By: Loretta Sebastiani
Appetizers
We Italians are famous all over the world for our assorted antipasto platter rich in all things we think the best to begin a full menu. In these pages you can learn how to prepare the most famous appetizers and starters.
Italian crostini - Italian antipasto ideas, bruschettas included - Italian canapés - Finger food
Cocktail recipes
This is the section dedicated to long drinks and cocktails if you're planning happy hour (Italian aperitivo) or, simplier, if you're looking for new cocktail ideas to begin your get-together or special occasion menus.
IBA cocktails - Before-dinner cocktails - After-dinner cocktails - some new cocktails of ours
Italian Pasta
Pasta recipes, a must for Italian cuisine. The most famous Italian recipe in the world together with pizza, do you agree? In these pages you'll be able to learn how to prepare a very special pasta sauce, how to cook pasta correctly and how to serve it. Pasta in Italy is never a side dish to accompany meat.
Baked pasta - Dry pasta - Fresh pasta - Pasta salads
Gnocchi
Gnocchi is another authentic Italian recipe. Once gnocchi were eaten in Italy on Thursdays. Today every day is good! Main ingredients of gnocchi dough are all-purpose flour and potatoes. In the following pages you'll be able to read how to prepare handmade gnocchi with eggs and without eggs in the dough or the use of alternative flours, how to make a lot of tasty sauces to dress them, how to serve gnocchi and combine with other Italian dishes.
Rice
Italy is a great producer of rice. Celebrity chefs and families have developed interesting recipes. The most famous dish made with rice in the world is risotto. In the following pages you'll find step-by-step instructions for doing great risotto recipes with meat, fish, vegetables and cheese. A lot of recipes include Italian menus too.
Boiled rice - Rice salads - Rice timbales - Risotto
Soups
Do you know minestrone, ribollita, wedding soup or "minestra maritata"? these are only few examples of what you can find in these pages. Every Italian region has developed flavorful soup. Recipes can be different but there is a common point: the use of seasonal vegetables!
Pizza
Pizza and focaccia are famous all over the world. Pizza and focaccia were born in Italy hundreds of years ago. Nowadays pizza is made everywhere but how you can eat pizza in Naples you can eat nowhere in the world :)) It is surely the water Neapolitans use and other little secrets! What can you read in the following pages? how to make pizza dough with different yeasts and flours and how to make various toppings following traditional recipes and new ideas of ours. Besides there are the most famous focaccia recipes from Italy.
Focaccia
Focaccia is a perfect street food or a tasty snack for your breaks or a single-course meal. Besides you can cut it to accompany salami, cheese and vegetables. It is perfect in a meal, buffet-style. In this directory traditional recipes and new ideas.
Savory tarts
Savory tarts, pies and cakes are other typical Italian recipes. They were born a lot of centuries ago to carry any food. Nowadays we Italians use them, cubed or sliced, as appetizers or as one-plate meal. They can be made with meat, fish, vegetables and cheese. Perfect for evry occasion!
Polenta
The ancient Romans already ate polenta. They called it polta and made it with emmer flour. Corn flour was used only after the discovery of America in 1492. Nowadays there are a lot of polenta recipes. In Italy polenta accompanies stew meat or fish (especially salt cod), cheese (it's famous polenta and gorgonzola) or, simplier, it is plunged in cold milk, delicious!!
One-plate meal
One-plate meal or single-course meal is a tasty and modern way to put in the same dish the right amount of carbo, protein and fat. We have a lot of famous examples such as Caprese that is mozzarella, tomatoes and green salad. All dressed with olive oil, salt and basil. And it isn't the only example ... ;)).
Fish, shellfish and molluscs
Italy overlooks Mediterranean Sea and its inhabitants have always cooked fish in various ways. We Italians are famous for our chowders or seafood pasta or baked fish recipes. We are real wizards to prepare blue fish. In addition one of the most cooked dishes is salt cod or stockfish from north to south.
Freshwater fish - Sea fish - Shellfish - Molluscs
Eggs
Every people cook eggs. In Italy we make a typical dish whose name is frittata. We are able to add every sort of ingredients to our eggs to make a good frittata: from truffle to vegetable, from sausage to shrimps ... ;))
Meat
Meat is another must for Italian cuisine. Who doesn't know chicken galantine, veal tuna, saltimbocca, veal marsala, Milanese chops ..? but in the following pages you'll be able to read a lot of other interesting recipes with game, veal, beef, rabbit, lamb, duck. So you'll be able to find orange duck was born in Italy and not in France.
Side dish
Vegetables cooked in different ways accompany fish, meat and egg recipes. They are important for your family menus, get-togethers with friends or relatives and special occasion menus too. In some cases we Italians serve vegetable dishes in our antipasto. Excellent examples may be caponata, pinzimonio, peperonata and so on.
Cakes
Who doesn't know Neapolitan baba, Sicilian cannoli, Milanese panettone, Verona pandoro, Tuscan panforte, Piedmontese lady fingers, frappe ... ? Italian cakes are well known all over the world!
Sauces
In this section you can find pasta sauces to toss your favorite short or long pasta. There are recipes based on meat, fish and vegetables according to the season.
Dedicated to ...
Looking for seasonal recipes or cooking ideas for a typical ingredient? this is the section for you!
Thematic menu ...
A lot of people in the world look for a typical Italian menu every day, especially at Holiday Season, Easter, Carnival, Woman's Day, Valentine day. But there are a lot of people interested in for birthday too. Are you one of them?
Recipes with remains
Economic crisis or not it is always a shame to throw all uneaten food. We Italians are creative with leftovers too. Think of frittata with pasta or Piedmontese capunet made with meat left we generally make after Christmas.
Speedy recipes
No time to cook? do not worry. There are a lot of recipes you can prepare in few minutes and while they're cooking you are free to make other important things!
Basic preparations
How to make egg lasagna, tagliatelle, fettuccini. Step-by-step directions
Italian ingredients
All that you have to know about buying, cleaning, cooking and preserving Italian ingredients. Pasta, artichokes, truffles, mushrooms ...
Home canning
Do you know how to make fruit jam, typical Italian arancino, flavored vinegar? here the answers.