Categories
Basic Preparations or How To Dessert Vegetarian

Mascarpone Custard or Crema al Mascarpone

How to prepare the real Italian recipe of Mascarpone Custard or “Crema al Mascarpone”

Mascarpone Custard is a delicious dessert by the spoon, with a delicate taste eaten alone or perfect with a slice of cake, or even donuts. The preparation is quite simple and fast but the most important components of this recipe are the ingredients: which all must be fresh. You can also use this instead of custard when you make a fruit tart. Mascarpone is an Italian cheese made from cream, coagulated by the addition of certain acidic substances, such as lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid or acetic acid. Mascarpone is milky-white in color and is easy to spread. We love anything with Mascarpone, this is a easy and delicious custard to use with any dessert!

 

Ingredients for 4 people

  • 2 Eggs
  • 1.5 tsp vanilla essence
  • 6 tablespoons of Sugar
  • 500 grams of Mascarpone, fresh Italian cheese
  • 6 tablespoons of Chocolate Chips (optional)

Preparation

  1. Beat the yolks with the sugar until frothy, together with Vanilla essence, add the Mascarpone cheese and beat for 1 minute.
  2. Mount the egg white to snow. Mount the egg whites until stiff add them to the mixture, stirring from bottom to top and then add the chocolate chips to the mix.
  3. Allow Mascarpone creme to set slightly in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
  4. Serve in small cups with strawberries decoration. Strawberries are so beautiful and delicious when accompanied with a simple creamy mascarpone cream. Or serve simply with dark cocoa powder on top as on picture below.
  5. Delicious also as a filling for any cake like Italian Tiramisu!

TIP: To fill cakes: place the Mascarpone mixture in a piping bag with a star tip attached or a plastic bag and cut off one corner of the bag to pipe. Slowly pipe the Mascarpone cream into the cake until filled.

 

Posted by Nicoletta and Tiziana

The Real Italian Food. Buon Appetito!

 

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Categories
Basic Preparations or How To Breakfast Drinks Vegetarian

Anyone for a great Coffee? How to make Coffee with a Moka in easy steps

How to prepare the real Italian Coffee with Moka or “Caffè Espresso con la Moka”

What are the secrets of preparing the best coffee with a classic Moka? The Neapolitans are the best when it comes to coffee and there is so much to learn about the different ways to prepare it. The classic “na tazzulella e café” (literally: a little cup of coffee) is an important part of the inalienable Neapolitan lifestyle, typical food and drinking habits. A great Coffee is always the perfect fit: a waking up MUST HAVE in the morning, the classic excuse for a work break, an after lunch essential, the first drink offered to welcome a guest or to family and friends, anyone loved. Italian coffee simply represents – in Italy and abroad – a symbol at the root of our Italian culture. Neapolitans do it better!!!! 🙂

Ingredients for a 3-cup of Coffee maker /small size

  • 3 teaspoons of Grounded Coffee (we like Vergnano or Illy Coffee)
  • Natural Water, we use bottled natural water if in doubt of the tap water quality

Preparation

  1. One rule: You can’t make a good coffee if you don’t have the best quality of the key ingredient: coffee. So the first step is to buy a great mix of grounded coffee. You will have 3 pieces in a Moka machine: base, filter, top.
  2. Fill the base of the Moka with cold water up to the level of the valve and not beyond. Water will affect the taste of your coffee, we often avoid tap water.
  3. Insert the filter on top,  should be just above the water level, add the coffee on top with a teaspoon, coffee is flattened with the teaspoon (do not compress it) being sure to make a few small furrows in the mixture. The coffee should be fully covering the 2 cm above the filter, do not press it in too much or the water will not pass through.
  4. Now you can add the top part of the Moka. Tightly screw the two parts together and put the coffee maker on the stove. Important Step: Keep the heat low.
  5. Once the coffee starts coming out, open the lid to avoid condensed water to drop in.  If you wish, you can take a coffee cup and place it on top of the spout imprisoning the aroma and fragrance of coffee in the cup.
  6. When the coffee level is at about 3/4 of the top part of the Moka turn off the fire completely and wait until it stops dropping. Enjoy super hot.

TIPS:

  • If you want a perfect coffee,  you can pre-heat the coffee cups for 1 minute in the microwave and then pour the coffee in, it will keep it extra hot!
  • COFFEE CREAM: for the perfectionists only, when the coffee starts to come out take the first drops and put them in a separate cup, add 3-4 teaspoons of sugar and blend them until you have a homogeneous creamy mix, add it on top of the coffee in each cup before serving instead of sugar. TOP!
  • Never wash the coffee maker Moka in a washing machine or with soap, just wash it with hot water!

