Giant homemade Oreos ( Biscotti al cioccolato accoppiati)

Oreos are sold in Italy too but not very loved.

I know that abroad, instead, they're really really appreciated, especially in the English-speaking world ( U.K., U.S.A. ...).

This is a funny and easy recipe to have really big kind of Oreo cookies, perfect for children and teen-ager parties but even for unformal meetings with friends maybe for a tv- movie night.

For 4 serves you need:

3 1/2 oz. dark chocolate

6 oz. all purpose flour

1 egg

2 oz. bitter cocoa powder

1 1/2 oz. butter

2 oz. sugar

1 oz. icing sugar

vanilla flavour

a sprinkle of salt

1 cup milk cream

Chop chocolate and let it melt "bagnomaria".

Mix butter with sugar very well then add vanilla flavour, egg and the melted chocolate.

Add then cocoa, flour and a sprinkle of salt; mix again untill you have a smooth dough.

Stretch it with a roll-pin in a layer of about 1/4 inch, if it's stitcky don't add flour but icing sugar.

With a cookie cutter round shaped or a glass cut biscuits in even number.

Put them on a buttered baking tin and cook for about 8 minutes in pre-heated oven at 345°F.

Let them get cold, then whip milk cream with icing sugar, spread whipped cream on a cookie then cover with another.

Put in fridge for at least 2 hours then serve cold.

P.S. If you want to give a spicy touch you can add at the cookie dough a generous sprinkle of red chili pepper powder.

It fits great!

For adults only ;)

Vegetable burgers ( Hamburger di verdure)

This is a great recipe for vegetarian and for children who don't love vegetable.

It's easy, quite quick and tasty, you can prepare mixture in advance.

For 4-6 serves you need:

about 2 lb mixed vegetables ( carrots, leeks, spinach, courgettes, green beans...)

7 oz. potadoes

2 eggs

1 egg white

4 tablespoons grated cheese

breadcrumb

basil

salt and pepper

frying oil

Boil potadoes in salted water.

Clean vegetables, chops them in pieces and boil "al dente".

Drain them then mince and let the remaining water drain.

Pass potadoes in the potadomasher.

Mix vegetables with potadoes, add eggs , cheese and minced basil plus salt and pepper.

Create little burgers, pass them into the egg white then in breadcrumb.

Heat oil in a pan then cook burgers untill they're gold on both sides.

Serve hot with a plain salad or into a sandwich like a meat hamburger.

Beans, tuna and red onion salad ( Insalata tonno fagioli e cipolla)

Nothing easier, nothing faster this recipe is a informal appetizer or a quick single course.

It's common along all the Peninsula but you will not easily find it in restaurants because it's considered a little bit coarse...

But the taste is great and almost everyone, at home, prepare it now and then.

Of course you can omit onion if you don't like it or use the white one if you can't find the red.

For 4-6 serves:

4 cups cooked beans (Cannellini or Borlotti, in this preparation I prefer Borlotti but it depends on you; the canned ones work great)

2 medium cans oil packed tuna

1 small red onion sliced thin as much as possible

salt and pepper

extra-virgin olive oil

Drain beans from their water and tuna from its oil, put the beans in a big bowl and crush tuna to avoid too big pieces and add it to beans.

Add the sliced onion and season with salt, pepper and extra-virgin olive oil.

Mix well and serve.

If you want you can add a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

Potato masher's cake with ricotta cheese ( Torta dello schiacciapatate con ricotta).

This recipe is easy peasy, quick and a sure success for any kind of meal, with family, friends, colleagues...

The cake in the photo misses of the last icing sugar sprinkle but I wanted to take the picture immediately :P

The potato masher I'm speaking about is like this (with big holes) :

You need for the shortcrust pastry:

10 1/2 oz. all purpose flour

5 1/5 oz. sugar

3 1/2 oz. butter

2 eggs

1 bag baking powder for cakes

For the stuffing:

25 oz. ricotta cheese

3 1/2 oz. sugar

Decoration:

dark chocolate chopped in irregular pieces

icing sugar

Mix all the ingredients to make the pastry and divide the loaf in two parts of the same wheight.

Put one part in the potato masher, take a baking tin of about 10 inches diameter and press untill strands of pastry fall down.

Spread them quite evenly but don't worry if you see holes between the strands: the dough, rising, will close them.

Mix ricotta cheese with sugar then pour on the base of pastry's strands, put the other half of the loaf in the potato masher and cover ricotta with the same process, once again don't worry about holes :)

Heat the oven at about 345° F, before putting in the oven sprinkle icing sugar on top of the cake and add chocolate chops.

