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!.