Posted by Nicoletta and Tiziana

The Real Italian Food. Buon Appetito!

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Categories
Basic Preparations or How To Gluten free Healthy Vegetables Vegetarian

Healthy Fresh Tomato Sauce or Sugo di Pomodoro

How to prepare the real Italian recipe of  Fresh Tomato Sauce or “Sugo al Pomodoro Fresco”

The fresh tomato basil sauce is the sauce Mediterranean for excellence. Simple and tasty, even more if done during the period of July-August, when the tomatoes are tasty and fragrant, grown with the sun, and often used to prepare the best red sauce preserved with care for the winter time.

Ingredients for 4 people

  • 10 Fresh Tomatoes we like San Marzano
  • 4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Salt and Pepper as you prefer
  • 4 leaves of Basil

Preparation

  1. In a saucepan, bring to a boil plenty of water, pour the tomatoes and simmer for 3 minutes. Drain the tomatoes, remove the skin and cut them in half. Remove the seeds and the vegetation water, cut into cubes.
  2. In a saucepan, pour the Extra Virgin Olive Oil and garlic, let the garlic get brown and then add the tomatoes, cook for 10 minutes, season with salt, add pepper and basil leaves before serving. The sauce is ready!

TIP: if you have short time to make a tomato fresh sauce, just wash and cut the tomatoes directly adding them to the pan. Do not boil them before. Start boiling the water when cooking the tomatoes and in ten mins: voila’! A nice, fresh, healthy sauce.

Posted by Nicoletta and Tiziana

 The Real Italian Food. Buon Appetito!

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Categories
Basic Preparations or How To Vegetarian

Bechamel Sauce or Besciamella

How to prepare the real Italian recipe of “Bechamel or Besciamella”

The Bechamel sauce is a base sauce of the traditional Italian cuisine, which is used as a starting base for more elaborate dishes such as Lasagne or Cannelloni. You can make it at home quickly and easily or you can buy it already made. We prefer to make it at home, nice and fresh. Super easy. Yummy!

Ingredients for the Bechamel

  • 50 grams of Butter
  • 50 grams of Flour
  • Half liter of Milk
  • Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg as preferred

Preparation

1. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour and cook on low heat for 3 minutes.

2. In the meanwhile bring the milk to a boil with salt, pepper and nutmeg, stir in the butter and flour and simmer for five minutes.

THE SECRET: the bechamel is ready when you insert the spoon into the sauce, you take it out and see that the sauce stays firmly attached to the spoon.

Posted by Nicoletta and Tiziana

The Real Italian Food. Buon Appetito!

 

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Categories
Basic Preparations or How To Pasta

How to Cook the Real Italian Pasta to the Tooth or “al Dente”

How to cook the Real Italian Pasta, Cooking Pasta the Italian way “al Dente”

How to cook Italian Pasta “al Dente” step by step? This is vital for any pasta recipe. Italians assume everyone knows HOW TO COOK PASTA by heart. But this is not true for everyone. Especially if you have never seen someone cooking pasta the Italian way while growing up, it can be not that intuitive. You might forget to add salt for example to the boiling water, which is wrong, or even choose to add some oil to the boiling water, not needed at all. With our step by step suggestions, you can’t go wrong!  Cook Italian pasta wonderfully with this all Italian technique.

1° step – Boiling Water in a Pot

Add a large and long pot of water on the bigger fire, for around 3/4 full of water, on high flame, add big salt (about what there is in a fist/around 1-2 spoons, depends on the pot size), water should taste a little bit salty if tasted with a spoon – a bit less salty then sea water.

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2° step – Cover the Pasta Pot

Cover with a lid to reach boiling temperature faster. If you want to be even faster add cool water in an electric boiler and then add it to the Pot and follow the same instructions, water already warm will be boiling right away.

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3° step – The Water Boils!

Bring Pasta to a rapid boil with high temperature on a large fire, it should take around five mins.

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4° step – Now you can add your Pasta of choice (NOT BEFORE)

Add the Pasta and with a wooden spoon, stir well so it does not stick to the bottom. Continue cooking without replacing the lid. Stir it occasionally also while it cooks.

