Italian Food Recipes

Today I want to tell you the story about the birth of Panettone. In particular there are 3 famous legend that narrate its birth: the first one is a love legend: in the XV century at the court of Ludovico il Moro there is Ugo, falconer of the duke, who loves the studies and solitude but in particular he falls in love with Adalgisa the beautiful daughter of the baker. Unfortunately the Ugo family’s impeded their love, so Ugo and Adalgisa can meet only by night when Adalgisa worked at the baker’s shop of her father Toni. However one day happens that a new baker’s shop opens near the baker’s shop of Adalgisa father’s, this provokes the loss of customers besides the baker’s boy becomes ill and so Adalgisa must work much more. In this situation Ugo has a wonderful idea: he hires himself out as new baker’s boy. Therefore he thinks to improve the bread adding to the normal dough some butter. But there is a problem: there isn’t enough money to buy it, so Ugo decides to sell its two hawks in order to obtain the money to buy the butter. Immediately the bread becomes better so Ugo decides to add also some sugar to its own recipe. The customers begin to love much more the new recipe of Ugo bread’s and this makes happier Adalgisa. Then Ugo thinks to add to the bread recipe pieces of candied citron and eggs, this improves much more the taste of the bread and finally in occasion of the Christmas Day Ugo adds also some raisins: in this way the bread recipe becomes so popular that in every baker’s shop this yummy recipe diffuses and Ugo and Adalgisa get married. The recipe of bread becomes famous with the name of Panettone that comes from “pangrande” (big bread) or “ Pan del Toni” (bread of Toni).
The second legend tells that the inventor of Panettone is a Nun called Ughetta, who invents the recipe of sweet bread in order to satisfy the gluttony of her monks during the Christmas Day. In particular Nun Ughetta makes a cross on the surface of the bread, so during the cooking the surface right by the cross opens and make the typical relieves that are also today on Panettone.
The third legend tells that at the court of Ludovico il Moro in occasion of Christmas Eve a splendid lunch is organized. For this occasion the cook prepares a special dessert that unfortunately burns: this is a tragedy for the cook but Toni, who is the kitchen porter of the cook, has an idea. He preserved a small quantity of the dough of the dessert for himself and he added to it eggs, sugar, butter, candied citron and raisins, so he decided to give this sweet dough to the cook. The cook prepares the new dessert on a golden platter and served it. All the people liked the dessert who becomes famous as “ pan del Toni” or Panettone.
Panettone is the traditional dessert of Milan always present on the Italian table during the Christmas period, it is the most famous Christmas sweet diffused in all Italy and in all the world where every people loves its sweetness and excellent taste. Panettone is the symbol of Milan and traditionally people changes Panettone as gift with their parents and friends the Christmas Day. Panettone is a sort of bread with a cupola and cylindrical shape high 30 cm, it is obtain with a dough composed of flour, eggs, sugar, butter, candied orange, candied citron and raisins. Its preparation is long and a bit difficult but the result is exquisite. In the Italian cooking traditionally at the end of the Christmas menu Eve and Day Panettone is served as dessert accompanied with sweet white wine like Sparkling or Muscat, but it is ideal also for breakfast with hot milk or with hot coffee and chocolate.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

If I said Trentino Alto Adige and traditional Italian recipe immediately I think to Canederli: canederli with speck in broth or with butter and sage, canederli with spinach or cheese and much more type of canederli; these are all delicious Italian recipes traditional of Trentino and typical of the winter period in particular of the Christmas feast. Traditionally the menu of the Christmas lunch in Trentino is characterized by the presence of a based canederli first course especially the recipe of canederli with speck in broth, it is a simple recipe to realize whose main ingredients are bread and speck, it is a very filling and hot Italian dish that result ideal for the cold winter.

Primo
Canederli with Speck


This excellent first course can be preceded by a delicious appetizer constituted of rolling of speck stuffed with ricotta cheese and sprinkle with Vezzana cheese that is a typical cheese of Trentino and followed by a meat based second course. The types of meat most used in Trentino are these of red and roe but also the meat of pork and lamb. The traditional way to prepare them are roasted or in oven with mushrooms, but also with blueberry, with thyme and others aromatic herbs. To conclude this tasteful menu of Christmas a traditional dessert of Trentino that can be consider a sort of Panettone is Zelten. Zelten is a sort of bread that contains any type of dried fruits from pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, dates, candied citron and raisins that traditionally is prepared by all the members of the family.

