Italian Food Recipes

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!

There is nothing better than this sweet recipe of stuffed biscuits as first recipe of the new year: it is an ideal recipe for the period of Christmas feast but these biscuit are ideal also for all the days of the year. The recipe of these biscuits comes from Trentino Alto Adige and it is a simple and fast Italian recipe; the biscuits are made of two parts: a lower part and an upper part with holes and in the middle the sweet jam of strawberry of other fruit as you prefer. The upper part of these biscuits can be with or without holes but the presence of holes the exit on the surface of the jam that let them more colour.

INGREDIENTS (for 6 people):
250 g of Flour
125 g of Butter
8 g of Yeast for sweet
A pinch of salt
1 or 2 Eggs
90 g of Sugar
10g of Vanillina
150g of Jam of strawberry
Some icing sugar

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour and 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 20 minutes

WINE: Malvasia di Casorzo d'Asti Doc (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Place in a bowl the flour, the butter, the yeast, the salt, the eggs, the sugar and the vanillina, mix all together until you obtain an homogeneous dough

then roll up the dough in a sheet of film and place it in fridge for 30 minutes.


After this time preheat the oven to 180°C, with the help of a rolling pin roll out the dough in order to obtain a pastry of 3 – 4 cm of thickness.



Now with shapes of different form cut the pastry in an even number of pieces :this because each biscuit is made of two parts, a lower part and an upper part with holes. Cover the bottom of a baking pan with a sheet of a baking paper, place on it the biscuits and bake them for about 10 – 15 minutes until the surface of the biscuits becomes slightly golden.


Then let them cool and place some jam of strawberry over the biscuits without holes, now cover it with the other biscuit of the same form but with holes.


When all the biscuits are ready place them on a platter and sprinkle with some icing sugar before serve.
This is the result:


BUON APPETITO!

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!

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!

This is the traditional Italian recipe for spatzle, a delicious first course diffuses in the northern part of Italy in particular in Val D’Aosta and Trentino Alto Adige. Spatzle are similar to gnocchetti with small dimension and irregular shape, they are easy to prepare and the recipe presented below is simple made with flour and milk in order to obtain a soften dough. To prepare this type of spatzle you should be use a sort of grater with big holes on the surface and a mobile container where the dough is poured; this container moves back and forth so when you pour on in the dough you can cut it.The type of seasoning that I use here its one of the most traditional used for spatzle, it is a white seasoning made with speck and cream but you can serve them also with tomato sauce or any type of seasoning that you like. Spatzle can be made also with flour, eggs and water or instead of water you can use beer. The dough of spatzle can be soften, like this shown here, or can also be firmer, in this case you might knead the dough with the hand and cut it in small pieces. Spatzle can be white like this but if you want with the addition of spinach in the dough you obtain green delicious spatzle.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
380 g of Flour
2 Glasses of milk
200 ml of Cream
2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
50 g of Speck cut in small cubes

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 10 minutes

WINE: Alto Adige Lagrein Dunkel (Red Wine)

INSTRUMENTS: grater for spatzle

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for spatzle. Place the flour and the milk in a bowl


and mix all together in order to obtain a soften dough without lumps, like this shown in the picture below.


Then prepare the seasoning: place in a pan the extra virgin olive oil and the cubes of speck and let them brown;

add the cream and let the sauce cook for about 5 – 10 minutes in order to reduce it.

When the water boils place the grater on the surface of the pan,



pour slowly in its container the dough of spatzle and move the container back and forth in order to cut the dough in small irregular gnocchi with drops shape.



The spatzle are ready when they rise to the surface and this takes about 3 – 4 minutes.


Drain them and pour on them the sauce of speck and cream.

Serve hot!
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Canederli is a traditional Italian recipe of Trentino in the northern part of Italy. They are similar to gnocchi made with stale bread, they are usually prepared in the autumnal and winter period and their traditional recipe is of farmer origin. Exist many kinds of canederli: all they are made with stale bread with the addition of other ingredients like canederli with speck, canederli with cheese, canederli with spinach, canederli with mushrooms and many others. There are also sweet canederli that you can serve as dessert and these are usually made with stuffed of fruit. Here I show the recipes of canederli with speck: the best type of bread to use for make canederli is the michetta but if you don’t have it you can use also other type of stale bread; the best type of speck is the speck of Trentino, and for make broth of meat I use the rump of beef. This type of canederli can be served with broth as shown in the recipe below or also with butter and sage. In both way you can obtain a delicious Italian dish. Try it and let me know if you like it!


INGREDIENTS (for 6 – 8 people):
600 g of bread (michetta or stale bread)
2 Eggs
80 g of Flour
200 g of Speck
500 ml of Milk
1 Small Onion
3 Tablespoons of Extra virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons of parsley chopped
Nutmeg
Salt
Black pepper
FOR THE BROTH:
500 g of Rump of beef
1 Potato
1 Carrot
1 Celery
1 onion
1 L and 500 ml of Water

PREPARATION TIME: 2 hours

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Alto Adige Santa Maddalena Doc (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of broth of meat: peel and clean the carrot, the potato, the onion and the celery, place them in a pan with the meat and 1 liter and 500 ml of water and let them boil for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Then prepare the canederli: cut the bread in small squared pieces.



Place them in a large bowl, add the egg, the milk, salt, and black pepper, mix all together and let the mixture stand for about 1 hour so the bread soak itself of milk.

In the meantime you can start to prepare the speck. Cut it in small pieces,


chop the onion and place it in a pan with the extra virgin olive oil, let the onion brown

and then add the speck and cook for about 5 minutes.

Let the mixture of speck cool. When the mixture of speck is cool add it to the bread with the parsley, the flour and nutmeg. Mix all together and let the mixture stand for other 30 minutes.



Bring salted water boil for canederli. After 30 minutes make canederli: you have to do ball of mixture of medium size.


When canederli are ready, start add 1 of them in the water and pay attention that it remain entire; if the canederlo breaks add some flour. Add all the canederli to the water and cook them for about 15 minutes.

Drain them one by one with the help of the skimmer. Place 4 canederli in a platter and add 2 ladles of broth. Serve hot.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!