Cooking Italian Site

Fresh ingredients:
Cooking Italian recipes depends upon one basic fact: the freshness of the ingredients. No processed foods are used in the creation of these delightful, elegant, yet deceptively simple meals.

Olive oil and garlic:
Staples of an Italian kitchen are olio d’oliva (olive oil) and aglio (garlic). Always choose extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic. You will not see any garlic powder or garlic salt in a traditional Italian kitchen. Another common ingredient when in many Italian dishes is pomodori (tomatoes), which are used fresh in sauces, served in the antipasti or starter as a garnish over toasted bread, or in salads. Olive oil is used when Cooking Italian recipes for frying, sautéing, dressing on salads, and every other place where we would usually use shortening or vegetable oil.

Italians love their mealtime, and they take a long time to get through the entire meal. Dinner typically starts around 8:00 PM and is over around 10:00 PM. Family is key to Italians and you will often find children in the kitchen, learning to cook right along with the adults. The family comes together over the meal and large, boisterous meal times are not uncommon in an Italian household, with lots of shouting, laughter and good natured teasing accompanying the pasta. Cooking Italian recipes is something the Italians take very seriously.

The courses in an Italian meal:
The antipasti, or starter course mentioned earlier comes to the table on platters family style. It can be something as simple as a bruschetta (toasted garlic bread) with a variety of toppings to a more sophisticated dish made with zucchini flowers and grated parmesan cheese. By the way, when pronouncing Italian words, the ‘ch’ sounds like a ‘k,’ so the word bruschetta is pronounced bru-sketta. To get the ‘ch’ sound in Italian, put two c’s together as in Gucci.

Following the antipasti, the primi piatti, or first course is served. This is usually a pasta course, but can also be a soup, crepe, polenta, rice, or gnocchi. Pasta is also a staple in Italian recipes, and you will usually find a pasta dish set on the table for every evening meal. Explore the Italian cookbooks for your favorite pasta or other starchy dish for your primi piatti.

The next course is the main course, or the secondi piatti. This is a meat course, served with a contorni or side dish. Beef, pork, veal, fish and poultry are all served and eaten with relish in Italy. Side dishes, or contorni, are sometimes salads, but often are starchy dishes like potatoes or beans.

Desert is not to be forgotten as a sweet, but not too sweet, end to your cooking Italian recipes experience. One of my favorite Italian deserts is contuccini. Contuccini is a small version of the popular Italian cookie called biscotti. These sweet, but hard, little almond cookies are served after a typical Italian meal with a sweet desert wine. Set shot glasses in front of your guests, fill each one with the desert wine and instruct them to dunk the contuccini in the wine before eating it. Delicicio!

There are many people that enjoy cooking as a hobby and collecting new recipes for cooking techniques is a past-time for others; for these and other such gourmet lovers, there is a whole new world of continental cooking awaiting - with interesting, exciting and flavorful meal options, such as those contained in true Italian cooking!

Italian cooking has many varied styles, methods and aspects to the whole preparation process and presentation, fine dining etiquette, sharing with loved ones and friends is a big part of their food stories. So, as far as authentic Italian cooking is concerned, this must combine cultural and social elements besides the fresh, distinctly Italian seasonings and main ingredients with a love for cooking and sharing it as these people have even given to the world the Joy of Cooking!

Even Americans have adapted certain traditional Italian cooking recipes to suit their tastes, but keeping them as filling and wholesome as the authentic Italian dishes are prone to being; but those on home ground with Italian cooking will assert the differences between their style and that of Americans

Keen on learning true Italian cooking or desirous of picking up more tips from professional Italian chefs that can sharpen your skills? Then you can load up on information related to Italian cooking culture and traditions, including tips on selecting the right cookware and perfect vegetables, meats and making sauces to boost your knowledge.

Recipe books are a-plenty that deal with all these aspects of Italian cooking besides more handy hints to make your home cooking tasteful. Visiting an expert chef’s blog on great Italian cooking is another place to get in-depth info on techniques, approaches and efforts on the style besides learning what not to do!

Italian cooking is so vast and varied a domain that many people are amazed to find there’s more to it than simply the regular pastas; there are vegetable and meat salads and many varieties of healthy, wholesome soups too besides the famed sauces, pizzas and breads!

Some people mistake Italian cooking to be only the fattening variety, but this is not always true as this style of cooking can be readily made more nutritious and healthful by simply substituting or deleting the more fatty items, such as oil, high-fat dairy products like cream and cheese, with low-fat or no fat alternatives! This way you get the goodness of Italian cooking in your diet and necessary nutrition fro hair, skin, nails and bones by keeping only the essential oil and fat in the menu, but cutting off the excess! Hi-carbs like in Pastas are not bad by themselves, if taken in moderation.

Besides the above tips on finding resources for real Italian cooking, you can consider eating out at an authentic Italian bistro; the internet is a great search tool and will give you the top listings for local restaurants with Italian delicacies galore. Do check for customer feedback, the reputation of the business, items on the menu and its price list so you and your family or friends have a great time enjoying the ambience and the food with no worries!

