Tag: italian recipes

Limoncello: a taste of lemon to drink

Limoncello is an Italian lemon liqueur known for its refreshing sweet flavor. It is made from simple ingredients: lemon rinds, alcohol, sugar and…passion!

Served as a digestive, or after-dinner drink to help in digestion, limoncello is good also in a cocktail. Limoncello was born in Southern Italy, along Italy’s Amalfi Coast and Sorrentine Peninsula, where  the lemon cultivation is spread and flourishes. “Limoncello di Capri” is one of the finest limoncellos in commerce.

For limoncello’s recipe, you should use brightly coloured, unblemished and aromatic organic lemons. And for the alcohol? Use grain alcohol such as Everclear (75.5 percent alcohol). Some like to add vodka but I didn’t so just follow your taste!

The process is quite simple but requires patience. Usually the mothers and the grannies used to gather in winter time before Christmas and peel lots of kilos of lemons to grant limoncello for all the families and along all year.

So what to do?Start just peeling the lemons carefully, in order  to catch the rinds only and then we will need to soak them.

Most traditional recipes advice an 80-day soak, because the longer the rinds soak, the deeper the color will be. In fact, limoncello can be pale or canary yellow.

After the soak, the rinds will be discarded, and you will add water and sugar to the lemon-infused alcohol you have produced. It is possible to make also creamy limoncello, but the main ingredients to add is milk. Whatever you made you should put the spirit inside the freezer and keep it there

Serving limoncello: pour it straight from the freezer!

The cocktail: Combining with champagne or sparkling water limoncello is  a refreshing summertime cocktail!

The cakes: Limoncello can also be added in cakes and icecream, over fresh fruit, gelato or cakes. You can whisk it into ricotta or mascarpone.

Outlet gianfranco ferre, outlet marche, Abbigliamento Outlet, abbigliamento firmato,

Chocolate salami or Salame di cioccolato

Chocolate salami  (Salame di cioccolato, salame turco or salame vichingo) is a dessert very popular in Italy.  It is a lovely pudding you can also find in trattorias: you wil find it in those rural “trattorias” you can find along the Po river at the border between Lombardy and Emilia Romagna regions of Italy. It’s a really a rustic dessert, and it is a part of the “cucina Povera” made of “poor” ingredients but really yummy and very good and tasty! Here the ingredients:

300 g (11 oz) Rich tea biscuits or Digestive kind of biscuits
150 g (5 oz) Butter (unsalted)
100 g (4 oz) Dark chocolate
100 g (4 oz) Sugar
2 Eggs
30 ml (1 fl oz) Dark rum

How to make it? Cut the butter into pieces and let it warm to room temperature, while breaking the chocolate bar into pieces. Put them into a small bowl and melt the chocolate very slowly. When the chocolate is completely melted, set the bowl aside and let the chocolate cool a little. Put the biscuits into a large bowl and break the biscuits using the back of a spoon, making them into crumbs.

As the butter is soft, work it with a whisk and then start adding the ingredients: first the sugar, then the eggs, the melted chocolate, the rum and  the biscuit crumbs.

The result? A lovely chocolate dough that will turn in the shape of a salami. Put the chocolate salami onto a layer of cling film and then wrap it with the film.

Put the chocolate salami in the fridge for a couple of hours, after the cooling time slice the chocolate salami and serve it with coffee or tea.

Classical tiramisù: craving for the right one!

The most famous dessert in the world ? No wonder if the answer is “tiramisù”, absolutely great and pretty easy to make.

Its origins? It traces back to the 17th century,  coming from the fantasy of an unknown artist and chef of Siena (Tuscany) for the occasion of a visit by Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici III.

The dessert’s name was at the time “zuppa del duca” (that is, the “Duke’s soup”). Instead today everybody calls it  “tiramisù” (literally, “pick me up”).

Lift your hands if you have ever tasted it! Which version of tiramisù?

Maybe the most traditional one  involved the use of “savoiardi” biscuits: the classic recipe!

