I am sure you all know that Manu’s Menu took part to the Online Bake Sale organised by Sabrina from The Tomato Tart to raise money for Japan. The Bake Sale took place on March 30th and 31st. The aim was to raise $2,500 for Second Harvest Japan, the main food bank of the country…
COTOLETTE ALLA MILANESE
Cotolette is a typical dish from Milan. The original recipe is slightly different than mine as I do not usually fry mine in butter, but I use vegetable oil. This is the version that my mom and my grandma have always made and it is the one that I make regularly at home. The traditional…
POTATO FRITTATA – FRITTATA CON LE PATATE
I guess this could be regarded as the Italian “sister” of the Spanish tortilla. We make all kinds of frittata in Italy, but this has always been one of my favourites. It is very easy to make and uses simple and inexpensive ingredients. Parmigiano Reggiano gives it that extra flavour that makes it special. My…
ONLINE BAKE SALE FOR JAPAN – MANU’S MENU SNEAK PEEK
As many of you already know, Manu’s Menu will take part to the Online Bake Sale for Japan organised by Sabrina at The Tomato Tart. More than 90 food bloggers around the world have come together to support the initiative. Each of us will bake one or more goodies that will be put up for…
CRUMBED PORK INVOLTINI PALERMO STYLE – INVOLTINI DI MAIALE ALLA PALERMITANA
This is a dish that I learnt from my dad. He is from Palermo and all the dishes of Palermo that I know to cook, I have learnt from him. He has in turn learnt them from his mother and grandmother, so they are all family recipes, handed down from generation to generation. One of…
SPAGHETTI WITH MULLET ROE – SPAGHETTI CON BOTTARGA DI MUGINE
I have to admit that I have just recently discovered this dish, at least in the way you are going to read below. As you know, my family is from Sicily and the area around Trapani is well renowned for its tuna products, among which the famous tuna roe (bottarga di tonno). It is an…
SPECK AND FONTINA ROLL
When we were still living in Italy, one day Clint came back from work saying: “I have eaten a fantastic thing at work today. It was a puff pastry roll stuffed with cheese and speck. You should try and make it at home!”. When I heard “speck and cheese”, I was sold, he didn’t really…
MARZIPAN – MARTORANA
This is a traditional Sicilian sweet made with almond meal. When my parents were kids, children in Sicily would get presents for “all souls day”. The dead people of the family were seen as “friendly ghosts” who would come back home on the night of “i morti” (“the dead”) to gift the new generations with…
SFINCIONE PALERMITANO
This is another traditional Sicilian dish. This time we are talking about Palermo. For people who like food, Palermo is paradise. People really enjoy their food and there are so many great dishes, that it is very hard to choose what to eat! My dad is from this wonderful city and I have been lucky…
JAPAN – HOW WE CAN HELP
Maybe you do not know this, but my family and I were scheduled to leave for Japan on March 28th. We had been planning this holiday for over 2 years and my husband and I had been dreaming about visiting the “Land of the rising Sun” for a long time… We had planned our itinerary…
PANNA COTTA “TRICOLORE”
This is the last dish of the menu that I have created to celebrate the 150 years of the Unification of Italy. When I decided to make a theme menu for the occasion, this dish was the first I pictured in my mind. I knew I wanted to make a layered sweet to represent the…
STRASCINATI “TRICOLORE”
This is the second dish from the menu that I have come up with to celebrate the 150 years of the Unification of Italy. It is the main dish of the theme menu and, like the entree already published -“Tricolore salad”- it also has the colors of the Italian flag: white, red and green. This…
“TRICOLORE” SALAD – INSALATA TRICOLORE
To celebrate the 150 years of the Unification of Italy I thought of creating a special theme menu. In the next few days I will post 3 recipes (an entree, a main and a dessert) with one thing in common: they will all have the colors white, red and green in honor of the Italian…
FRIED ZUCCHINI FLOWERS – PLAIN OR STUFFED
Zucchini flowers are a staple in my kitchen. I love them and buy them whenever I find them! The first time I made them for my husband he thought I was joking… “I’ll never eat flowers”, he told me straight away. So, I let him be… and started making them. Once ready, I brought them…
MANGO LASSI
This is definitely not an Italian recipe!! Lassi is a yogurt based Indian drink that can be savory or, like in this case, sweet. I had never drunk lassi before meeting my husband; actually I have to admit that I knew very little about Indian food before. He introduced me to many new ingredients and…
CASARECCE WITH TUNA AND LEMON TOPPED WITH GARLIC BREADCRUMBS
This is a very simple, yet flavoursome pasta dish. I ate it for the first time many years ago at a family friend’s house (Laura) and I have been making it ever since. What I love the most about this pasta is the contrast between strong flavours (lemon and garlic) and between textures: the softness…
CHIACCHIERE
This is a very special time of the year for all Italian children: it is “Carnevale”. It is the time to dress up as a princess or a super hero and go around town to play tricks on people or throw coriandoli (round shaped paper confetti) in the air. There are many famous Carnevali in…
BAKED PORK SCALOPPINE WITH GORGONZOLA
This is another one of my favourite dishes since childhood. Have I already said that I love gorgonzola (and any other blue cheese for that matter)? Well… I could eat it on anything, even as a dessert (yes, I do have a couple of aces up my sleeve on this)! This dish though is very…
PANZEROTTI
A panzerotto is very similar to a calzone, but it is fried. There is a little shop in the very center of Milano, just behind the famous Duomo (Wiki), that makes the best panzerotti ever. It is called Luini and it very famous among the locals. I would often eat there with my friends during…
FIRST EVENT AND… SECOND AWARD!
As all of you know, I am Italian. Even though I have been living in Australia for almost 5 years now, I was born and brought up in Italy. On March 17th 2011 Italy is celebrating its 150 years of Unification, so to celebrate I thought I would host a special event on my website. …
BUSIATI WITH PESTO TRAPANESE AND FRIED EGGPLANT – BUSIATI CULL’AGGHIA
This is probably the most traditional pasta you can eat in the area of Trapani, in western Sicily. Both the pasta and the sauce are, together with fish couscous, the most well known dishes of the area. The sauce is very easy to make and it is the Trapanese version of pesto. It is similar…
LIGHT BLUEBERRY MUFFINS WITH LEMON SUGAR CRUST
I know there are many blueberry muffins recipes out there. A couple of years ago I was looking for one, but I did not find exactly what I was looking for. So I came up with this one that is really a mix of 2 or 3 recipes. I tried to look them up on…