The history of Italian cooking actually stems all the back to the traditions of the Romans and Greeks. There are still dishes today, such as polenta, which are practically identical to the meals that were prepared for the Roman soldiers over 2000 years ago. The next time you dig into a plate of pasta, imagine that Caesar himself may have enjoyed the same dish so many years ago.

Italian cuisine has been influenced and modified throughout its history by many other cultures who ventured to their peninsula. The Germans, Austrians and French have made their influence to the cuisines of the northern regions of Italy, while the Arabs made their contributions to Sicily. We also cannot forget what the Renaissance did for the food of Italy. While art and science were being revived, so was the way Italian food was prepared. Refined taste poured into different regions in Italy with the travels of Marco Polo and others. Famous Italian travelers ventured to the Far East and brought back to Italy exotic food and spices which intrigued their senses. The most famous, a Genoan known as Christopher Columbus, brought back tomatoes, peppers, chilies, corn and potatoes which changed the course of Italian cuisine forever.

The history of Italian cooking has been shaped by the climate and influences of the many regions of Italy. Italy is known as a political union of many different regional groups and each region has their own distinct dialect, custom and cuisine. If you travel through Italy, you will quickly realize that the way food is prepared, and what is commonly eaten, varies considerably among the different regions.

Take a tour of northern Italy and the cooking will reflect influences of France, Germany and Austria. The climate is to cold to grow olive and cooking with cream and butter are quite common. Travel to the southern part of Italy and you will find olive oils, tomato based sauces and garlic in many dishes. Milan is famous for its very strong cheese known as Gorgonzola, which is quite similar to the French bleu cheese. Bologna is famous for its pasta sauce of meat, tomato and vegetables; known as Bolognese sauce. Venture to the southern regions of Naples and you will discover the origins of pizza - still popular today. Pork is used along the south central regions of Italy, whereas seafood is the favorite along the coast.

Many Italians today still eat in the traditional manner popular throughout its history. Although the pace of modern life has hastened quite a bit, most Italians still go home for their midday meal, and many even find time for a nap. Italians take time to savor their meal of many courses and enjoy a glass of wine, just as they did so many years ago.

The history of Italian cuisine is as rich as your favorite Alfredo sauce. Depending on where you visit in Italy will dictate how history has influenced the cuisine that will tickle your palate. Learn to make Italian food and enjoy the oldest cuisine in the world right in your own home.

Pasta, pesto, parmagiana, Parmesan - all great Italian cooking ingredients. And all beginning with ‘p’. Which is appropriate because Italian cooking, for all its pretensions, is derived from a strong peasant tradition. This is not to downgrade it; far from it. Italian cooking is based on colourful, fragrant ingredients that have been farmed in Italy for centuries. Appealing to children and adults alike, Italian cooking is one of the world’s great cooking traditions that has truly burst out of its national boundaries and conquered the globe - a little like the Roman centurions did two and a half millenia ago.

But despite its fertile volcanic soil and rich imperial past, the Italian cooking tradition that we all know and love arose not from the wealthy North but from the impoverished, arid south. While anything will grow in the valleys of Tuscany, it proved too costly to grow potatoes in Napoli and the rest of Southern Italy. But growing hardy durum wheat was quite easy. The result? Pasta and pizza.

If you want to get into Italian cooking in a big way, you need to stock up on the staples. And one of the good things about Italian cooking is that the basic ingredients are readily available and easy to store. Here’s a quick summary view of some of the key ingredients of the Italian cooking tradition:

1. Garlic This is almost ubiquitous in Italian cooking. You need to store it in a cool, dry place, but it shouldn’t be refrigerated. Garlic goes mouldy quickly in damp conditions. When you’re shopping for garlic, look for bulbs that are free from the dark, grainy discolouration at the bottom. This is a sign of age and the fact that it is being attacked by mould.
2. Tomato sauce Keep your tomato sauce simple. It’s always best to use fresh ingredients - remember that Italian cooking is like a good wine: you want to taste the sunshine. If you do have to buy a ready-made tomato sauce in a jar, you don’t need to go for an expensive one. It’s such a simple recipe that it’s not worth paying twice as much for a premium brand. Neither should you buy a ready-made tomato sauce with a lot of extra herbs. You can add these yourself, giving you at least some control over the taste of the final dish.
3. Pasta This is an absolute essential. If you have a family, pasta is always a surefire winner. It’s quick to prepare, easy to vary the final dish and children love it. Although fresh pasta costs three times more than dried varieties, Italians buy dried pasta, unless their grandmamas make it from scratch - something that happens less and less often. Dried spaghetti, macaroni, penna, shells or lasagne is easy to store for a long time, so you can always keep plenty in stock.
4. Parmesan This is simply a must. You can add it as a topping to any pasta dish, no matter what the recipe. Avoid the pre-grated packets of parmesan and go for the whole chunks: grating it directly onto the top of your pasta is part of the ritual Italian cooking.
5. Olive Oil You really don’t need to go for expensive extra virgin olive oil. While extra virgin olive oil is great for making salad dressings, it doesn’t taste so good when it’s heated up. You get an acrid burnt taste quite easily. For making sauces and frying fresh meat or poultry, go for an ordinary olive oil which, despite its yellowish hue, tastes better when heated and still contains all the goodness of its more refined cousin. Oh, and it’s as little as half the price.

