Italian Food Recipes

This is a simple and fast Italian first course to prepare: you should have in your fridge only some delicious Italian cheese and some milk. To make the cheese sauce you can use any kind of Italian cheese except mozzarella because it is a thready cheese and for this reason it is not ideal to make a sauce, in order to obtain the best result you should melt the pieces of the 4 cheeses that you have choose in some milk and simply sprinkle with some black pepper! The Italian cheeses that I choose for this recipe are: Gorgonzola, a typical Italian blue cheese from Piedmont and Lombardy, Toma, an Italian semi-hard cheese typical of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, Casera, a typical cheese of Valtellina and Parmesan.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
320 g of Pasta type “Tortiglioni”
1 Glass of milk
30 g of Gorgonzola cut in pieces
30 g of Toma cut in pieces
30 g Casera cut in pieces
30 g of grated Parmesan
Black pepper
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Dolcetto d'Ovada Doc (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for pasta. In the meantime prepare the sauce of cheese: place in a pan the milk and the cheeses, let them melt


and then sprinkle with some black pepper.


When the water boils add the pasta and let it cook as indicated on the packaging, then drain them and pour on it the cheeses sauce.


Serve hot and if you want sprinkled on some other Parmesan.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Small balls of aubergines can be served as an Italian appetizer, they are simple and fast to prepare and do you need only few Italian ingredients to prepare it: the main ingredient of this delicious Italian recipe is round aubergines that they are more sweet than the long ones, parsley and Parmesan. The preparation is simple because you should only make a puree of aubergines and mix it with the other ingredients, make small ball and fry them and so the appetizer is ready!

INGREDIENTS (for 4 – 6 people):
3 Round Aubergines
1 Egg
40 g of Parmesan
30 g of Parsley
1 Clove of garlic
Breadcrumbs
Oil for fry
Salt
Black pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Sambuca di Sicilia bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION

Clean and peel the aubergines, cut them in squared pieces, place them in a pan with water and let them boil for about 15 minutes.


When they are ready drain them, place them in a bowl and with a fork squash them in order to obtain a puree of aubergines.


Let them cool and in them mean time prepare a chopped of parsley and garlic, add it to the puree of aubergines together with the Parmesan and the egg.


Mix all together and add if the mixture is to soft add some breadcrumbs, sprinkle with salt and black pepper

and with the hand make small balls with the mixture like these in the picture below.


Preheat enough oil in a pan, when it is hot fry in it the small balls of aubergines, cook them until the surface become slightly golden.


When they are ready leave them dry from the oil and serve. This is the result:


BUON APPETITO!

Here another delicious Italian recipes with artichokes, vegetables typical of this period and traditional of Liguria. I like much artichokes and some I try to prepare them in many different way: in this second course recipes artichokes are simply prepared with the addition of some breadcrumbs and Parmesan in flakes in order to give them a crunch consistency. Artichokes cooked in this way can be served as a delicious side dish but also as a complete second course.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
4 Artichokes
40 g of Parsley chopped
40 g of Parmesan in flakes
20 g of Breadcrumbs
1 Clove of garlic
1 Lemon
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black Pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes

COOKING TIME: 20 – 30 minutes

WINE: Garda Chardonnay (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Start cleaning the artichokes, remove the spines and the hard external leafs, remove from the stalks the hard part and cut the stalks and the artichokes in slices and place them in a bowl with water and lemon in order to not blacken them. When all the artichokes are ready, preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add the garlic and let it brown then remove it and add the artichokes.

Sprinkle with salt and black pepper, let them cook for about 5 minutes and add the chopped parsley.

Continue to cook for about 15 – 20 minutes and some minutes before the end of the cooking sprinkle over them some breadcrumbs and the Parmesan in flakes,

let them melt and serve hot.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Artichokes are vegetables typical of the spring period and it seems that they traditionally comes from Liguria as this delicious Italian first course. Artichokes can be used for any type of Italian recipes like “Torta Pasqualina” that is a sort of pie or as a side dish here I use them to prepare the stuffing of these delicious ravioli. In this recipe artichokes are mix with ricotta cheese, Parmesan, parsley and marjoram. The seasoning of this first course is simply made with butter and sage, but if you prefer you can also prepare a sort of cream with walnuts.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 people):
FOR THE DOUGH:
600 g of Flour
2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 Eggs
Salt
8 Tablespoons of warm water
FOR THE STUFFING:
9 Artichokes
250 g of Ricotta Cheese
1 / 2 Onion
1 Lemon
1 Egg
40 g of Parmesan
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
40 g of butter
Some leaf of sage
Parsley
Marjoram
Salt
Black Pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour

COOKING TIME: 20 minutes

WINE: Vermentino dei Colli di Luni Lambruschi (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of the dough: place in a bowl the flour, the eggs, the water, the extra virgin olive oil and some salt,

mix all the ingredients until you obtain an homogeneous dough. Cover the dough with a sheet of film


an let it stand for about 20 minutes. In the meantime prepare the stuffing: clean the artichokes, remove the hard external leafs and peel the stems in order to use the tender internal part; cut in thin slice the artichokes and the stems and place them in a bowl with water and the lemon to not blacken them.

When the artichokes are ready, preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan with thin slices of the onion, then add the artichokes and cook them for about 10 – 15 minutes.


When the artichokes are ready, cut them in small pieces and place them in a bowl, add the ricotta cheese, the egg, the Parmesan, come parsley, some marjoram, salt and black pepper and mix all together.

Let salted water boil for pasta. With the help of a rolling pin roll out the dough to obtain a thin long pastry like this shown in the picture below. Place with a teaspoon some stuffing on the centre of the pastry,


then close the pastry over the stuffing and with a wheel for cutting the pasta cut the ravioli.




When water boils place in it the ravioli and cook them for about 7 – 8 minutes in the meantime melt the butter in a pan with the sage,


drain ravioli with a skimmer, place them in a dish and pour on them the butter, sprinkle with some parmesan and serve hot.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!