Italian Recipes

This is really a fantastic Christmas Eve appetizer but is delicious all year round. This seafood salad normally contains octopus as well as shrimps, scallops, and calamari, but in case you prefer, it is possible to certainly leave the octopus out. The octopus takes a much lengthier cooking time, so should you decide on to include it, you’ll need to add an extra hour or so to your preparation time.

Serves 6

3 Cups White Wine

5 Bay Leaves

2 Cloves Garlic, Crushed

2 Lemons

1 Pound Calamari, Cleaned And Cut Into Rings

1 Pound Medium Shrimp, Cleaned And Deveined

1 Pound Scallops 3 Cups Cooked Octopus Cut Into 2 Inch Pieces

1 Cup Black Olives (Optional)

Dressing:

1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 Cup Lemon Juice

3 Large Garlic Cloves, Thinly Sliced Br/>

1/4 Cup Chopped Parsley

Dash Red Pepper Flakes

Salt & Pepper To Taste

In a stockpot, combine 3 quarts of water, the wine, bay leaves, and crushed garlic. Slice the lemons in half and squeeze the juice into the mixture. Drop the lemons into the pot. Bring the mixture first to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low.

First cook the shrimp, cook 2 minutes and remove from the pot. Cook the calamari 1 1/2 minutes and remove from the pot as well. If you are cooking scallops, cook in the same manner for 2 minutes. Mix the seafood together and set aside. If you are cooking octopus, add it to the pot, and cook it for about 45 minutes to an hour or until it is tender. Remove it from the pot and let it cool. Remove the skin and suckers, and cut it into bite sized pieces. Mix the octopus with the other ingredients.

Place the seafood in a bowl and add the chopped celery. Add the dressing ingredients and mix well. Cover and let marinade a minimum of 12 hours. Just before serving, adjust the seasonings, and add the black olives if you are using them. Serve.

This is really a bona fide simple Italian recipe and a quickie to make. The sausage could be cooked and cut a couple of hours before as well as the sauce may be prepared while the water for the pasta is boiling. This recipe
may also be created using a tomato sauce rather than the cream sauce.

Ingredients:

1 lb sweet Italian sausage (with fennel)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Salt
Freshly grounded black pepper
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano cheese
1 lb Rigatoni
2 tbsp minced parsley leaves

Preparation:

1 – Place the sausage in a saucepan with 1 1/2 cups water. Cover, bring to a boil and turn heat down to low. Simmer, covered for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let sausage cool to room temperature. Remove casings from sausage and chop finely.

2 – In a medium skillet, melt 1/2 cup butter over medium heat. Add heavy cream, turn heat to low and cook until mixture is well blended and slightly thickened, stirring once or twice with a wooden spoon. Stir in sausage, nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper and cook for 1 minute. Stir in Parmigiano cheese and remove from heat.

3 – Cook pasta in 6 quarts boiling water with 1 tbsp salt until al dente. Drain in a colander, transfer to a bowl containing 1 tbsp softened butter and toss quickly. Mix 3/4 of the sauce with the pasta and spoon remaining sauce on top. Garnish with minced parsley and serve with additional freshly grated Parmigiano cheese.

Mangiare!

Serves 4 to 6

An Italian traditional recipe for your next get together with friends and family or for that up coming big special occasion! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 quart whipping cream
20-30 Manicotti
2 lbs large raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 lb fresh Crab Meat, drained
1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

1 – Combine whipping cream, salt, pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper in a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat for 30 minutes or until thickened and reduced to 2 cups; set aside. Cook the manicotti according to the package directions; drain and set aside.

2 – Heat butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add onion, 3 tbsp butter, chopped green bell pepper, garlic, and chopped celery. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until tender. Add the shrimp and crab meat, and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes or until shrimp turns pink. Cool for 10 minutes, and drain well.

3 – Combine the seafood mixture and the whipping cream mixture. Fill the manicotti shells, and place in 2 lightly greased 11×7 inch baking dishes. Sprinkle with cheeses, and cover with foil. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes.

