Italian Food Recipes

This summer my parents spent their holidays in Sicily, in particular in Trapani and during these days they tasted the delicious Italian recipe of “Lasagne alla Siciliana”. This recipe is prepared with traditional vegetables of Sicily, the eggplants, and with a tomato sauce of minced meat of veal and peas and the addition of ham and sweet Sicilian pecorino cheese. You can prepare it with lasagna bought or you can decide to make home-made lasgana, here I show the easy recipe to prepare the home-made lasagna with the help of a pasta machine but in the case you don’t have it you can also use a simply rolling pin, the result will be the same.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 people):
1 / 2 Onion
200 g of Minced meat of veal
200 g of Peas
1,5 L of Tomato sauce
4 Round Eggplants
200 g of Sweet Pecorino cheese
200 g of ham
150 g of Parmesan
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil for fry the eggplants

INGREDIENTS FOR LASAGNA PASTA
400 g of Flour
4 Eggs
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Santa Margherita di Belice bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of the lasagna pasta: put in a bowl the flour, a pinch of salt and the eggs.


Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough until it becomes homogeneous. Let the dough stand for about 20 – 30 minutes so it becomes more soft. After this time start to roll out the dough, you can do this with the help of a rolling pin or more easily with the help of a pasta machine. Here I use the pasta machine.


Start roll out the dough from the biggest thickness of the machine then little by little reduce it until you obtain a pastry of about 2 – 3 mm of thickness.




Cut the pastry in rectangular pieces with about dimension of 15 cm x 10 cm.


Now start with the preparation of the sauce for lasagna: preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, cut the onion in slices and let them cook for 3 – 5 minutes in the hot oil to make it tasteful.


When the onion becomes golden remove it from the oil and add the minced meat of veal. Let it cook for 5 - 8 minutes until it becomes slightly golden,


then add fresh peas and continue the cooking for other 5 – 8 minutes.


Now add the tomato sauce and let the all sauce cook for about 30 – 40 minutes.




In the meantime prepare the other ingredients: eggplants, ham and cheese.
Cut the eggplants in slices


and fry them in hot extra virgin olive oil until they become slightly golden.


When they are cooked put them in a dish covered with kitchen paper in order to remove the excess of oil.
Cut the ham in slices and the cheese in small cubes.
Now you can prepare the lasagna: cover the bottom of a rectangular baking pan with the sauce of meat and peas, put over it lasagna,


pour on it the sauce, make a layer with the fried eggplants, another with the slices of ham and the cubes of cheese


and sprinkle with some parmesan, re-put another layer of lasagna pasta and continue in this way until the pan in full.


Bake at 180°C and cook for about 30 minutes until the surface becomes golden.
Serve hot.
This is the result:

BUON APPETTITO!

This is the Italian recipe for a delicious double color cake. It is easy and fast to prepare, it’s enough to create two parts: the milk part and the chocolate part and the cake is ready. You need only few Italian ingredients, 15 minutes plus the time of cooking and you can obtain a delicious cake suitable for breakfast but not only, also for snack and as a dessert after dinner.

INGREDIENTS (for 6 – 8 people):
250 g of Flour with yeast
150 g of Sugar
2 Eggs
A pinch of salt
200 ml of Milk
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Yeast
3 teaspoons of Cacao
Butter for the pan

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 40 minutes

PREPARATION
Beat the eggs and the sugar in a bowl until obtain a homogeneous cream.


Add the flour and a pinch of salt,


and stir until the mixture become a soft dough, add the milk and the extra virgin olive oil to let the mixture more soft.


Divide the mixture in two parts: one part is ready and we’ll call it the milk part, instead to the other part, called the chocolate part, add some cacao and stir.


Butter and flour a pan removing the excess of flour, pour on it some of the milk part and then some of the chocolate part, do this for 3 times and in this way you can obtain a double color cake.


Bake the cake at 180°C for 40 minutes and check the cooking with a spaghetto. Put it in the center of the cake, then remove it carefully without break the cake and if it is dried means that the cake is good cooked.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Apple cake is one of the easiest cakes to prepare that allows you to obtain a delicious dessert good for any type of occasions. Christmas is coming and apples can be used to prepare traditional Christmas desserts as strudel that is a one of the traditional desserts of Trentino Alto Adige. But if you have apples, not much time and you still want to obtain an excellent result you can follow the steps of this delicious Italian recipe to make your family very happy. You can also use this delicious recipe as a gift, it’s enough a good Christmas envelope and your friends will be really happy! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

INGREDIENTS (for 6 – 8 people):
150 g of Flour with yeast
200 g of Sugar
2 Eggs
100 ml of Milk
1 Kg of Apples
A pinch o salt
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
A piece of butter for the pan

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 40 minutes

WINE: Passito di prosseco (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Beat the eggs and 150 g of sugar in a bowl with a wood-spoon.

Add the flour with salt and extra virgin olive oil to the eggs mixture, mix all together until you obtain homogeneous soft dough.


Add some milk little by little, stir and now prepare the apples.


Clean and peel the apples, cut them in square pieces and add them to the soft dough already prepared.


Now the mixture is ready to be cooked for this reason butter a pan of 24 cm of diameter and flour it removing the excess of flour, pour on it the mixture and sprinkle it with some sugar as shown in the picture below.


Bake at 180°C for 40 minutes until the surface is slightly golden,


check the apple cake is good cooked using a spaghetto. Put the spaghetto in the middle of the cake remove it and if it is dry means that the cake is good cooked.
This is the delicious result:


BUON APPETITO!