Dessert
Zelten


The Christmas period in Trentino is particular beautiful because in all the town are organised the typical “Market of Christmas” that heat the flavour of this so cold period.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This is one of the traditional Italian recipes prepared in Umbria with spelt that is one of the main ingredients of this region. This good recipe can be prepared in occasion of the Christmas Eve dinner because it is a light and poor dish ideal looking forward the rich menu of the Christmas day; its name is due to the Saint Nicholas that according to the tradition distributed spelt to the poor. It is a simple recipe to realize that is made only with these main Italian ingredients: spelt, onion, celery and tomato pulp. To obtain an excellent recipe it is important to follow some tips like these: the best type of spelt to use is the pearl spelt that is more tender and need less time to cook than of the entire spelt furthermore the second important thing to consider to have a delicious soup is that the best casserole to use is the one of earthenware because it maintains the heat longer. MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH THIS AND OTHERS DELICIOUS RECIPES!

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
250 g of Pearl spelt
1 / 2 Onion
Celery
1 / 2 of Tomato pulp
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Water
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: one night to soak the spelt and 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 40 minutes

WINE: Chianti Classico (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Place the spelt in a bowl with water for one night.


Chop the onion and the celery and place them in a casserole of earthenware with the extra virgin olive oil. It is preferable the use of the casserole of earthenware because it maintains the heat longer. Let the vegetables sauté for about 5 minutes


then add the tomato pulp and cook on a low flame for 10 minutes.


After this time adds more or less 1,5 litre of water, let it boil, then add the spelt and the salt and let it cook for about 40 – 50 minutes stirring from time to time.


During the cooking pay attention to add some water if it reduces too, but if you like a soup less liquid let the water evaporate stirring continuously in order to not the spelt attach to the casserole.
Serve hot in a bowl of earthenware.
This is the result:


BUON APPETITO!

Some days ago I show you the Christmas Eve Menu that is traditionally prepared in my family for the Christmas Eve dinner, now I want to present you the typical Italian recipes that in my family are prepared for the Christmas Lunch. Whereas the Christmas Eve Menu is composed of fish based Italian recipes the Christmas lunch menu is a meat based menu whose recipes comes from Salerno. The appetizer is constituted of a variety of Italian salumi in particular raw ham, salami, coppa (seasoned pork shoulder) and ham. The first course is constituted of typical big Christmas ravioli stuffed with meat of veal and pork, ricotta and provolone cheese ( a traditional Italian cheeses) and seasoned with a delicious tomato sauce. The second course is a tasteful stuffed capon accompanied with peas and ham and to conclude a dessert composed of sweet Christmas biscuits stuffed with chestnut, chocolate and coffee. These recipes are not hard but they need some times to be prepared with them the result will be surely excellent! The lunch can be accompanied with a delicious red wine Costa D’Amalfi and a sweet Moscato for the dessert! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I show here the Italian recipe for Zelten that is the traditional dessert prepared in Trentino Alto Adige during the Christmas feast. It is a sort of bread stuffed with fruits; in particular it contains raisins, pine nuts, almonds, patty cedar, dates and walnuts with the addition of some cinnamon and clove. According to the tradition all the members of a family should be participate to the preparation of zelten and it has been eaten only after the Christmas mass of midnight as a symbol of thanksgiving. Zelten can have different shape, a heart shape, an oval shape or a rectangular shape and this variety indicates the great fantasy that you can use for the preparation of this delicious recipe. It can be assimilate to the typical Panettone of Milan, but the difference is that its preparation is more brief and simple.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 – 10 people):
150 g of Butter
4 Eggs
450 g of Flour
200 g of icing sugar
16 g of Yeast for sweet
50 g Raisins
50 g of Pine nuts
50 g of Almonds without peel
100 g of Patty cedar
50 of Dates
50 g of Kernels of Walnuts
1 dl of Grappa
Cinnamon
Some clove
3 Tablespoons of milk
1 dl of Water

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour and 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 - 40 minutes

WINE: Trentino DOC Vino Santo (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
In a bowl place the raisins and the patty cedar with grappa and let them marinate for about 1 hour.

