Tag: italiancooking

Ricotta filled fried zucchini flowers

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Fried zucchini flowers are one of Italy’s most elegant and graceful street foods. Like so often in Italian cuisine, the variants are numerous, and every region has its traditional recipe. Then you can make your own variations to the theme of course. When its delicately crunchy surface gives in to the soft filling, is a magical moment for the senses. It’s an authentic sensation, unique. Normally sparkling water is used in the batter, but I made a sparkling wine variant to the theme, that I thing is matching perfectly with the mild flavor of the flower dumplings. The chopped chive is also giving a mild contrast to the cheese in the filling. A romantic tête-à-tête dinner or an elegant appetizer. This is your dish.

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Tagliolini with clams

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This dish is definitely on my list of things worth living for. Isaac Davis (Woody Allen’s character in his film Manhattan), makes his list including amongst other things Louis Armstrongs’ recording of “Potato Head Blues”, Swedish movies, Sentimental Education by Flaubert, the incredible pears by Cézanne and the Crabs at Sam Wo’s. These creamy tagliolini are highly quoted on a similar list of mine. The dish is Napoli originated and has conquered the tastebuds of Italy and the world. Like so many Italian dishes, it’s so simple, but as always it is the quality of the ingredients and the attentive cooking that rule the outcome. You can of course make this pasta dish with normal spaghetti, but fresh egg tagliolini are exalting in the most delicious way the creaminess of the clams and delivering the salty lightly spicy taste of the sauce.

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Truffle eggs

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There are some food combinations that seem like a match made in heaven. Like butter and truffles, like eggs and truffles, like eggs, truffles and butter……

Playing with the quantity of eggs (from 1-3) remains a big challenge together with their delicate cooking process. You need to chose well your skillet, of the right measure and non-stick or iron cast would be best. The pan needs to embrace well the eggs and not be too large for the eggs with slightly high soft borders. We wish to obtain a well cooked but glossy white and a soft and creamy yolk. This recipe foresees 3 eggs, and is the perfect portion for a romantic tête-à-tête, or as a “gourmand brunch” for one person that wishes to fill up with seasonal flavors wrapped in the perfumed and comforting creaminess of the eggs.

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Tiramisù with buffalo ricotta

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The soft, fluffy inviting Italian dessert “par excellence”, tiramisù, offers variation possibilities in the creamy consistency part as for the topping. I love to make the dessert with ricotta and mix in with the heavy cream and without eggs. You still will have an extremely fluffy and rich dessert, beautifully white and tasty, but a little “lighter” in calories. I adore buffalo ricotta in the recipe, but you can of course use sheep-, cow or mixed ricotta depending on your taste preferences.

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Zesty ciambella with extra virgin olive oil inside & out

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Ciambella is such a beautiful word and comforting in a way. The second part of the word “bella” means “beautiful” in Italian, so there’s one reason for the word’s expression for something good. Pronouncing “Ciam“, adds gladness and saliva to your palate in advance. It reminds of the sound of “yum“, meaning something that tastes or looks delicious. This bundt cake, ciambella, or better ciambellone, because of the size of it, is very light (despite the size of it), and extremely fragrant and zesty. An important factor for its lightness is given to the presence of extra virgin olive oil and zest in the dough. Then we exalt the zestiness, almonds as well as the mild olive oil in the dough with a second oil, a fruity Sicilian one.

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Simply fried egg in mild extra virgin olive oil

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Extra virgin olive oil will enhance the taste of almost any dish, and make your ordinary, simplest meals  surprisingly fragrant, plus you will get all the health benefits from this precious golden liquid.
Staying in simple theme, fried eggs are a beloved breakfast of mine…… and I’m sure there are a lot of you sharing the fried-egg passion.
Extra virgin olive oil is especially suitable for that cooking operation, because it heats up very fast, cooking the egg white rapidly and leaving the precious yolk thickened but yet soft. Important of course choosing an appropriate olive oil type.

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Tagliatelle with goat cheese flakes and pepper

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This is a version of the classic pasta dish cacio e pepe where pecorino romano sheep cheese generally plays the cheese role.
Here we have a version from chef Lele Emmanuele, chef of La Loggia restaurant in Acqui Terme, with flakes of the unique Piedmont goat cheese Robiola di Roccaverano. The pasta is fresh tagliatelle without eggs. The classical fresh pasta base, that is so easy to make, but very rewarding.

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Elvira’s panna cotta with crumbled stroscia cake

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Panna cotta is the simplest thing: basically boiled cream. With addition of sugar, vanilla extract (or not) and some gelatine. The proportions change according to taste, but that’s basically it. The beauty is that its simplicity makes you appreciate even more the ingredients. You feel the quality of the cream and the milk, if there is too much gelatine, you “listen for” the subtle vanilla tone and so forth. The pureness of this elegant and easy dessert, gives the tastebuds more space to enjoy the panna cotta accompaniment. Fruit coulis, chocolate- and caramel sauces are perfect, and sometimes you find really original matchings, that often reflect the territory’s food tradition. This recipe is from Elvira Ramoino, chef of Azienda Agricola Ramoino restaurant in the town Sarola, in the depths of the Ligurian Ponente Riviera.

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Tiramisù

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If this classical Italian dessert were a song, it would be definitely be classified as an Evergreen. Tiramisù always stays fresh in your memory, fresh like it were the first time you ever tasted it, and you never get tired of it’s smooth creamy texture and mild sweetness “colored” with a hint of coffee. It really “picks you up” every time, but that is what tiramisù literally means.

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