Bake for 45 minutes.

The result will be the one in the photo...Enjoy! :D

Extra-Virgin olive oil cake ( Torta all'olio d'oliva extravergine)

Problems with cholesterol?

Do you wan to to avoid animal fats or just to try something unusual?

This is a plain cake, perfect for breakfast, afternoon break or just to treat yourself and your family.

Please consider only extra-virgin olive oil for this cake: other oils aren't healthy enough to gain benefit from their use, expecially when they have to be cooked.

This recipe has a lemon flavor but you can choose to put some cocoa powder to half of the mixture then pour in the baking pan first the white mixture then the cocoa one and passing a pick to give the cake a marbled effect or add 3 apples chopped in tiny pieces.

You need:

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 cups of milk

a sprinkle of salt

1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil

3 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 bag of baking powder

zest from one lemon (only the yellow part)

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

icing sugar to serve

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs and the sugar.

When well blended add the oil, milk, lemon juice and zest and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the first mix to this mixture, and stir just until blended.

Pour into a baking pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes at 350° F or until a pick comes out clean.

Cool and remove from the pan.

Dust with powdered sugar.

You can serve with fresh fruit, egg custard, whipped cream or melted chocolate or eat it plain.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Happy St. Patrick' s day to everyone!

It's not a holiday in Italy but due to globalization and the fact people here travel often to English speaking countries to learn English we know how much is important for Irish people in Ireland and abroad.

A little curiosity that comes from Wikipedia: St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish. The wearing of and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the saint's holiday.

To tell the truth the colour that was long associated to the Saint was blue but because of shamrocks and because green is the predominant colour of Ireland from about 1750 D.C. there was a change.

Salty buckwheat pancakes with cabbage and speck ham ( Crepes di grano saraceno con verza e speck)

This is a great recipe I took from my mother.

It's quite particular, made with ingredients typical from North of Italy (speck ham, buckwheat, cabbage).

The result is great and quite refined even if the basic ingredients come from farmer's cooking.

For 6 serves you need:

for pancakes:

1 1/2 cups milk

2 1/2 oz. buckwheat flour

2 1/2 oz. all purpose flour

salt

1 egg

1 oz. butter

oil to cook pancakes

For the stuffing:

10 oz. cabbage washed and cutted in little pieces

3 1/2 oz. speck ham

1 1/2 oz. grated pecorino cheese

for the bechamel/ white sauce:

1 oz. butter

1 1/2 oz. all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups milk

grated nutmeg

1 oz. grated pecorino cheese

Melt butter and mix to it all the ingredients to make pancakes.

Beat well to avoid lumps.

Cook very thin pancakes (crepes) in a pan of about 10 inches diameter.

With this quantity you should obtain 6 pancakes.

In a pan sautee chopped cabbage with a little salt, pepper and butter plus 2 water's spoons untill they're soft.

Make white sauce putting in a pan butter and flour, mixing and cooking utill you have a golden mixture then add milk little by little then nutmeg and pecorino cheese.

Cook and mix untill bechamel becomes dense (about 10 minutes).

Put in each pancakes some sauteed cabbage, some speck ham chopped in pieces, some white sauce and a little grated pecorino cheese.

Close the crepes the way you prefer and put them in a oven-proof dish.

Cover with the rest of cabbage, bechamel and grated pecorino cheese.

Put in the oven at medium heat untill you have a golden crust on top.

Serve hot!.

THANKS EVERYBODY!!

No recipes today but a big thanks to everybody.
Why?
Because this little blog has a lot of readers: I see it through the counter that grows everyday of about 100 visits.
And the counter's introduction is quite recent.
I also see that visitors come worldwide and it's a great proud for me.
The only regret I have is that I see very few comments: I really would like to know if someone try my recipes and how they turn out...
I hope to continue this blog's updating through the time giving you all the best of Italian recipes, from great classics to unexpected dishes: I love doing this and my English say thanks because I keep on practising it : )

Green sauce ( Salsa verde)

This sauce is perfect for boiled meat, grilled chicken, grilled or boiled seafood.

I love this sauce so much I use to put it on bread slices all alone too. ^^

It's perfect on bruschetta according to me but it depends on tastes!

This recipes comes from Piemonte, a region in the North- West of Italy famous for truffles, asparagus and hazelnuts with whom they produce a great chocolate called " Gianduia".

