Italian Recipes

I suggest this for a children’s party. The kids would enjoy helping make these. Savory bacon, Cheddar, mayo and mustard dress up plain-old pumpernickel for impressive party bread. So quick and simple. It would even be perfect for holiday open houses, cocktail parties or even movie-night snacks. This is one Italian recipe that has ingredients that you can find in any grocery.
Ingredients
1 pound sliced bacon
2-1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 cup mayonnaise
1 pound sliced pumpernickel party bread

Cooking Instructions
Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.
Preheat oven to broil.
In a medium bowl combine the bacon, cheese, mustard and mayonnaise. Stir well. Arrange party bread on a cookie sheet. Spoon mixture onto each slice of bread.
Broil for 5 minutes, or until bubbly.

Italian meals traditionally consists of 3 to 4 meals. Meals are focused on spending time with family rather that just satisfying ones hunger. Today, Italian meals are only about one or two courses and the traditional 3 to 4 courses are reserved for special occasions. More popular ones nowadays are their one course meals such as pasta and legumes. A few interesting facts that you may want to familiarize yourself with when fine dining in an Italian restaurant are Italian terms for each course.
Aperitivo:
apéritif usually enjoyed as an appetizer before a large meal, may be Campari, Cinzano, Prosecco, Aperol, Spritz or Vermouth.
Antipasto: literally “before (the) meal”, hot or cold appetizers
Primo: “first course”, usually consists of a hot dish like pasta, risotto, gnocchi, polenta or soup.
Secondo: “second course”, the main dish, usually fish or meat. Traditionally veal, pork and chicken are most commonly used, at least in the North, though beef has become more popular since World War II and wild game is found, particularly in Tuscany. Fish are generally caught locally.
Contorno: “side dish”, may be a salad or cooked vegetables. A traditional menu features salad along with the main course.
Formaggio e frutta: “cheese and fruits”, the first dessert. Local cheeses may be part of the Antipasto or Contorno as well.
Dolce: “sweet”, such as cakes and cookies
Caffè: coffee
Digestivo: “digestives”, liquors/liqueurs (grappa, amaro, limoncello,sambuca, nocino, sometimes referred to as ammazzacaffè (“coffee killer”)

Simple and easy way to end that Italian dinner? I’ve got a solution for you. Nothing can get simpler than this. When you’re throwing a party, do you want to be stuck at the kitchen preparing everything for your guests? You would want to be out there mingling with everyone. And of course, they love it when they know you prepared them yourself. Isn’t it just flattering when people start asking you to share your secret with them? Here’s a very simple way to impress your guests the Italian way.
Tiramisu Martini
Ingredients:
1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger vanilla flavored vodka
1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger creme de cacao
1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger coffee flavored liqueur
Directions
1.Pour the vodka, creme de cacao, and coffee liqueur into a cocktail shaker over ice. Cover, and shake until the outside of the shaker has frosted. Strain into a chilled martini glass to serve.

Being an Italian food aficionado, I have always appreciated anything Italian. Even my sons share this fascination with Italian food. So, I am really pleased to read about January 17th being celebrated as the International Day of Italian Cuisine. This is hosted by the chefs of the Virtual Group of Italian Cooks or GVCI.

To showcase the importance of maintaining standards of traditional and authentic Italian dishes, Italian chefs around the world will prepare a traditional dish of Tagliatelle al Ragù alla Bolognese. This dish is a popular contribution of the City of Bologna in Emilia Romagna.

Cesare Casella, Dean of the Italian Culinary Academy, will host the two day event in New York City participated by Chicco Cerea, Mario Batali and many other Italian chefs from around the world. Anyone can join the celebration and be part of the festivity.

Food lovers who believe in the authentic way of preparing Italian recipe can register and participate in the celebration or can try preparing Ragù alla Bolognese at home. There are many variants of traditional recipes of this dish but one can look up Tagliatelle al Ragu alla Bolognese recipe of Chef Mario Caramella, GVCI president.