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5°step – Cook Pasta until “al Dente” and test your pasta before draining it

Check on the package the expected cooking time always “al Dente” or “to the Tooth” but a couple of minutes before draining the pasta taste it to see if it is cooked, and salty enough, if Pasta is tasteless add a little of salt, if you feel it still strongly crunchy is not cooked yet, if it has still some consistency, a little bite to it is ready: perfect. If pasta is overcooked instead it will be soft or very soft, not nice at all. In this case we suggest you start again from step 1 with other new Pasta!

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6°step – Ready to Drain

Move fast. Drain Pasta as soon as possible. Drain in a colander set in the sink. Or a slotted skimmer would be ideal to drain gently ravioli or tortellini a few at a time. You might want to keep 1 cup of boiled water on the side, to be used if necessary to the sauce last minute.

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7°step – Add Pasta to the Sauce

Add Pasta to your sauce mix it and in case finish cooking for a min to absorb all the sauce or as directed from your Pasta recipe – be careful not to overcook pasta. Enjoy.

 

Posted by Nicoletta and Tiziana

The Real Italian Food. Buon Appetito!

Categories
Basic Preparations or How To Pasta

How to Make Tortellini Pasta with Ham from Scratch

How to prepare the real Italian recipe of Homemade Tortellini Pasta with Ham from Scratch or “Tortellini al Prosciutto fatti in Casa”

Tortellini Pasta is one of the best dishes of the Italian tradition. Typical of the region of Emilia Tortellini are often cooked for dinner parties and especially for the Christmas lunch or New Year celebrations. Often we eat tortellini with broth but there are also other variants with delicious sauces, with tomato or cream for example. Learning the fine art of rolling, stuffing, and shaping these fetching little dumplings is easier than what you might think and the results will be outstanding!

Ingredients for 400 Tortellini Pasta, for 20 People

  • The main ingredients for Pasta and Filling as follow below.

Ingredients for Fresh Pasta made with Egg or “Pasta all’Uovo”

  • 8 Eggs
  • 800 grams of Flour

Ingredients for Meat Filling with Ham

  • 150 grams of Chicken
  • 150 grams of Veal
  • 150 grams of Pork
  • 150 grams of Beef
  • 150 grams of Parma Ham (just 1 slices of 150 grams)
  • 150 grams of Parmesan Cheese grated
  • 3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg as you prefer
  • half glass of White Wine

Preparation of the Fresh Pasta with Egg or “Pasta all’uovo”

By Hand: On a clean wood surface make a well with the flour. In a measuring cup mix the eggs, pour the wet mixture slowly into the flour and mix with your 2 fingers until all of the wet is incorporated. Do not force the dough to take all of the flour. If you are going to use a pasta machine to roll out the dough you may at this point form the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to rest. If you going to roll this by hand you should knead the dough on a floured work surface for 8 to 10 minutes.

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Preparation of  Tortellini

In a pan verse Oil, chicken, veal, pork and beef previously diced. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes after that verse white wine and cook for 10 minutes more. When ready putt all in a mixer, add the parma ham cut and mix for 5 minutes. In a bowl verse the meat, add the parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, eggs and mix well. Let rest into the fridge for 5 hours.

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Using the fresh pasta recipe, roll out your dough either by hand or by machine. Cut into 3 or 4-inch rounds with a round cookie cutter. Place 1/4 teaspoon of the meat into the center of each round. Brush water wash, on the bottom half of the round, and fold over to seal. Fold back around your finger and turn down the edge to form a tortellini. Ready to freeze or cooking directly and served with your preferred sauce of choice. Enjoy.

Posted by Nicoletta and Tiziana

The Real Italian Food. Buon Appetito!

 

TIPS:

Don’t over-stuff your pasta: This gets tempting because, half of what we love about tortellini is the soft and tasty filling. But more often than not, over-stuffing makes it tricky to seal the tortellini and leads to dumplings that burst in the cooking pot. Stick to about 1 teaspoon of filling for each pasta wrapper.

Keep the pasta covered: Pasta dries out surprisingly quickly if left uncovered, which makes it difficult to work with and prone to tearing. Keep both the remaining pieces of dough, the rolled out sheets of pasta, and the shaped tortellini covered with a piece of plastic wrap or a clean dish towel.

Use ample flour: Ironically for something that dries out so quickly, the shaped tortellini love to stick to the tray and to each other. Be sure to keep both the tray and the tortellini dusted with a good amount of flour and don’t let the tortellini touch each other once you have shaped them.

Give yourself enough time: Making tortellini is definitely not hard, but it takes time. Give yourself at least a few hours to make an entire batch. Tortellini freezes beautifully, so you can make them and keep them frozen until it’s time to party.