You need:

red wine vinegar

1 slice tuscan /italian bread

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove

1 hard boiled egg

1 big bunch fresh parsley

salt and pepper

Soak the bread in enogh vinegar untill it's soft.

In a food processor mix parsley and garlic untill they're chopped extremely fine.

Add the hard boiled egg (someone uses only yolk, someone uses the whole egg, it depends on taste), the oil and the drained bread, mix again a little, untill you have a smooth cream.

Add salt and pepper to taste, store in refrigerator untill use.

The sauce is even tastier if you prepare it 1-2 days in advance.

Pork loin in milk sauce ( Arista di maiale al latte)

This is a good "sunday recipe".
Easy to make, delicious, tender.
My mum was used to prepare it when I was little and even now, even if less often cause me and my sister are old enough to eat also different things ^^.
This roast is made in a pot, on stove and not in the oven: here in Italy is often the privileged cooking solution for roasts.


For 4 serves you need:


1 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin tied with string

3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil or butter

2 garlic cloves

salt and pepper

4 cups fresh whole milk

1 sprig fresh rosemary

a little carrot, chopped tiny


In a heavy pot heat the olive oil with garlic and carrot pieces and brown the roast well on all sides.
Add salt and pepper.
Add the milk and bring to boil, then turn the heat to low and let the meat cook for about une hour and half, turn the roast now and then and mix the sauce to prevent burning.
When the meat is ready the sauce should be thick, of a golden brown colour, with some kind of grumes, really tasty.
Wait untill the roast is cold before slice it, it's even better if you prepare it one day in advance then cut sometime before serving, heat again meat and sauce and serve slices with souce on top.
It's perfect with sauteed spinach or mashed potadoes.

Granny cake ( Torta della nonna)

I've seen that "granny cake" in english means a pineapple cake: this is something else but I wanted to translate the Italian name literally.

This cake is one of my favourite, it's so easy, plain but rich in flavour and so "country" to see.

You need:

For the shortcrust pastry:

12 oz. all purpose flour

1 bag baking pownder

4 oz. butter

6 oz. sugar

1 egg

1 yolk

a sprinkle of salt

For the cream:

3 1/2 cups milk

peel of half a lemon

7 oz. sugar

8 yolks

1 1/2 oz. all purpose flour

1 vanilla pod (or vanilla aroma)

For the decoration:

pine kernel

icing sugar

Put milk, vanilla and lemon peel in a pan, put on medium heat.

In a bowl beat the yolks with sugar untill you have a foaming cream, then add flour and mix well.

Add hot milk to the yolk cream little by little, mixing then put the liquid again in the cooking pan and put on light heat mixing untill the cream become dense: at this point cook other 5 minutes then turn off fire.

Keep off vanilla pod and lemon peel.

Let it get cold.

Now knead shortcrust pastry: mix flour with baking powder, add soften butter and knead.

Add also egg, yolk, a salt sprinkle and sugar, knead again untill you have a a smooth dough loaf, close it in a clin film and let rest in fridge for at least one hour.

Stretch the shortcrust pastry on the bottom and sides (let some dough more out of the tin) of a round baking tin, prick the bottom with a fork, pour the cream, spread it well, cover with pine kernel, refold the plus of dough on the cake.

Put in hot oven at 345 F° for about 40 minutes, let it cold and cover with icing sugar.

Bolognese cutlet ( Cotoletta alla bolognese)

This recipe is really ancient and so important in our typical cooking that is deposed at Bologna's chamber of commerce by Italian Cooking Accademy (Accademia della Cucina Italiana) a national cultural istitution.

If you know Milanese cutlets or the Wiener Schnitzel you'll probably find in the Bolognese version a richer and luxury variation.

For 4 serves you need:

veal rump, about 8-9 oz. divided in 4 slices

2 oz. butter

3 1/2 oz. Parmesan in slivers

2 oz. Parma ham in slices

1 egg

breadcrumbs

a glass of meat broth

salt and pepper

frying oil

Thump meat slices to softner them, add salt and pepper (not too much salt, ham and cheese are salty enough).

Pass them in the breadcrumbs, then into beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs once again.

Fry on both side for few minutes then put the slices in a oven pan, on each one put a slice of ham, enough Parmesan slivers, pour the broth glass and butter in small chunks.

Heat for about 7-8 minutes at 345 F° then serve with a light salad and or mashed potadoes.

This recipe with little variation of some black truffle slivers on top (put at the end of cooking) is called Cotoletta alla Petroniana ( Petroniana cutlet).

This name comes from Petronio (Petronius) who is the patron saint of Bologna city.