Tag: italianfood

About DRESSING

Iceberg lettuce with sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, salt, EVOO.

DO YOU KNOW?
What’s called “Italian dressing” or “Italian seasoning” in America, it’s not actually an Italian recipe.
Traditionally lettuce or what we call “insalata mista” (lettuce, sliced carrot, tomatoes) is served with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, white or red wine vinegar, salt and sometimes pepper.
Balsamic Vinegar is a recent introduction to Italian tables, more common in the North of Italy. I noticed that if you are in north Italy, the ingredients used to dress lettuce or what we call INSALATA are less flavourful. I really don’t know why.
My dressing’s ingredients for tomatoes are: EVOO, garlic, salt, parsley and basil mixed with sliced tomatoes in a bowl and let it sit 1 hour in the fridge.
My lettuce dressing is salt, EVOO, white wine vinegar, sometimes mixed with plain regular yogurt and some nuts.

Iceberg lettuce with salt, walnuts, diced apples, yogurt, Gorgonzola cheese DOP

Basil Pesto

Home made #basil #pesto time! Pesto alla #Genovese is a sauce originating in Genoa, the capital city of #Liguria Region, #Italy. The main ingredient is BASIL from #Genoa which has small oval leaves and a very intense smell. It traditionally consists of crushed #garlic, European #pine nuts, coarse #salt, basil leaves, and hard cheese such as #parmigianoreggiano and/or #pecorinoromano or #pecorinosardo (cheese made from sheep’s milk), all blended with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

#cookinitalywithteresa #cookinitaly #cookwithteresa #teresacolors #airforce #italianfood #food #foodlover #cooking #cookingclass #learntocookitalianfood #avianoairbase #venice #fvg https://www.instagram.com/p/CQrvlH7LH1l/?utm_medium=share_sheet

Tunafish balls with Green Olive Pate and Ricotta Cheese

I experimented a new recipe and I madeTunafish balls with Green Olives Pate courtesy of Frantoio Bonamini

http://www.oliobonamini.com/

Tuna fish balls with Green olive pate

RECIPE

Ingredients: 4 tbsps canned tunafish in EVO, 4 tbsps Ricotta Cheese, 2 tbsps Green Olive Pate, 1 egg, 2 or 3 tbsps breadcrumbs in the mix, more breadcrumbs to roll the tubafish balls, Extra Virgin Olive Oil to spray on the balls before baking.
Mix very well all the ingredients with a spoon and then make balls as big as a wallnut.
Preheat at 200°C the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.
Enjoy!

Gorgonzola Cheese

. It’s a soft cheese being produced for 1200 years.

. It is a DOP cheese, certified and guaranteed by European Community.

. In the past it was known as Stracchino di Gorgonzola – Stracchino, name of a soft cheese, from Gorgonzola –  produced in Gorgonzola, a town on the outskirts of Milan, or also as Stracchino Verde – Green Stracchino – due to the greenish color of the cheese’s marbling.

. It is produced in between Piedmont and Lombardy Regions, in the North West of Italy. The Province – County –  of Novara, in Piedmont Region, is the one with the highest number of cheese farms producing Gorgonzola cheese, with about 65% of the total cheese farms.

. It is produced with raw whole cow’s milk, selected molds and lactic ferments.

. Gorgonzola cheese is creamy and soft and there are two types: the Gorgonzola Dolce type has a particular and characteristic flavor, slightly spicy; the Gorgonzola Piccante type has a more decisive and strong flavor whose texture is more marbled, consistent and crumbly.

. As foreseen by the production disciplinary, Gorgonzola Dolce  ages from a minimum of 50 days to a maximum of 150 days; Gorgonzola Piccante ages from a minimum of 80 days to a maximum of 270 days.

It is produced only with milk from stables located in the area of ​​origin of the cheese itself.

. It is considered the king of Italian blue cheeses and about 30% of the production is exported, mostly to France and Germany, but also to North America and to some Asian countries.

. To fully enjoy the creaminess of sweet Gorgonzola, it is best to remove it from the refrigerator at least half an hour before eating.

. The guarantee of authenticity is the “g” brand printed on the background of the foil that wraps the cheese.

How it is produced
https://en.gorgonzola.com/how-it-is-produced/

#ITALIAN MEALS

In Italy we tend to arrange our foods in categories, according to the role they have within a meal:

#Antipasti: small bits of pickled vegetables, fried vegetables cold cuts, marinated fish, toasted slices of bread with some kind of spread on (bruschetta), sometimes cheese. Antipasti are served only in very special meals like Christmas Lunch, New Year’s Eve, Easter Lunch. All these foods are often used for babysitting as well.

#Primi: soups, pasta, gnocchi, risotto, lasagna.

#Secondi: meat or fish, poultry, cheese, eggs.

#Contorni: that is a vegetable side like lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, potatoes.

#Piatti unici: single dishes, when you get a meat or fish main combined with pasta or bread or polenta and vegetables. What’s called ‘salad’ in English, it’s ‘insalatona’ in Italian: lettuce and other vegetables with cheese or tunafish or grilled chicken. The best example of a single dish is a rice salad. Most of the time the single dish is served cold and it’s a quick meal for working days.

#Frutta: at the end of an Italian home meal you always eat some fruit: apples, bananas, oranges.

#Dolce: desserts. It’s mostly a Sunday or special days treat. A typical summer one is the combination of a fruit salad with gelato (ice-cream).

– How many meals a day do the Italians have? Lunch and Dinner; breakfast isn’t considered a main meal.

– Do the Italians eat one serving of each category at every meal? No, they don’t. As already specified, appetizers and desserts are for special events. Contorni and frutta are usually in every italian meal while most of the people eat or 1 primo serving or 1 secondo serving.

– Do not they eat pasta every day, then? Actually they don’t, even if pasta and all the other ‘primo’ servings ( lasagna, gnocchi, …) are often served as they are easy to cook and pretty filling as well.

Have you any questions? Feel free to ask!