Discover the Delicious Pizzelle Cookie

Pizzelle in a loose stack. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Carrie Tyler


Pizzelle is an Italian waffle cookie that is especially popular around Easter and Christmas. They are fairly large, at around five inches, and are usually made one or two at a time. It is traditionally made with a pizzelle maker, similar to a waffle iron, held by hand over a stove burner. With the creation of electric irons, they are becoming a popular snack for people who lack the time to prepare them in the old fashioned way. The irons leave a snowflake pattern on the cookies.
If you are going to make these cookies by hand, you'll need flour, sugar, eggs, and butter, margarine, or vegetable oil. You'll also need flavoring. Common flavorings include anise, vanilla, lemon zest, chocolate, cinnamon, and orange. If you don't have the time or inclination to cook but still want fresh cookies, you can also buy a pizzelle mix. In some grocery stores, you can buy premade pizzelles.
There are many comparable cookies in various regions. Krumkakes from Norway are quite similar. The pizzelle is thought to be based on the crustulum, which is an ancient Roman cookie. Although pizzelle is the most common name, in the Lazio, Italy area they are called ferratelle and in Molise they might also be called cancelle.
Pizzelles can be eaten in a variety of ways. Sometimes they are had as flat cookies. They are often crunchy, but they can also be prepared in a way to make them chewy and soft. A wooden dowel can be used when they are fresh to roll the pastry into a cone shape. This pastry can then be filled with cannoli cream or another filling. A filling can also be spread on them while flat to make a sandwich cookie.
While they can be eaten year round, they are mostly known for special occasions. These include the Christmas season and Easter weekend. Italian weddings are also a common place where these are found. However, since technology makes it easier to cook fresh ones at home with little effort, they are gaining popularity as a treat that can be eaten at any time.
Though they may always be most prevalent in Italian households, they are gaining mainstream appeal. If local grocery stores don't carry them prepackaged, they can always be purchased over the internet. Pizzelle bakers have made it simply for anyone to make up a stack of cookies on a Sunday morning. They are good both fresh and after they have cooled.
The best way to have these cookies is freshly baked. If you are looking for a pizzelle cookie maker that will save you time in the kitchen, consider the VillaWare pizzelle maker.

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Florence And The Birth Of The Modern Gelato

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By Stefano Becheroni


The good season is getting closer. Time for sun, cold drinks, light clothes and, of course, gelati! Any tourist wondering through the Florentine beauties will soon discover that the Tuscan summer can be hot, really hot. This is how he will probably start looking -pretty desperately- for something refreshing, and this is how he'll reach the closest gelateria. If he is staying in an apartment, he will buy the biggest gelato cup available and will run to chuck it straight into the freezer. You wouldn't want to run out of gelato on a hot, Florentine summer night, would you?

Sicilian Food - A Guide to Food in Sicily

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By Orson Johnson


Sicily's varied climate produces crops that are intrinsically flavorful, particularly those grown in the rich soil fertilized by Mount Etna's eruptions. Due to the quality and natural flavor of Sicilian-grown vegetables, the local cuisine is usually simple so as not to overpower the taste buds with a combination of too many strong flavors.
Sicilian cooking generally centers around rich red tomatoes, lentils, meatballs, plenty of fish, olive oil, capers, tuna couscous dishes, and sweet pastries. Flavorful Sicilian cheeses are also used in many dishes. Ricotta is a local favorite for quite a few recipes. Marsala wine is also used in many dishes to enhance the flavor of the ingredients and a glass of Sicilian wine makes a terrific accompaniment to many Sicilian dishes.

Pasta - In Any Shape Still the Same

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By Constance Grayson

One can hardly think of Italy without thinking of pasta. The two just go hand-in-hand like peanut butter and jelly or Lucy and Ethel. For years, I had heard the legend that the recipe and technique for making pasta had come back to Italy with Marco Polo after he had traveled to China.
Later research seems to disprove that. Evidence of pasta in Italy has been found in the Etruscan and Roman times. Nonetheless, pasta is truly the quintessential Italian food dish.
Pasta is essentially made from the same recipe regardless of shape-just flour and water, sometimes a pinch of salt or egg-easily mixed together and rolled out. The different shapes do, however, have a function. The shape of the pasta will control how much sauce will be retained with each bite. This affects the ultimate taste to the eater.

Two Cultures - One Experience

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By Constance Grayson
I sit in the piazza after my lunch, dopo il pranzo, and ask myself one question. Is there any food on earth as sensual as a cone of gelato? I have just sat on the low brick wall in the piazza, feeling the daily warmer sun of this spring on my back, and savored a cone of half coffee, half chocolate chip gellato. An old man in a cooper colored suede jacket and faded blue trousers makes his bent-over way beside me. He must have heard my moan of sheer pleasure as I ran my tongue around my ice cream cone for he caught my eye and smiled-that ageless smile that acknowledged between his time and mine, his culture and mine, that sometimes the purely physical is simply exquisite.