In the meantime prepare the other ingredients: stone the dates and cut them in thin strips;in a saucepan let water boil and melt in it the butter stirring with a wood-spoon

then mix in a bowl the beaten eggs with the icing sugar

until you obtain an homogenous mixture. Now add the flour little by little

and the yeast, mix with a wood-spoon,


add the mixture of water and butter and continue to stir in order to obtain a well amalgamated mixture.


Drain the raisins and the cedar form grappa; add them to the dough together with the pine nuts, the almonds, the dates, and the kernels of walnuts, some cinnamon, some clove and mix until all the ingredients will be combined.



Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place a sheet of baking paper on the surface of a baking pan of 24 cm of diameter, pour on it the dough and brush on the surface the milk.


Bake for about 30 minutes or until the surface become golden. To be sure that zelten is ready put on it a spaghetto and if it is dry when you remove it, zelten is ready.
Serve it when it becomes cool.
This is the result:


BUON APPETITO!

I show here a simple and fast way to prepare a delicious Italian appetizer made with a typical Italian ingredient that is bresaola of Valtellina in Lombardy. Bresaola is made with bovine salted and mature meat, its taste is sweet and dainty at the same times. Its flavor is obtained thanks to the method of preservation and the typical ambient condition of the province of Sondrio that is the main town where bresaola is produced. This is Italian recipe is simply prepared with bresaola, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil and flakes of Parmesan: it is essential but so good, believe me and try it!

INGREDIENTS (for 6 people):
18 Slices of Bresaola (dried salt beef typical of the Valtellina area in Lombardy)
30 g of Parmesan in flakes
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Black pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes

WINE: Rosso di Valtellina D.O.C (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Place the slices of bresaola on a platter,


pour on it a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil


and sprinkle with flakes of Parmesan and black pepper.
This is the result:


BUON APPETITO!

There are many Italian Christmas Menu that you can realize in order to eat something delicious during the Christmas feast and so today I decide to suggest you a menu constituted by typical recipe of Mantua. Pumpkin is the Italian traditional ingredient always present in the cuisine of Mantua and with it, as you have already seen in my previous recipe you can prepare any types of tasteful dishes. Here I decide to combine an appetizer and a first course pumpkin-based with a meat second course and a cake that is one of the most typical desserts of Mantua. In particular, the appetizer, that is easy and fast to prepare, is made of slices of fried pumpkin seasoned with rosemary;

Appetizers
Fried Pumpkin

the first course is constituted of the traditionally Tortelli of Pumpkin stuffed with pumpkin, macaroons and mustard of Mantua: this Italian dish is the traditional first course that is prepared in the most family of Mantua for the Christmas Eve because according to the tradition the dinner of Christmas Eve it is usually to abstain from meat.

Primo
Tortelli of Pumpkin


Instead as second course I decide to show you a meat based dish that can be prepared for the Christmas lunch: it is Brasato of veal meat more laborious but easy to prepare

Secondo
Brasato


and to conclude the excellent dessert typical of Mantua called Sbrisolona and made with yellow flour and walnuts.

Dessert
Sbrisolona

If you prepare these delicious recipes you certainly will obtain an excellent result. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Polenta Taragna is an Italian traditional recipe of Valtellina in Lombardy, its name derives from “tarel” that is the name of the long stick traditionally used to stir the polenta in a pot of copper. Polenta Taragna is a mixture of maize yellow flour and buckwheat flour that gives it the typical dark color; it takes about 40 minutes to cook in order to obtain a polenta with firm consistency but if you want obtain a consistency more soft you can cook it for less time or you can add some more water. Polenta Taragna is traditionally prepared with the addition of Italian cheese in particular cheese of Valtellina like Bitto or Casera and butter and in this way you obtain the so called "Polenta Concia" that means polenta with different types of Italian cheese. This type of polenta is ideal if it is accompanied with typical salumi of Valtellina like Bresaola and raw ham know as “Fiochetto Stagionato” or if it is accompanied with mushrooms.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 – 10 people):
1 Kg of Flour for Polenta Taragna
3,5 L of Water
Salt
300 g of Bitto or Casera (Italian cheese)
150 g of Butter

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 40 minutes

WINE: Cabernet (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Place water and salt in a caldron of copper, when it begins to boil sprinkle the flour for polenta taragna into the water and begin to stir with a wood-spoon.