4 – Uncover and bake for 10 additional minutes. Serve immediately.

Serves 6 to 8

My family loves this soup. It’s easy, it cleans out the cabinets as well as the fridge, and it truly loads an awful lot of fiber and vegetable-goodness into each and every bowl. A traditional Italian vegetable soup loaded with flavor. Give this Italian recipe a try!

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves
3 large onions
2 celery sticks
2 large carrots
2 large potatoes
3 1/2 ounces green beans
3 1/2 ounces zucchini
4 tbsp butter
1/2 cup olive oil
2 ounces bacon, finely diced
7 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 bunch fresh basil, finely chopped
3 1/2 ounces chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese rind
3 ounces dried spaghetti, broken up
salt and pepper
frshly grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

Preparation:

1 – Finely chop the garlic, onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, beans and zucchini making use of a sharp knife.

2 – Heat the butter and oil together in a huge saucepan, add the bacon and cook for a couple of mins. Add the garlic and onion and fry for a couple of mins, then stir inside celery, carrots, and potatoes and fry for 2 mins longer, stirring the vegetables occassionally.

3 – Add the beans towards the saucepan and fry for 2 mins. Stir inside zucchini and cook for two mins longer. Cover and cook all of the vegetables, stirring frequently, for about 15 mins.

4 – Add the stock, basil, tomatoes, tomato paste, and cheese rind and season to taste. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for one hour. Remove and discard the cheese rind.

5 – Add the spaghetti pieces towards the pan and cook for 20 minutes. Serve sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Servings: 8 to 10

Italian Cream Cake is far more of a Southern dish than Italian. But that does not stop this cake from being extremely delicious. Should you like your cake wealthy and full of goodies, you should give this one particular a try. While the true history of this recipe is lost, we can still take pleasure in this tasty cake.

This cake is also recognized as Italian Wedding Cake. You’ll find also clues that may well link this cake using the Delmonico or Hummingbird cakes. It is ideal for any special occasion. The cake is at its greatest when it remains moist, so don’t over bake. Once you have it mastered, this cake will probably be both rich and delicate. You tend not to even need to frost it properly. Traditionally, it is supposed to look rustic, so smearing the cake with frosting in all its rough-hewn glory should be far more than adequate.

Recipe for Italian Cream Cake

Why save this recipe for a distinctive occasion when you can make it whenever you would like?

What You Will need

* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup shortening
* 2 cups sugar
* five huge eggs, separated
* one Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* one cup buttermilk
* one cup coconut

Pecan Cream Cheese Frosting

* one cup chopped pecans
* one package product cheese (8 oz), softened
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
* 16 ounces powdered sugar, sifted

How to Make It

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil and flour three nine inch cake pans and set aside for later. Mix the butter and shortening inside a significant bowl. Using a medium velocity on your mixer, lotion it right up until it can be light and fluffy. Add the sugar inside a slow, steady stream to your mixture, beating effectively. Add the yolks a single at a time, blending each a single fully prior to adding the next. Stir inside the vanilla.

Combine the flour and baking soda in a very bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating using the buttermilk. Begin using the dry blend and end using the dry mix. Use a low speed to blend collectively. Stir in the coconut. Wash your beaters until they’re clear. In another huge clear bowl, beat the egg whites until eventually you form stiff peaks. Fold gently in to the batter.

Pour batter in to the cake pans and bake within the oven for 25 minutes or till a knife inserted within the center comes out clear. Let pans cool on wire racks for ten minutes. Remove cakes from pans and let them finish cooling on wax paper lined racks.

Frosting:

Roast the pecans in a very little pan at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 to 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let them cool. This adds a lot of flavor. Beat vanilla, butter, and product cheese together at medium velocity right up until it really is creamy. Add 2 cups of sugar just a little bit at a time on low till entirely blended. Turn up the mixer to high to smooth out the frosting. Stir from the pecans.

