chesecake-tartlets

Thanks for voting,  this time I am making the mom’s day winner – baked ricotta cheesecake.  However, all other recipes in the poll are interesting for me as well and I will try to make them a bit later.

Cheesecake is a very famous name of ricotta filling cake. Most popular style variations are American, German and Italian that called sometimes a Sicilian cheesecake. They differ in decoration and ingredients. Hence all of them have a ricotta cheese as the main ingredient.

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The Mother’s Day is coming. The majority of countries celebrate this day on the second Sunday of May. In fact, Mother’s Day is the best way to make every mom feel loved.

I am planning to prepare some nice and delicious Italian dessert for that occasion. I picked three great desserts variations with ricotta filling which I’d wish to cook but I feel that can make only one.

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Cannelloni with Minced Beef

by Larissa on May 4, 2009

in Primi: First courses

cannelloni with minced beef

Cannelloni is a traditional italian pasta dish that means filled tube pasta. This pasta recipe is a popular throughout Italy. Cannelloni may have various fillings such as minced beef, tuna or spinach.

I read in some book that cannelloni is a lasagne just for kids. Well it could be told this way but personally I like it either. Mostly because it has the lasagne taste but the structure of the dish is much more convenient to eat it.

This time I am making tube pasta with minced beef served with a tomato sauce. Let me share some tips of how to cook cannelloni.

Firstly, saving time you should cook the cannelloni in the salted boiling water for 4-5 minutes. Rinse them with cold water, drain and lay on the cloth to dry. Fill and bake them following the recipe.

In addition, giving the dish a lighter sweet and creamy flavour you need to use a Fontina cheese for meat filling.

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Meet the Fellow Food Bloggers

by Larissa on May 1, 2009

in Fridays review

My Italian cooking recipes blog is almost 2 months afloat. During this time I have found many interesting blogs and sites dedicated to cooking and especially to the Italian cuisine. Most of them I love to read because of their beautiful photos, interesting stories and new recipe ideas that I can also try at home. I thought it could be nice to start some regular reviews of my favourite blogs and some fancy posts that I found and enjoyed reading .

In a meanwhile I started another similar blog dedicated to French cuisine recipes. Mostly these are very classic recipes with a delightful touch of France. Sometimes french cooking considered as very sophisticated. That is why for home I tried to select only simple recipes that I can prepare rather quickly to entertain family evenings. Please welcome and I will enjoy your comments there.

Dear readers, if you have your own blog about cooking or Italian cuisine recipes please link me or mention this post in your blog and I will try to include yours into the next review.

Have a nice weekend!

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Beef Stew

by Larissa on April 30, 2009

in Secondi: Main courses

beef stew

Original Italian name: Spezzatino
Place of origin: Northern Italy

Beef stew is one more Italian meat stew variation after a stew with the lamb. The beef stew with tomatoes, red wine and peas originally came from Northern Italy where braised and boiled meat dishes are very popular. Spezzatino is a typical north Italian dish consisting of beef slowly braised in a red wine with vegetables and herbs.

This dish is perfectly served to lunches or dinners. It goes well with boiled or mashed potatoes as a side dish.

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stuffed peaches with Amaretto

Original Italian name: Pesche ripiene
Place of origin: Southern Italy

Peaches is a summer fruit grown in Central and Southern Italy. Peaches and nectarines are served as a dessert and perfectly fit fruit drinks and fruit cakes.

Almond flavour is the best addition to peaches and can be used for Pershe ripiene dessert. Pershe ripiene is the a well known Italian dessert where half of each peach is stuffed with crumbled almond-flavoured Amaretti biscuits and baked in white wine.

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marinara rich cream sauce

Original Italian name: Crema di salsa marinara
Place of origin: Northern Italy

To my mind Marinara rich cream sauce is the best seafood sauce for pasta. I love to serve it for everyday dinner. I am often making this sauce especially when I have got friends coming around. When I want preparing something special like seafood, I make Seafood salad or Marinara with pasta and cream sauce.

Marinara sauce may have various combinations mixing your favourite seafood. I usually take prawns, scallops, small squid, baby octopus, mussels, clams and sometimes I pick different kinds of fish.

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