Typical food in the Amalfi Coast

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Author: daniele76

When You book a nice apartment in Positano Apartment in Positano - Amalfi Coast, with us You'll realize how beautiful and magic this town is.

The Amalfi Coast attracts not only for its breathtaking views and the deep blue sea, but also for the aromas and flavors of its cuisine, echoing the rituals of tradition.It's a land that has a varied gastronomy depending on location under consideration.A Scala, for example, you can taste different dishes such as orecchiette pasta and beans, spaghetti with pig's blood, spaghetti with walnuts, fried polenta, liver in "security" with bay leaves, fried beans with pork fat, red beans, pumpkin, sweets based on chestnuts, "black and white (marble cake), tart with pudding.Amalfi, however, offers us an excellent homemade pasta, the Scialatielli with chopped parsley, pepper and parmesan cheese sauce and topped with fresh tomatoes and clams, married soup made with endive, black soup, cabbage and other vegetables boiled in chicken broth with "pezzenta (local sausage, with pork rinds and pork offal), profiteroles with lemon cream (Sfusato Amalfitano IGP), lemon cake in many variations.

In Atrani a typical dish is the "Sarchiapone" made with pumpkin long cylinders (easy to find in the month of July), stuffed with ground beef and local cheese and cooked in tomato sauce, cassata typical Atrani the pasticciotto (mild chest Short pastry filled with custard and black cherry jam), the lemon cake.A Sunset prepares the goat in all the sauces, honey mushrooms blanched, dusted with white cornmeal and fried, delicious mozzarella, pizza excellent (Tramontani exported the culture and the art of pizza in the world) and a Costa d'Amalfi Tramonti bodied DOC.In Furore a traditional dish is made with squid and potatoes, but you also remember the pie flour and pork, the "caponata" made with toasted bread to "freselle" bathed and dressed with tomatoes, anchovies, eggplant and other vegetables preserved in olive oil. We also recommend a cup of fragrant Furore Costa d'Amalfi DOC.Conca dei Marini offers the local cuisine, in particular, the penne with tomato "piennolo" rabbit lemon leaves and fragrant puff Santa Rosa, created right here in the seventeenth century by the nuns of the Convent of Santa Rosa: a very thin sheet shell-shaped with choking streams of pastry cream studded with cherries.


Book our apartment in Positano, and You'll enjoy the unique atmosphere of this beautiful town
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About the Author

Daniele Davide, manager of Tredy Sas.
When You book an apartment in Positano Apartment in Positano - Amalfi Coast , with us You'll realize how beautiful and magic this town is.

Book an apartment in Positano, and You'll enjoy the unique atmosphere of this beautiful town

Bassano del Grappa and Italy's White Asparagus Season - WSJ.com

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Bassano del Grappa and Italy's White Asparagus Season - WSJ.com

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Italian Mortadella Bologna, An IGT Product

Italian Mortadella Bologna, An IGT Product: "

Mortadella Bologna is a close relative to what many American’s think of as Bologna. An Oscar Mayer commercial from the 1970s made Bologna famous but that product, despite this adorable commercial, has little to do with Mortadella from Italy.

Mortadella is made from a mix of finely ground pork, pork fat, salt and pepper. It is somewhat spicy and very compact. It is delicate and light and is almost sweet. The product has a long history and has been called Mortadella Bologna since 1661 the year in which Cardinal Farnese set out the standard rules of making the product. The word Mortadella is instead from the Roman era and comes from the word for a kitchen utensil called a mortarium in latin or mortaio which was used to press pork meat.

The process to make Mortadella starts with a mixture of the above mentioned ingredients. This blend is then put into a skin and is cooked in the oven with dry heat. After cooking, the product is left to cool.

Mortadella can be eaten at anytime. Here is a great recipe which uses Mortadella on Crostini.

Ingredients:

300 grams of Mortadella
Panna da Cucina (cooking cream)
40 grams of Ricotta
30 grams of grated Parmigiano
1 tbs of Brandy
4 slices of thick bread

Put the Mortadella in the blender and whip until you get a fine mixture, adding the brandy, the ricotta cheese and blend a tad more. Whip the cream (panna) and blend it in with the mixture together with some parmigiano cheese. Put this mousse in the refrigerator and let it rest. When you are ready, spread it on slices of toasted bread.

This dish can be paired with a light and fruity red wine such as a Dolcetto d’Alba or a young Barbera d’Asti. Check out what is happening with the Barbera grape at this website Barbera2010.

Filed under: Cooking, Emilia Romagna "

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