Herbs play an important role in Italian cooking. Their aromatic flavour adds depth and interest to what is essentially plain cooking based on fresh ingredients. It is impossible to imagine roast chicken or veal without sage or rosemary, or tomatoes or pesto without basil.
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After Spain, Italy is now the second larger producer of olive oil in the world. Unlike other oils, which are extracted from the seeds or dried fruits of plants, olive oil is pressed from the pulp of ripe fruits, which gives it an inimitable richness and flavour. Different kinds and sizes of olives grow throughout Italy, and the oil they produce are very varied.
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Original Italian name: Filetto alla Rossini
Place of Origin: Marche, Central Italy
Although Le Marche region is still largely undiscovered by the tourist industry, from the culinary point of view, the character of this region is quite unique. While the cuisine in neighboring Umbria is for the most part simple, the people in Marche have expensive and sophisticated tastes, though they do not indulge these to excess. Even the most magnificent stuffing for suckling pig is invariably originated in the traditions of county cooking.
Even in Gioacchino Rossini’s time, cooking and eating well were considered important. This Fillet of Beef recipe is dedicated to the composer Rossini, who lived in the first half of the 19th century. After the composer and maestro of italian opera went into voluntary retirement, he devoted time to his hobby, the buona tavola. After his death, he left several recipes which he had invented himself. Furthermore, many cooks had dedicated their own creations to him. As the result, today there are more then a hundred dishes with names bearing the tag alla Rossini.
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Well, Christmas is coming. I wish All My Readers A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
At this special moment I wish to share my favourite and delightful pastry recipe of both Italian and French cuisine. It’s a Almond Biscotti that perfect designed to be dipped into your best-loved cup of coffee.
Other Italian name of this biscotti is Cantucci. They are hard, high-baked lozenge-shaped biscuits. When moistened, they become deliciously soft and crumbly. In Tuscany, they are usually studded with almonds or other nuts and flavoured with vanilla or aniseed.
Cooking these biscotties I used the Bar method. Finally I got diagonally cut almond biscotti compare to round biscuit shape ones.
If you wish to make a very special salad to your festive Christmas table please see the Fruit Salsa recipe from my French Cooking Blog.
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Baked Lasagne with Meat sauce is just one of many others Lasagne variations but it is the most popular throughout Italy.
Other ingredients can be added to lasagne, such as sliced cooked meatballs, sausages, zucchini, eggplant. It is best to add only one of two ingredients to lasagne. So there are three main types of lasagne -meat, seafood of vegetable lasagne.
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Haricot beans (Haricot is the french word for ‘bean’) are another staple of Italian cooking. The most popular varities include the pretty red-and cream speckled borlotti, the small one cannellini and black-eyed beans. All these are used in stews, with pasta and in soups, and borlotti and cannellini are often served as a side dish simply flavoured with extra virgin olive oil.
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Coming back to My-Italian-Cooking, I ‘m posting today a recipe of making flavoured sauce - Shallots with Rosemary Oil, that I used recently as a BBQ sauce for lamb. It’s a simple version of Italian sauces which can be used widely in Italian and French cuisine.
Flavoured oils make an interesting alternative to vinaigrette and other sauces when used to dress a wide variety of dishes. They can be suitable for steamed, sauteed and grilled dishes, but they can be used with cold foods as well. The simplest way to flavour an oil is putting some of the flavouring ingredients in the oil and let it stand until the oil has taken enough the flavour.
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