Watch Me When I Kill (1977)

June 2, 2025 by Big Bearded Bookseller | Leave a comment

This is my first watch in this year’s Junesploitation extravaganza!

A lot of face action going on in this twisty post-war Italian thriller, lot’s of close ups of actors emoting loudly toward the camera.

Pretty standard thriller with a couple of juicy red herrings to throw you off the trail.

Absolutely loved the taxi driver and main character shooting off in a taxi from the scene of a crime rather than staying and helping the police but then there wouldn’t have been much of a film if they hadn’t.

The Tango during the opening credits!

It wasn’t a straightforward film, especially with some of the subtitling, but it was an OK enough watch especially for a schlock film from the 70s, and those clothes brought back nightmares!

Couldn’t link the film to the title though, there was no ‘Peeping Tom’ vibe at all.

Showed Italy as a bit of a dump, all greys and muted tones, even the clothes were muted.

Another of those abrupt as hell endings which left a lot in the air really.

Watch Me When I Kill | September 3, 1982 (United States)

5.9

Director: Antonio BidoSummary:

Pizza Night

May 13, 2025May 23, 2025 by Big Bearded Bookseller | Leave a comment

Italian Vegetarian Cooking

Tonight was a night I’d been promising myself for a little while as I don’t often get the time to make pizza from scratch anymore.

The base is from a book we’ve been using for almost 40 years now, Italian Vegetarian Cooking by Jo Marcangelo. We’ve mainly used it for the focaccia and pizza-base recipe and not much else and I’ve still to figure out why?

But I think we will start exploring it more in a little bit to see what else we could possibly make from it, or at least remind ourselves of why we don’t cook much from it.

The pizza base dough is standard and I really don’t need the book to remember it though I like to use it:

225g OO flour
7g instant dried yeast
1tsp sugar
small palm of rock salt crushed
150ml warm water
2 tablespoons oil

This doesn’t change at all, mix it all together and knead until smooth, let rise for 1.5 to 2 hours.

I usually make my own tomato sauce base from:

half an onion finely diced
2 cloves garlic finely diced
fresh rosemary, chopped
handful of black olives finely minced
salt
pepper
tin of chopped tomatoes
good squeeze tomato paste

Sauté the onions until soft, then add the garlic and rosemary and cook for a few minutes before adding the olives, salt, and pepper.

Let this cook for a while and then add the tin of tomatoes and squeeze of tomato paste, cook for 20-30 minutes over a low heat to cook tomatoes down and get a strength of flavour in the sauce.

Preheat the oven to 230°

After the dough has risen spread it out onto an oiled baking tray and make sure it fits, then spread the sauce on thinly. From here it’s completely up to what you fancy to have on the top, usually we have anchovies, black olives, and feta. Tonight though we opted for roast artichoke, black olives, and feta.

We do like feta on a pizza due to the sharp taste and it complements the tomato base so well.

Cook in the preheated oven for about 15 to 20 minutes until the base is well cooked, then enjoy.

Pizza

Sour Cherry and Pistachio Biscotti

January 12, 2025May 23, 2025 by Big Bearded Bookseller | Leave a comment

Sour Cherry and Pistachio Biscotti

100g pistachio
50g sour cherries
250g caster sugar
1 tsp fennel seeds (optional but not really 😉)
Grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp fine salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Icing sugar or flour, to dust

This is the perfect recipe to make on a bumbling Sunday morning, just gradually get everything ready in separate bowls before heating the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark six. Spread the nuts out on a baking tray and bake for about seven minutes. Allow to cool a little, then roughly chop.

Meanwhile, put 1 tbsp of the sugar in a mortar with the fennel seeds (if using) and bruise them together. Stir this, along with the zest, into the remaining sugar (if you’re not using the seeds, skip this step). Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Mix the sugar with the flour, baking powder and salt, then stir in the eggs, followed by the almonds. Bring it all together into a dough.

Dust a work surface lightly with icing sugar or flour, then divide the dough into two. Roll into sausages about 5cm in diameter, then arrange well apart on the tray and flatten slightly. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and firm on the outside. Remove from the oven and leave to cool a little, reducing the heat to 150C.

Transfer to a chopping board and, using a bread knife, cut into diagonal slices about 1cm wide. Lay the slices on the baking tray and bake for a further 20-25 minutes, or until golden, then turn over and repeat (they’ll probably need less time on the other side). Allow to cool, then store in an airtight container, the more they are packed in the longer they’ll last.