Recipe: Yiayia Toula's Bianco - a love letter to Corfu

An ode to my beautiful island, in trouble with the fires this week

I will try and keep this as positive as I can but I can’t write this post without a mention of the fires that have raged on the north east coast of Corfu this week. Many of you will know that I am from here and base myself on the island each summer. It has been a devastating few days, watching planes fly overhead, knowing that they are carrying water and heading for the fires that have licked at the lush countryside and dense greenery of the north.

I live in an olive grove here on the island, surrounded by very dry, very flammable grass, undergrowth and wild bushes. Each year the temperature soars to higher heights than the year before (thanks to human-induced climate change) and every time I come out here to spend a summer in my home it becomes increasingly risky for me to be here. Nevertheless, I am here for the cicadas, the proximity to the sea, the goats that stray into my garden from my godparents’ farm next door and my Yiayia, of course.

My godfather Yiannis, reclaiming a stray goat from my garden

Please consider donating to the Hellenic Initiative’s Wildfire Relief Fund after reading this.

The recipe in this week’s newsletter is dedicated to those on the north coast who’ve struggled with watching Corfu in flames this week. The ‘Bianco’ is a delicious fish dish that goes down incredibly well at a dinner party and it’s traditional to the island. Plus, as I like to say a lot in this newsletter, it’s bloody easy to knock together. All goes in a pot, simmers a while and then is good to devour.

Originally a poorman’s lunch, owing to the fact that fish, lemons and olive oil were abundant around the island, the dish is one every Corfiot Yiayia knows well, including my own.

This recipe was gifted to me by Yiayia Toula however, who adds a touch of innovation to her Bianco, throwing in a couple of cardamom pods for their lemony aroma. 

Toula’s eponymous restaurant is in Agni Bay towards the pebble-strewn northwest coast of the island that was hit by the fires this week. Usually she plays host to visiting yachts and their often famous owners in the summer months. She’s cooked for Kate Moss, she’s hosted a birthday party for Prince Harry (“the boys and their friends were all very lively that night”) and counts the Rothschilds as regulars. Despite all this, she’s still cooking Corfiot classics like Bianco alongside fancier lobster and shrimp millefeuille dishes. 

Hope you enjoy this one.

Recipe: Yiayia Toula’s Corfiot Bianco