Lane, they disappeared along with the meat markets which ran from Deansgate back to Butter Lane during the 19th century.

The Shambles in 1849

They were the Bridge Street Market which fronted Deansgate down to New Shambles and then the delightfully named, Pork and Carcase Market which stretched from New Shambles to Butter Lane.

And even before the markets vanished Pork Lane had became Pork Street.

But with redevelopment the street vanished for ever under a series of buildings and befitting the areas new character New Shambles became a continuation of Southgate.

All of which is a bit off the track.

So, I will return to Capri’s which opened in November when the owner decided to start up his own business after working in various Italian restaurants.

At which point I could fall back on pictures of the food and a listing of the menu, but where would the fun be in that when you csn go online and explore the food for yourself?*

Pictures; Pictures of Capri, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Butter Lane, and Back Bridge Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the Shambles in 1849 from the OS for Manchester & Salford, 1849, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Capri's, https://caprismcr.co.uk/

** Curry Mile, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Curry%20Mile

and

Manchester Ship Canal, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Manchester%20Ship%20Canal