But it is important to say that, in the last two decades, many fans and supporter of this incredible dish has experiment and found really tasty the use of “pavesini” biscuits. This ” dolce al cucchiaio” requires no cooking, but the coffee.

Take 350 g (12 oz) Italian mascarpone cheese, 100 g (3 ½ oz) icing sugar, 4 or 5 egg yolks (medium size eggs, without  the whites), 1 pack of Pavesini biscuits or Savoiardi,
200 ml (7 fl oz) espresso coffee (cold) and cocoa powder just for dusting.

THE PREPARATION:

  1. Put the egg yolks into a large bowl and start beating it with a whisk; gradually add all the sugar.
  2. When the mixture is pale yellow and thick,  add few drops of vanilla extract.
  3. Beat firmly for few seconds, add the mascarpone to the egg-sugar-vanilla cream and blend everything together.
  4. Dip the biscuits in the coffee (one at a time), for few seconds; lay the biscuits on the bottom of the dish.
  5. Cover the biscuits with the tiramisù cream.

Start with the second layer of biscuits, same procedure, and then the third and fourth!

Dip the biscuits in the coffee and complete the second layer of biscuits. Remember to spread the final layer with the cream and dust it with cocoa powder.

Put the tiramisù in the fridge, leave it for 4-5 hours and serve it!!!

Dreaming a panna cotta

Are you craving for something really sweet and yummi? Why don’t you try a gorgeous Italian “dolce al cucchiaio” for a special meal?

Here is for you the real Panna cotta’s recipe!

Interested? The following recipe is really easy and quick to prepare: ca. 10 minutes for the preparation and 5 minutes for the cooking time.

Panna cotta is probably one of the most famous and appreciate  amongst the category of the wonderful Italian spoon desserts. You can find it in every bar or restaurant in Italy! And also it is well-known and spread in many other European countries.

This dessert exists in many forms and, according to its fame, you can find many versions on the Web. Here is a couple of recipe for our beloved panna cotta, flavoured in different ways.

Continue reading Dreaming a panna cotta

Gnocchi: a taste of Italy

Each Italian recipe is something amazing! Do you want to  try it one? Let`s start with the delicious  Gnocchi con sugo di pomodoro e basilico (Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce), one of my favourite!

Suitable for vegetarians, for the preparation it takes circa 45 mins, but the cooking is just 3 minutes!

Gnocchi usually is a great dish for Sunday meal, especially in autumn and winter time. They can be topped by many different sauces (“Gnocchi with Pesto sauce” are delicious as well).

For making gnocchi you will need 800 g (1 ¾ lb) old floury potatoes, 200 g (7 oz) white flour (Italian “00” flour) and some extra flour for the work surface, 1 egg and salt for the boiling water

For the tomato sauce, you need tomato sauce, few basil leaves and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

PREPARATION:

1. Put the potatoes into a pan of cold water – slightly salted.

2. Boil them for 20-25 minutes until they get soft.

3. Drain the potatoes  and peel them. Furthermore, mash them.

4. Spread some flour onto your table or a wooden  surface and put all the mashed potatoes there.

5. Open an  egg into a small bowl and whisk it. Add half of the flour to the potatoes and mix everything. In the while, add just 2 spoons of the wisked egg.

6. Knead the mixture for 5-7 minutes and add the last spoon of the egg. The final result should be elastic and not sticky.

7. Cut the dough in 4-5 pieces and make a ball of each. Press and roll the ball onto the surface with some  flour and make a long strip tick as a thumb.

8. Cut it into two pieces, and from each start to take smaller and regular bits. Again make a ball with each of them. The results? Delicious  gnocchi, ready to be boiled.

Not to forget! Add a bit of oil to the boiling water: so your gnocchi won’t stick together while boiling.

After 3 minutes, drain them all and add to the tomato sauce you already prepared! Very gently toss the gnocchi in the saucepan for a few seconds, add the basil leaves and the Parmesan cheese.