I love cheese… I am almost as addicted to cheese as I am to chocolate and coffee!!! And gorgonzola is my all time favourite cheese. This is a very easy “recipe” for an elegant appetiser that is perfect for Christmas or New Year’s Eve or any other special occasion. The contrast between gorgonzola and the…
Archives for November 2011
BABÀ
Today I am going to show you how to make one of the most popular sweets from Naples. In fact I am going to take you to the southern region of Campania for my series on Italian Regional dishes. This region has a vast culinary tradition, so I will be presenting quite a few dishes from…
BUCKWHEAT BLINI WITH CRÈME FRAÎCHE AND SMOKED SALMON
Today’s recipe is a very easy one. I love blini and this is my favourite way of eating them: with crème fraîche and smoked salmon. You can also add some horseradish to the crème fraîche, for that little extra kick. Buckwheat blini are part of traditional Russian cuisine. “They are also widespread in Ukraine where…
BLUEBERRY CURD
I think I might have said this already, but growing up I never liked berries. The berries you find in Italy are often too sour for my taste buds, so I never enjoyed eating them (well, apart from the times I would actually pick them on the mountains… but that’s another story!). So I was…
SCONES
Oh no, this is not an Italian recipe. In fact, scones are unknown in Italy. A few weeks ago, I went out for high tea (again, something not Italian at all) with some girl friends (they were Italian though! ;-)) and among all sorts of yummy goodies, they served us scones with cream & strawberries…
CHIFELETTI – KIPFEL – KIFELČEK
This week’s Regional Italian dish will take us back to the region of Friuli – Venezia Giulia, Italy’s most North-Eastern region that borders with Austria and Slovenia. As I have already said in my post about Maiale al Latte – Purcit tal Lat, it is a region that puts together the historically-geographical region of Friuli…
RUM, DATE AND PECAN ICE CREAM – THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB
And 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…
SWEET AND SOUR PORK FRITTERS
Sweet and sour pork has always been my favourite Chinese take-out food. I am sure I have already said this, but I am a big fan of anything sweet and sour. It must be my Sicilian genes (it is a common cooking style over there) or my love for vinegar… whatever the case I never…
OLIVE ALL’ASCOLANA
This has always been one of my favourite antipasti, perfect along a good glass of chilled white wine while waiting to serve dinner. I have never seen it here in Sydney and I was looking for the perfect occasion to try and make it at home. And what better occasion than my series on Regional…
MIXED SALAD WITH YOGHURT AND SAFFRON DRESSING
This recipe will help you to spice up your salad with a low fat and delicious dressing. Yes, you read that right… low fat and delicious were used in the same sentence! It is low fat as it is a yoghurt based dressing and it is delicious thanks to the addition of saffron and curry…
BEEF BRAISED IN ROOIBOS TEA WITH SWEET POTATOES
Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry. I have always been more of a coffee…
PASTA CON FAGIOLI BORLOTTI – PASTA IN A BORLOTTI BEAN SOUP
Today I want to share with you the recipe of my favourite soup ever: pasta with beans, or pasta e fagioli as we say in Italian. Whenever I make it, I go back in time. When I was a child, my mom would make it often during the cold winters in Milano and it is…
FARINATA DI CECI
This week I want to take you all to Liguria for my weekly Regional Italian dish. Liguria is a coastal region in North-western Italy famous for its seaside, colourful villages and delicious food. Who hasn’t heard of Cinque Terre or Portofino and who hasn’t eaten pesto or focaccia at least once? Unfortunately this area has also been hit…
CHICKEN LIVER PARCELS
While growing up I never enjoyed eating liver… with one exception: chicken liver. I do not know why, but it may have been because they taste milder and are less bitter than other liver. Anyhow, there are 2 dishes made with chicken liver that I have always LOVED and I am going to share one…
PASTA WITH SAUSAGE, ARTICHOKES AND SAFFRON
We all love sausage in our family. When I say sausage I am referring to the Italian style sausage made of pure pork. I am lucky enough to find some good quality Italian style sausage in Sydney, nonetheless I often make it at home from scratch, as nothing beats home-made things (I used my home-made…
DARK CHOCOLATE AND MACADAMIA NUT BROWNIES
This is obviously not a typical Italian recipe and, unlike many of you, I haven’t grown up eating and baking brownies. I have discovered them relatively late in life, but it was “love at first bite”. And how could it not be? I adore chocolate! After eating them once, I tried to find a recipe…
MAIALE AL LATTE – PURCIT TAL LAT
This week’s Regional Italian recipe takes us to Friuli – Venezia Giulia, Italy’s most North-Eastern region that borders with Austria and Slovenia. This region has been a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire for many years and thus has many cultural and culinary similarities with the other regions and Nations of the area. It is a region that…
HAM AND CHEESE SOFFICINI
After moving to Australia I haven’t been able to eat many of the dishes I grew up with as they simply do not exist. If you have ever moved internationally, you will know the feeling… At the beginning you do not miss the food you left behind as you are too busy discovering all the…