My Italian Cuisine

Gnocchi are one of favourite italian dishes. When I was a child, my mother used to handmake gnocchi every Sunday morning. The good smell of the tomato sauce used to wake me up every Sunday morning and I knew what we were going to eat for lunch... Today when I can I make my gnocchi at home, when I can't I buy some fresh gnocchi at the italian crocery shop...  I prepare gnocchi with a very simple bolognese sauce, the original "Bolognese sauce" is very fat (using pancetta, butter and milk or cream) and has a very long cooking time. Try this recipe, you will not be disappointed  ; ) Makes 4 servings Ingredients: 500 gr fresh Italian Potato Gnocchi 400gr of beef mince 3/4 liter of tomato puree "Passata" Half glass of dry white wine (red will also do  but I prefer the white one) 5 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil 1 small onion 1 carrot 1 celery stalk 2 cloves Salt and pepper to taste 5 liters of salty boiling water Preparing the bolognese sauce:

I am a big fan of Italian expresso coffee of course, there is no way to start my day without a good expresso, but in the evening I like to have my cup of tea. My favourite is the Dong Ding Oolong tea (from the Dong Ding region in central Taiwan) which due to its low theine content is a good tea for an afternoon or evening break. Only recently I discovered this marveillous green powder called Macha tea. Macha is uniquely Japanese, it is the highest quality tea available in Japan. Macha is traditionally used for the Japanese tea ceremony. Benefits of green tea are well known, with Macha tea the actual entire tea leaf is consumed wich gives even higher concentrations of antioxindants, catechins and vitamins. Consider reading this for more info about Macha tea. Macha is also widely used for cooking: cookies, micho and a large variety of food preparations. I love Macha tea special taste... so today I will start a new recipes category: "Cooking with Macha". Here is

Making pizza at home is nice and much more healthy (less salt, less fat and you know what you eat!) and more: you can make your own pizza on your taste ;) It's funny to do it with children: they love preparing and decorating their own small pizzas in a funny way. Last week I had a pizza party at home. I prepared a variety of my handmade pizzas...with olives and salami, Speck ham and mushrooms, asparagus and cherry tomatoes and a classic Margherita with oregano. Here you have some pictures and you can use them as suggestion for your own Home made pizza parties. For the pizza dough please see our basic pizza recipe here . Makes 4 round Pizzas: Ingredients: 1 portion of Pizza dough, see recipe here devided in 4 parts For the " pizza with green olives, mushrooms and salami ": 1 medium mozzarella 2 Tbs of tomato puree 1 cup of green olives 1 cup of finely sliced fresh mushrooms Few slices of salami Milano 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil Pepper to taste

Days are getting longer and warmer here in the north...soon the berbecue season will start... I am already preparing... mentally! This nice and simple appetizer is perfect to start a nice garden party and barbecue. Speck is a distinctively juniper-flavored ham originally from Tyrol, an historical region that since 1918 partially lies in Italy (Alto Adige). Speck's origins at the intersection of two culinary worlds is reflected in its synthesis of salt-curing and smoking. You can find the "Speck" in Italian grocery shops as well as the "bocconcini mozzarellas", very small mozzarellas, the same size of a cherry tomato. Have fun preparing and eating these delicious bites! Makes 20 bites 10 slices of Italian speck 20 Bocconcini mozzarellas few branches of fresh Thyme Unrefined Grey Sea salt to taste  Freshly grounded pepper 2-3 stbs of very good quality extra virgin olive oil 20 toothsticks Preparation: Drain the mozzarellas in a colander.