Continue to stir for about 40 minutes until polenta become thick. Cut the butter and the cheese in cubes, in the picture below I show you Bitto cheese,



when the polenta is ready add the pieces of butter and cheese and mix all together in order to melt them.


Serve hot accompanied with traditional of salumi of Valtellina such as bresaola (dried salt beef typical of the Valtellina area in Lombardy) or raw ham know as “fiocchetto stagionato”.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Christmas draws near and so I begin to think about which delicious Italian recipes I can prepare the dinner of Christmas Eve and the lunch of Christmas Day. Every regions of Italy have its traditional Italian recipes and so I think to show you some of them in particular my favourite one. Each Italian recipe is prepared with traditional Italian ingredients such as the pumpkin of Mantua, the polenta taragna of Valtellina or the cod of Naples. The first Italian menu, that I describe here, is that in my family it is usually prepared the Christmas Eve: it is a fish based menu traditional of Campania whose main Italian ingredients used are baccalà (dried salt-cured cod) fried or stewed used for the preparation of appetizer together with lobsters, clams used for a tasteful first course made of spaghetti, sea basses for second course and a delicious dessert called struffoli that are small ball of dough covered with melted honey. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

ELENA'S CHRISTMAS EVE MENU
Appetizers
Fried Baccalà

Baccalà Salad

Tails of Lobsters with Oil and Lemon


Primo
Spaghetti with Clams


Secondo
Sea Basses in Foil with Potatoes



Dessert
Struffoli


BUON APPETITO!

Castagnaccio is a traditional Italian dessert particularly in Tuscany where it is also called baldino or pattona, it is a strange Italian dish but it is simple and fast to prepare. The main ingredients that you need to prepare it are: flour of chestnuts, water, pine kernels, sugar and extra virgin olive oil. In some case you can find also recipes enrich with walnuts, raisins and rosemary. Castagnaccio traditionally should be cooked in a baking pan of copper tinned and might be prepared with sweet flour of chestnuts that is produced as from November, if you want you can also change the water with milk in order to obtain a sweeter tart. According to the tradition the use of rosemary is linked to a love legend: the rosemary use to flavour castagnaccio was a sort of love elixir so that who eats castagnaccio falls in love with the girl that offers him castagnaccio.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 people):
400 g of Flour of Chestnuts
50 g of Sugar
400 ml of Water
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
50 g of Pine kernel
20 g of Butter

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Aleatico dell’Alba

PREPARATION
Place the flour of chestnuts and the sugar in a bowl add the extra virgin olive oil

and mix, then add the water little by little and in the same time stir the mixture in order to not make lumps.

Now add the pine kernel, butter and flour a baking pan of 22 cm of diameter, pour in it the mixture

and bake at 180°C for 30 minutes or until the surface present crack and the pine kernels become golden.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

This is the traditional Italian recipe of Sbrisolona that is tha cake typical of Mantua, its name describes the consistency hard and crumbly of the cake that might not be cut with the knife but should be broken in big irregular pieces. The origin of this delicious Italian dessert aren’t known but they are certainly old and this is a dessert use most of all in the peasant houses. This is a cake that you can preserve for long time and it is excellent dipped in a glass of wine. The preparation of this recipe is simple: you should mix all together flour, yellow thin flour, sugar, chopped walnuts, grated peel of lemon, yolks, lard and butter. The dough that you obtain kneading the mixture might not be homogeneous but friable. The cooking takes about 1 hour and at the end of the cooking the cake appears soft instead when it gets cold it becomes dry and crumbly.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 – 10 people):
250 g of Flour
200 g of Yellow Flour
200 g of Sugar
1 Lemon
2 Yolks
2 g of Vanillina
120 g of Butter
100 g of Lard
200 g of Walnuts already without peel

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

WINE: Malvasia

PREPARATION
Chop the walnuts not too finely,

place in a bowl the two flour, the chopped walnuts, the sugar, the vanillina, the grated peel of lemon (only the yellow part)

and mix all together. Then add the yolk

and mix and at the end add the lard and 100 g of butter in pieces.

Knead the mixture: it should not become too homogeneous on the contrary it makes big lumps

that you pour in a baking pan of 24 cm of diameter previously buttered.

Bake at 180° C for about 1 hour then take it out from the oven and let sbrisolona warmed.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!