Lay the first cake layer on a platter and apply a layer of frosting. Top with the second cake layer and repeat. Leading together with the third cake layer. Apply the remaining frosting to your leading and sides of the cake. Decorate with additional pecans if you wish.

I have seen frozen Fried Mushrooms inside the store. Why you would purchase them I really don’t know. They just take a couple of minutes to put together from fresh mushrooms. It doesn’t make a lot sense unless you might be truly pressed for time. Should you do not like Italian seasoning just substitute traditional breadcrumbs. This is such a excellent side dish it goes very good with practically anything. I used white button mushrooms in this recipe but I am certain portabellas would be just as great if not much better.

Ingredients:

10 ounces whole fresh mushrooms
1 cup flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 cups breadcrumbs (preferably panko)
Read more…

The Torta di Patate is really a very tasty pie that is made up of mash potato. It can eaten either cold or hot, whatever you choose. It can also be eaten as a primary course or maybe your tea time snack. Some even take it as their main meal. In every Italian picnic basket, this can be surely found. This recipe would serve 4.

Ingredients:

Plain flour, 250 grams

1 large egg

Water

A pinch of salt

A tbsp of butter

Ovenproof dish

Mixing bowl

Rolling pin

Directions:

You must pour the flour into the mixing bowl. Add salt, egg, water and turn it into a dough mixture. Wrap it in a cling film and place it inside a refrigerator to cool for about 30 minutes. Then it is time for you to prepare the filling. Do procedures as you would in making the usual mash potato and make it as filling for your dough. You must also prepare the crust and cook it through the oven. It is really served best with some salad.

Photos via italiantraditionalfood.com

Read more…

Gnocchi is served hot in a rich and thick pasta sauce with some hints of Parmesan Cheese. This is what you really can consider as comfort food. However, the type of Gnocchi you serve depends on which part of Italy you are from. From this aspect, your ingredients to be used would vary. But what we have here is the traditional Potato Gnocchi or might as well be called as potato dumplings. This ingredient is good for two.

Ingredients:

1 pound of potatoes, peeled

.5 oz butter

Flour, 4 tbsp

Pepper and salt to taste

1 beaten egg

Butter for serving

Directions:

You must first boil the potatoes and drain them after. Crush them with a masher and allow it to totally cool and dry. Mix in the butter, flour, seasoning and the egg while preventing it from being sticky. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes and form it into a ball before you divide it into tiny pieces. Turn each into a sausage size type and create some ridges. Cook them in salted water and bring them to a boil. Drain them, add some butter and sprinkle some lashings of cheese.

Photos via italiantraditionalfood.com

Read more…

Ingredients:

• Salt
• Parmesan cheese, 3 oz.
• Unsalted butter, 3 tbsp.
• Polenta, 1 cup
• Water, 3 ½ cups

Direction:

Use some large microwave dish to place the polenta in combined with water without bringing to so much of a boil. Mix the water and polenta and cook for about 5 minutes without cover. After the given time, stir it then put in microwave for another 5 minutes without cover still.

After that time, take out the dish from the microwave and mix in some 3 tbsp of butter and the parmesan cheese. You can also choose the asiago cheese. Flavor it all up in any means you like. You can spread this polenta in a pan and chill it inside the refrigerator.

Photo via sideofsneakers.com

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup of Red Wine
• 1 can of Italian diced tomatoes, with sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/3 tbsp of dried oregano
• ½ tbsp of dried thyme
• 3 pcs of bell peppers of different colors
• 1 onion, cut in huge pieces
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 packages of Italian sausage, spicy or sweet
• 2 tbsp of olive oil

Directions:

Smash the garlic with a large knife and peel off its skin. Cut them in huge pieces and chop for about an inch each.

Heat up the olive oil in a huge skillet over medium heat and brown up the sausages as you turn them to all their sides for 5 minutes.

Place all the chopped vegetables in the bottom part of the crockpot and pour some wine. Add up the spices and crushed garlic. Pour the canned tomatoes.

Place the cooked sausages on top of the vegetables and cover up. Cook under low heat for about 6 hours.

Photo via southernfood.about.com