My Italian Cuisine

Fruit tart is a very popoular cake in Italy. Always a big success on summer tables, it's colourful and gorgeous, who can say no to such a dessert? Fruit tart is also very easy to prepare. You need a little extra time if you want to prepare the crust yourself (I strongly suggest you to do so! Find my recipe here ) and the pastry cream (recipe here ), The rest is just cutting fruits and decoration ...  There are different ways to make a fruit tart, this is  the recipe for the Italian "Crostata di frutta". The real Italian fruit tart, "torta di frutta", (the one you can find in the Italian bakeries) is made with a base of crust, a layer of sponge cake, pastry cream, fruits and it's decorated with whipped cream on the sides, this makes the cake softer and more elaborated, I will explain that recipe in a future post. Serves 8/10 persons Ingredients : 1 dose of sweet tart crust dough (pasta frolla) see recipe here 1 dose of pastry cream...

Preparing fresh egg pasta at home is much easier than you think. It can be done in half hour time without machines or any other tool. This is way my grandmother used to do it every Sunday in Italy at the family farm, few simple ingredients: fresh eggs, flour, water and salt; few simple steps: mix the ingredients and make the dough, shape the "sfoglia" with a rolling pin, shape your favourite pasta: spaghetti, tagliatelle, lasagne etc... A simple recipe made with few quality ingredients... what makes a good fresh egg pasta? 1. The flour: in order to get a good fresh pasta the quality of your flour mix is crucial. If you want to get a good texture you need to mix semolina (Farina rimacinata di grano duro) and AP flour, both organic when possible; the % may change depending on the kind of pasta you want to produce.  For tagliatelle, spaghetti or lasagna you can mix 50% of AP flour and 50% of Semolina. The semolina will give consinstance to the dough and your pasta wi...

  Here is another of my favourite spaghetti recipe. I love lobster I could eat it every day.... Of course it is not the cheapest food and for some people the "boiling it alive" part is unacceptable. The most  effortable lobsters are the small frozen precooked Canadian lobster, their price goes from 5 to 6 euros  and you can prepare a good spaghetti for 2-3 persons with one lobster. If you use a frozen precooked lobster make sure you thaw it first, keep it in the fridge overnight or even more if needed. Serves 2-4 persons Ingredients: 1 frozen precooked small lobster (300-400gr) 280gr Italian spaghetti 1/2 lt of Italian tomato "passata" (purée) 1 shallot, minced 3 tbs of extra virgin olive oil Fresh parsley, minced 4lt boiling salted water Salt and pepper to taste Instructions : The day before, defrost the lobster, keep it in the fridge overnight or all day long if needed. Cut the lobster in pieces: place the lobster belly side up with the tail ...

The content and pictures of this post are copyright registered & protected ©myitaliancuisine This is one of the most famous Italian pasta dishes.  If you have been visiting Italy you have probably already tasted this fantastic, fresh and tasty pasta... I really dont know how to describe it  otherwise! Italian clams are called "Vongole", you can find them in good fish markets almost everywhere in Europe (probably also outside Europe) imported directly from Italy, usually in 1kg packages. With 1kg of clams you can prepare "pasta alle vongole" for 4 persons.   Here I give you the very traditional recipe, without tomato sauce. There are many variations of Spaghetti alle vongole ( in Italy recipes are aften adapted according to the uses and tastes of the different regions). This recipe is the most common one, the spaghetti you will get if you order it in a good restaurant in Rome for example... by the way if you visit Rome try "Spaghetti alle vongole...

The content and pictures of this post are copyright registered & protected ©myitaliancuisine Another Easter recipe! In Italy we use to eat these brioches on Easter morning for the traditional Easter breakfast: "la colazione di Pasqua". They are easy to prepare you can even make them with your kids, they will have fun shaping the bunnies and coloring the eggs. In my case I have just used a natural colorant, the onion peels, to get the red/brown, but you can use a variety of other natural coloring methods and suggestions, visit this web page for more info on natural egg coloring. The dough is the classic French brioche dough that you can find in my older French braided brioche post here . The shaping is very simple, just place a boiled egg in the middle of a rolled piece of dough and shape the bunny, like a simple braid... Makes 6 small brioches Ingredients: For the brioche dough see ingredients and method here You need 1 dose of dough or more if you want to p...

The content and pictures of this post are copyright registered & protected ©myitaliancuisine Wooow this was quite a surprise! I wanted to make a cake ... but not too big... why not mini cakes? Single portion cakes are easy to store in the freeze, eventually, no need to cut portions...and they are so cute! They are beatiful and delicious, perfectly cooked, soft inside and crispy outside, good balance between apples and pastry.... a perfect little morning or afternoon treat! No butter and milk in this recipe, but olive oil (or any other vegetable oil) and soy heavy cream...I am sure everybody will like this recipe! Please try it and let me know ; )  Makes 6-8 small cakes Ingredients : 150gr AP flour (organic for me) but may be more or less depending on the flour you use... 50gr potato starch (or corn starch) 2 eggs (organic for me) 3/4 sachet baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup vegetable oil (organic extra virgin olive oil for me) 1/2 cup soy ...

The content and pictures of this post are copyright registered & protected ©myitaliancuisine This is another of my favourite cocktails, a classic but very simple drink that you can serve in many occasions, parties, luncheon cocktails, brunch etc... it's light compared to many other cocktails. You need, gin, dry Martini, red Italian vermouth and fresh orange juice (from red "sanguine" in my case). You need a shaker and a martini cocktail glass, ice cubes and in few minutes the Bronx cocktail will be ready! Ingredients: 6 parts of gin (3cl-1oz) 3 parts orange juice (1,5 cl- 1/2oz) 3 parts of red Italian vermouth (1,5 cl-1/2oz) 2 parts of dry Martini (1cl- 1/3oz) In a shaker, shake all ingredients together with ice cubes till cold, serve immediately in a martini cocktail glass.  If you like, you can garnish with an orange twist. Enjoy you Bronx cocktail!