Ella Mittas

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Articles

Grape picking under the Tuscan sun

2 months ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Ella Mittas

I arrived in the Italian town of Lucca in October. La Vendemmia, the yearly grape harvest, was only just picking up pace; some grapes on their vines still needed a few days, weeks, of sun to reach perfect ripeness. Lucca is in Tuscany, on the Serchio river. Its centre is fortified by a series of large, intact Renaissance-era stone walls. But my view was from outside the walls, looking over the town from the surrounding hills, which were lush and green and humid.
A landscape of inconvenience

Dec 1, 2024 | meanjin.com.au | Ella Mittas

Thinking with Lauren Berlant’s On the Inconvenience of Other People1. I will start with a sort of allegory. A bastardised version of Gerald Murnane’s short fiction ‘Landscape with Freckled Woman’ from Landscape with Landscape, simplified and clarified and maybe slightly warped. In the story, a writer boasts he can see what no one else can.
Art World Fury

Aug 15, 2024 | meanjin.com.au | Ella Mittas

Reviewed: Woo Woo, Ella Baxter, Allen & UnwinIn Ella Baxter’s second novel, Woo Woo, we follow Sabine, a conceptual artist in the lead-up to her highly anticipated solo show ‘Fuck You, Help Me’. The show is set to be career-defining: the gallery has plastered posters of her image through the streets, pushing her to promote the exhibition relentlessly on social media to help with publicity.
Galaktoboureko, the gorgeous custard pie from Greece

Jul 26, 2024 | nzherald.co.nz | Ella Mittas |Murdoch Books

Galaktoboureko is a Greek iteration of custard pie. Melbourne chef and food writer Ella Mittas shares her spin on the dish in her new cookbook Ela! Ela!, which takes readers along for the ride as she travels to Turkey, Greece and home to Australia. My favourite dessert of all time.
Ella Mittas’ wheat salad melds sweet, savoury and sour

Jul 24, 2024 | nzherald.co.nz | Ella Mittas

A versatile, adaptable salad from the Melbourne chef and food writer’s new book Ela! Ela!. This salad incorporates sweet, savoury and sour flavours to find balance. It works best in summer when stonefruits are abundant, but you can use whatever mix of fruit you like. Usually, I use nectarines, red grapes, plums and cherries — figs if it’s later into summer. In winter, you can use citrus or dried fruit. I use isot, which is a Turkish chilli.
Greek gigantes with tomato and dill deserves some patience

Jul 23, 2024 | nzherald.co.nz | Ella Mittas

Big, bold, beany goodness from Melbourne food writer Ella Mittas new cookbook Ela! Ela!. These beans are one of the first things my Yiayia taught me to make. The most crucial element in this recipe is to be patient when cooking out your onions and capsicums before you add in the tomato. The longer you cook them out, the sweeter your result will be.
Limits to Mythologies

Jun 30, 2024 | meanjin.com.au | Ella Mittas

Reviewed: The End of the Morning, Charmian Clift, NewSouthThe End of the Morning is the final and unfinished autobiographical novel by Charmain Clift, Australian writer and journalist whose literary life in Hydra was romanticised during the 60s. The book is published here for the first time, alongside an afterword by Nadia Wheatley, Clift’s biographer and editor of the book, plus a new selection of Clift’s weekly newspaper columns.
Recipe: Chickpeas baked with lemon and honey

Jun 27, 2024 | nzmcd.co.nz | Ella Mittas

This recipe is great for using up any leftover greens in your fridge. I use whatever I have – spinach, chard, sometimes beetroot leaves. Similarly, with the herbs, use a mix of whatever you have on hand.
Recipe - Cabbage Rolls

Jun 7, 2024 | extravirginfoodandtravel.com | Ella Mittas

I make these cabbage rolls with the same meat sauce that I use for moussaka. The sauce freezes really well so when you 'remaking moussaka, I would recommend making one and a half times the recipe and keeping half to make cabbage rolls later. These rolls are better in the days after they’ve been made. If you have left-over cabbage leaves and rice mix you can slice and sauté the cabbage in a little oil, add the rice mix and make a pilaf.
Chicken rice, chickpea bake and wheat salad: Ella Mittas’ easy autumn recipes for a Mediterranean feast

May 14, 2024 | theguardian.com | Ella Mittas

My father’s side of the family is Greek. They live next door to each other in Melbourne. There are holes cut in fences, so everyone can be together easily. It seems separate from the rest of Australia, but it’s a version of Greece abstracted from the real thing; its traditions are built on distant memories. These recipes are a mix of things I saw, ate and was taught while working in a village in the mountains of Crete and the hot, loud streets of Istanbul, as well as my own Greek heritage.