Happy Easter everyone!!! Today I want to share with you my family’s recipe for the most iconic Sicilian cake: Cassata! It is a delicious dessert made with sponge cake, filled with sweet ricotta and chocolate and decorated with candied fruits and royal icing. Even though nowadays you can buy a cassata throughout the year, it…
Archives for March 2013
HOT CROSS BUN CUPCAKES
How cute are these?? That was my reaction when I first saw these beauties over at Not Quite Nigella’s site! Lorraine always has amazing ideas and this was one that stuck to my mind. I saw them last Easter and knew then that I HAD to make them. You see, I discovered hot cross buns…
PORCINI RISOTTO
I always have great fun experimenting with risotto. I like it so much that it was the first thing I ever cooked all by myself as a teenager. Today’s risotto though is a classic Italian recipe: Porcini mushroom risotto. I must warn you: if you like mushrooms and you have never eaten porcini, please do! …
LAVENDER AND JASMINE MACARONS
I have a few macarons recipes on the blog and I like them all, but to tell you the truth, today’s flavour combination is my new all time favourite. Yes, I like these even more than my Salted Caramel Macarons and my Mango and Passion fruit Macarons! I made these a little while ago to take…
FRIED CALAMARI
I know I haven’t posted enough seafood recipes!! So today I will try and remedy that. Have you ever eaten fried calamari rings at your local Fish and Chips eatery? Well, forget about it as today I will show you how easy and quick it is to make them at home. Besides, when buying your…
CANESTRELLI
I am sure that you will agree with me on this: food and memories are linked. When I eat something, my brain starts remembering things connected to the taste I am enjoying. This happens to me all the time. Since moving to Australia though this connection has become somewhat stronger. It’s probably because I can…
SWEET CHILLI AND ORANGE CHICKEN WINGS
It is time again for the “Secret recipe club” reveal! I am sure you all know what the club is about, but for the few of you who still don’t know about it, here goes a brief explanation. Each month you are assigned a participating food blogger to make a recipe from and in turn…
BAILEY’S MOUSSE
Happy Paddy’s Day everyone! Raise your hand if you love Bailey’s! I DO!!! I am not a very keen wine drinker (I know I know… very un-Italian…), but cocktails, sweet wines and sweet liquors are a different matter. And Bailey’s is one of my favourite… to drink and to cook with. That is why in…
HOME-MADE CHÈVRE
Sawsan from Chef in Disguise was our March 2013 Daring Cooks hostess! Sawsan challenges us to make our own homemade cheeses! She gave us a variety of choices to make, all of them easily accomplished and delicious! Yessss, you read that right: one of my best blogger friends was this month’s Daring Cooks hostess! I was…
COFFEE AND KAHLUA GELATO
Today’s recipe is a spin off of my Bailey’s Ice cream. Actually, I wanted to make Bailey’s Ice cream and got all the ingredients for it… until I realised I did not have enough Baileys! Aaargh! That’s when I looked inside my liquor cabinet and saw Kahlua! Mmmmm I love coffee gelato, it is actually…
BREAD MALFATTI WITH BUTTER AND PUMPKIN CREAM
Last year, my mother gave me one of my grandmother’s cookbooks. It is full of notes and extra recipes that my nonna would pin down in all the white areas in between pages. I love it. I love being able to read her comments, I love being able to once again see her curvy handwriting,…
CRÈME VIENNOISE CHOCOLAT
Today’s recipe is sinful. It is a chocoholic’s dream. So… my dream! While growing up in Italy, I would sometimes be treated to a “ready made” chocolate cream produced by a well known French company and it used to be my all time favourite snack! Well, this recipe is very close to that cream, only… it is better. …
MIMOSA COCKTAIL
Today I want to share with you a very easy recipe for quite a sophisticated drink: the Mimosa cocktail. This delicious and pretty looking drink is basically made of sparkling wine mixed with fresh orange juice, could it get any easier? As tomorrow we celebrate International Women’s Day, I thought this would be the most…
PROSCIUTTO, ROCKET AND GRANA CHEESE PIZZA
My husband adores pizza… so, to please him (and the kids!), I usually make pizza on Sunday evening. Home made pizza can be quite healthy, depending on the toppings you use and it is quite common in Italian houses to make pizza once a week. While my husband enjoys his pizza with salami, I like…
HONEY AND GORGONZOLA PIQUANT TERRINE WITH BALSAMIC GLAZE
If you follow this site, you know how much I like cheese and that, of all cheeses l like Gorgonzola the most. I easily find Gorgonzola dolce here in Sydney, which is the creamier and milder version of it, but to come across the piquant version… well, that’s much harder. So when I saw it…
HYDERABADI CHICKEN BIRYANI
Today’s recipe is definitely a special one. It is one of my favourite Indian dishes. Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, like all the food of the area, is greatly influenced by the Mughals, Arabic, Turkish and Iranian food that use plenty of rice, wheat and spices.