an italian cook around the world
The Dulce de Leche is a classic Latin American sweet. The origin of this fluffy and delicious sauce is controversial, and more than a country claims its creation. It is a tasty spread, but also a versatile ingredient for desserts and even ice cream! Here the recipe and the legend of Dulce de Leche.
Italian Croccante is one of the things because Italian kids are waiting for December! This simple sweet is so good, and sold at the corner of the streets, along with roasted chestnuts and other candies. The dried fruit is caramelized into a mixture of sugar and honey, then shaped into bars: crunchy and delicious!
Castagnaccio is a super famous Italian chestnuts flour cake, traditional in several regions with some variations. Thanks to its ingredients, easy to find in the Italian woods, in the past, this recipe was particularly popular among the poor people. Today, I made the Tuscan variation of Castagnaccio with walnuts, pine nuts, and raisin. This cake is very easy to prepare: just 10 minutes for the batter and 40 minutes in the oven. A classic winter recipe from Italy ready for you: vegan, healthy, and tasty!
Lemon Granita is the traditional answer against the hot Sicilian summer. Sicily is famous for several amazing things: long history, turquoise sea, cosmopolitan culture, and amazing food! I love Sicily and last June I came back there to spend my vacation days. Trust me, drinking a lemon Granita seating comfortably around a table, and watching the Sicilian life passing in front of me: this is a piece of my personal heaven!
This Easy tomatoes sauce is so tasty and fast to prepare! Tomatoes are cooked along with garlic and sweet basil, just the time to soft them. The more tomatoes are ripe, the more sauce will be delicious! To prepare this recipe a vegetable mill is not mandatory, but I strongly suggest to use it. A blender works fine as well, but the sauce texture will be not the same!
The Italian rice cake, called also “Torta degli Addobbi” is a simple and tasty dessert of the Emilian tradition. Originally, this cake had been prepared for the “Festa degli Addobbi”, a medieval festivity where colored drapes were showed out from the windows. But, currently is common serve rice cake all year long. Arborio rice is slowly cooked into the milk and spices, then the mixture is baked into the oven at medium temperature. Liquor, brushed over the cake when it is still hot is fundamental to obtain the characteristic, sticky crust. Serve the rice cake cold, after stored a few hours into the fridge.
Pastry cream tart (called in Italy “torta della nonna” = grandmother’s cake) is a classic Italian dessert. A crispy and flavorful pastry dough shell hide a creamy egg and milk custard. A rain of pine nuts and powdered sugar complete this traditional dessert, a sweet remembrance for any Italian kid!
A couple of days ago dining with my wife Caterina, we were talking about Italian fried peppers, a delicious traditional dish served cold, and dressed with oil and vinegar, as in the south of Italy its’s used to prepare. Yesterday morning wandering around the aisles of my preferred grocery, I saw a box of Sweet mini peppers in plain sight, and I thought about the previous day chat with Caterina. I bought them right away and I quickly reach my kitchen to give vent to my cravings! I prepared the sweet mini peppers with basil, garlic and balsamic vinegar, then I let them rest covered overnight in the fridge. The pan fried sweet mini peppers are perfect to be tasted with bread crostini, but next to roasted sausages or with a delicious slice of aged Pecorino cheese and cured meats as well.
… read more! …
The almond cookies are “a must” of the Sicilian culinary tradition. They are prepared with the Almond paste, called “pasta reale” in Sicily (King’s paste). The legend wants that the recipe was created in the XII century in the convent of the “Martorana” in Palermo and that his name is due to his goodness (worthy of a King!). These delicious cookies are as good as easy to do! Accompany them with a good tea, coffee or a glass of Marsala, the typical Sicilian sweet wine.
Strudel is a typical Austrian sweet of Byzantine origin. In Italy is typical in the regions neighboring Austria, especially in Trentino South Tyrol. The original strudel ingredients are apples, raisin and pine nuts, wrapped into a thin pastry dusted with powdered sugar. Today I propose you an original version of strudel, stuffed with pears, chocolate, pine nuts and caramel. Even the dough is made of cocoa to obtain an explosion of flavor!
… 
… 
… 
…