Carnival

Tricoloured vegetable ravioli

Homemade ravioli, stuffed with vegetables and seasoned with a light sauce. Delicious and easy to digest. Perfect for this time when our liver is overworked by too much fried food. The dough is colored with natural ingredients. No artificial colors in my kitchen.

Multilayered creamy dish

One-plate meal that both young and old people will surely like. It combines vegetables, mozzarella and ham. Particularly suitable for Carnival.

Carnival knots, Ligurian style

Typical recipe from Liguria (Italy) for Carnival. In Italy we call these fried pastries with other names too. Chiacchiere or frappe for example.

Castagnole

Castagnole are one of the typical deep fried sweets of Carnival in Italy. I show you my recipe. You can also bake them for healthy eating.

Baked castagnole

If you have children it would be better to avoid too many fried food. This is the reason why I has another recipe for castagnole with a different cooking method: baking.

Carnival cake

Homemade cake for a special occasion such as Carnival. If I were to redo this cake I'd avoid smarties and always use the almond paste, colored with natural dyes, to make all decorations.

Carnival edible centerpiece

This is a centerpiece all made ​​with marzipan. Place it on your Carnival table and let everyone eat it.

Baked Carnival sweets

Many people ask me simple no-fried Carnival sweets. Surely they are much healthier than traditional ones. Once in a while we can enjoy good fried food but it must be an event that can't be repeated too often. I recommend baked sweet for children in particular.

Apple fritters

This is the recipe of my mom. For us when guys, the rite of apple fritters was repeated every year, but only once at Carnival time. All the other Carnival sweets were always baked. My mother wasn't an expert nutritionist but she understood intuitively that fried food is not good ;)

Baked apple fritters

Here's my version of apple fritters ... but cooked in the oven. I want to confess you that I like them and I'm sure thy are as tasty as traditional apple fritters.

Rice fritters

This is the classical Italian version of rice fritters. It is long and difficult to do if compared with the Umbrian version whose recipe you can find in this page.

Rice fritters from umbria

The recipe is definitely easier than the previous one. This is the way I learned to make rice fritters during my long stay in Umbria, a wonderful Italian region.

Potato doughnuts with citron zest

These special donuts were the winner of all the recipes that had arrived years ago when we still made contests among our readers. They are really good ;))

Carnival knots with Grappa

In Italy we have typical Carnival sweets we call "chiacchiere". Generally we fry a very thin dough in lard or olive oil. There are different versions according to our regions. The dough is flavored with grappa in this recipe.

Carnival knots with “Vin Santo”

This is another version of Italian Carnival deep fried sweets. Their dough is flavored with "vin santo". From Tuscany.

Carnival knots, Trentino style

This is a version of Carnival sweets you can fry or bake according to your own lifestyle. From Trentino in Italy. Their typical name is crostoli.

Carnival fritters from Venice

Even fritole have grappa in their dough plus raisins and pine nuts. They're very good obviously. Ideal for adults. Venetian recipe.

Sweet ravioli

I usually bake sweet ravioli. They're definitely the healthiest Carnival sweets. And kids like them very much ;))

Chiacchiere - Carnival sweet fritters

Chiacchiere, frappe, cenci, bugie, crostoli ... these are only some names of Italian Carnival fried sweets according to the region. Their names are different but the dough is similar with very small differences :))

Cicerchiata - Honey ring cake, made with small fritters, Umbria-style

Cicerchiata is a typical cake of central Italy. I propose the Umbrian version, where I lived for many years. But a similar cake is also made with few variations in the Marches, Molise and Abruzzo.

Zippulas - Sweet fritters with potatoes

The typical liqueur filu e' ferro and saffron are the characteristic ingredients of these Sardinian donuts. They are made with a potato dough that gets them very soft. Really special.

A Carnival tree

There isn't only Christmas tree.
Try to make Carnival tree too ;) You'll need just a few streamers and masks. It can also be useful for distributing to your guests these useful things to ensure the fun.

Welcome to the party!

A funny and colorful panel to hang on your front door to welcome your guests or to decorate the hall of your Carnival party.

The happy clowns

What about to use empty containers for yogurt, ricotta, mascarpone cheese to make this nice masks? your children could learn the importance of recycling used material. Low cost craft ideas for kids!

Carnival dance party

Carnival dance party: its characters are in fancy dress and are made with the technique of wire covered with wool. You can also use them as a placeholder in your Carnival table ;)

Masks from Venice

I like very much to prepare all the decorations with my hands and these masks are really beautiful. Ideal for decorating a shop window or to hang at the entrance of a Carnival dance party ...