SAH mom, dear husband, dear daughter, dear twin sons, floppy eared fur-baby. Love to teach, garden, cook, sew and craft, occasional computer geek for children!!
A heady mixture of olive oil and candied oranges flavors this moist, dense Sicilian dessert. The recipe is based on one in The Perfect Finish: Special Desserts for Every Occasion by Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark (W. W. Norton, 2010).
Featured in our book Best Cookies, these traditional crumbly cookies from the Basilicata region of Italy are flavored with Strega, an Italian herbal liqueur, but Galliano, which can be found in most liquor stores, is a fine substitute.
These chewy almond meringue cookies, speckled with pine nuts, are a favorite holiday cookie of SAVEUR managing editor Greg Ferro. This recipe is based off one by cookbook author Chef Nick Malgieri.
This flaky, comforting puff pastry hand pie is evil but genius—it tastes like the Italian version of a ham and cheese croissant, but without the labor of from-scratch pastry. Mortadella, a pork-based deli meat with pistachios and delicate morsels of pork fat, is available at many grocery stores, and Italian markets.
Toasty, day-old country bread gets a second act in this sweet and garlicky Italian salad. Panzanella embodied the “waste not, need not” lifestyle of Tuscan villagers and originally featured onions before the 20th century. Nowadays, sweet, ripe summer tomatoes take center stage. The simple ingredients of this dish benefit from finding peak-season produce. Serve alongside grilled chicken and pesto for an easy weeknight dinner.
Raisins add a subtle sweetness to this salad from the wine bar Enoteca l’Alchimista in Montefalco, Italy. Reconstituting the raisins in warm water before using them plumps the fruit and tenderizes it for a beautiful contrast to the crunchy, fresh ingredients in the salad. This recipe first appeared in our November 2014 issue with the story Taste of Umbria.
Is there a better way to start a meal than with an abundant antipasti platter, artfully arranged with ruffles of prosciutto 1, briny olives 2, roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes and mushrooms and pepperoncini, chunks of Parmesan 3, fresh mozzarella 4, and whatever else catches the preparer’s fancy? Antipasto, which means “before the meal,” stretches back to medieval times in Italy, when diners used to mingle over finger foods, both sweet and savory, before sitting down to eat; early recipes included everything from sugared nuts to clotted cream to spiced ham. Over the centuries, antipasti became the domain of restaurants, which would set out dozens of stuffed, marinated, roasted, and grilled vegetables, meat, and fish.
These Roman-style biscotti are a favorite of Chef Nick Malgieri's for their distinctive anise flavor and atypical baking method: the loose batter is poured onto a baking sheet and baked like a cake. The result is light biscotti with large chunks of almonds and hazelnuts.
While their original flavor was almond, that thing changed over time, as mentioned above; as a matter of fact, our authentic Italian biscotti recipe will combine both the old and the new, with chocolate putting a subtle, modern spin on a classic recipe. Oh, and did we already mention how perfect these biscuits go with a bit of wine? Our apologies to the “Tea and cookies” or “Oreo and milk” club, but we’ll have this instead.
Kept in the fridge the homemade topping for your bruschetta should keep for up to a week but not really any longer. Freezing is a good longer-term option.
Your bruschetta should last at least six months if not longer in the freezer. Just make sure it’s stored in an airtight container.
HOW DO YOU KEEP IT FROM GETTING SOGGY??? - Bruschetta should be nice and crisp to bite into – soggy just isn’t as delicious! To keep your bread from getting soft, make sure you grill it well before you add any toppings especially juicy ones like tomato. That way your bread will hold up under the weight of the topping, and not soak up too much of its liquid. You can also make the toppings ahead of time but wait to assemble your bruschetta until your guests have arrived, or serve the grilled pieces of bread with the topping in a bowl on the side so your guests can assemble each piece themselves.