Italian cooking is one of the easiest of the recognised and celebrated world cooking traditions. The ingredients are easy to shop for, easy to store and, most importantly, easy to eat - in great quantities. And as long as you keep to fresh vegetables and salads in your recipes, it is one of the healthiest diets on Earth.

Are you one of the many cookery lovers or an individual with who feels like a novice when faced with the task of preparing new and varied meals? Well, whichever category you feel you belong to, we have just the cuisine to delight you with and help you build up your recipe book with interesting, exotic dishes and raise your skill levels at the same time by igniting the latent passion for good food - Italian style!

In fact, even beginners in the kitchen can learn how to put together a great tasting, healthy meal to enjoy with friends and family and it’s as simple as tuning in to a cookery show like Lydia Italian cooking demos! You learn by observing the techniques, tips and approaches the Lydia Italian cooking shows offer views and need to follow simple instructions for whipping up the same delicacies in your kitchen - and just await the praise that is bound to come your way with these value additions to your cooking skills!

If you are wondering where to find Lydia Italian cooking shows, you don’t need to look further than your food network timings on the TV guide or you can choose to log on to the program’s web site after entering the term into any major search engine. You’ll not only get all the information of shows to come with highlights of the recipes to be covered, but useful recipe links, details of past shows and live demos too!

We all know that with a little bit of play-way learning, the whole process is made more enjoyable and that’s the case with the Lydia Italian cooking show too: with an expert Italian chef guiding you all the way from picking the right ingredients, to mixing, cooking and presenting them just right and advise on entire menu planning, who knows what you can do with all the time and energy you will save on this easy to learn, enjoyable method of cookery schooling.

The best part about the Lydia Italian cooking show is the authentic recipes shown here along with variations of cooking techniques and an interesting, visual plus audio format that is easy to understand and recall; perhaps you could record some shows to watch at leisure too. Thus, it’s easy to ignite that passion for cooking great tasting and varied Italian fare by simply tuning in to the Lydia Italian cooking demo.

With a friend, the learning process is double the fun, so perhaps you can find someone who shares your passion for Italian cuisine or simply cooking - and then recipe swaps with other friends is enjoyable too! Anyone who wants to learn to be a better cook can benefit from watching Lydia Italian cooking shows and new recipes - or traditional ones with a twist besides getting to exchange fun tales on the whole experience!

If you know anything about Italian cooking then you would know that there are literally thousands of delicious recipes to choose from. There are a few in particular that are the real authentic Italian cooking recipes however, and which should definitely be included on any Italian food lover’s menu.

Spaghetti With Meatballs

Spaghetti with meatballs is obviously an Italian cooking staple. This is a dish that originated in the heart of Italy but which is now widely loved around the world.

You can vary the recipe according to your own personal tastes, but the standard recipe calls for 500g lean minced beef, 2 tablespoons parsley, 60g salami finely chopped, 60g parmesan cheese, 3 tablespoon tomato puree, 1 egg beaten, 15g butter, 1 onion finely chopped, 1 teaspoon dried basil, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 440g can of tomatoes chopped, 125ml beef stock, 125ml white wine, 1 teaspoon caster sugar, and 250g spaghetti.

To prepare you want to combine the beef, parsley, salami, parmesan cheese and 1 tablespoon of the tomato puree in a bowl. Then you need to mix in enough of the egg to bind the mixture, and form this into small balls. Cook these for about 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned and set aside.

The next step is to melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the onion, basil and oregano, and cook this for a couple of minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, remaining tomato puree, beef stock, white wine and vinegar, and simmer this mixture for about a half hour, stirring occasionally. The mixture will become thicker as it heats, and then you want to cook the spaghetti in a separate pot until tender, drain, and stir the meatballs into the tomato sauce and serve on a bed of spaghetti.

Risotto

Another popular Italian cooking recipe is risotto. This Italian cooking recipe calls for 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 cup minced onion, 2 tablespoons minced shallots, 2 cups rice, ½ cup dry white wine, 6 cups chicken or beef stock, ½ teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons butter, ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, and freshly ground pepper.

To prepare you start by sautéing the onions and shallots in olive oil until golden, add the rice and stir to coat with oil. Then you want to add the wine, ½ cup of the chicken stock heated and salt. Stir this well and cook, stirring frequently, until all of the liquid has been absorbed. You want to continue to add the chicken stock in ¾ cup increments until it has all been used and then remove this from the heat, whip in butter and half of the grated cheese. Finally you want to season it with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

If cooking burgers and barbecues, sunny-side ups and omelet, try cooking Italian food and you will find a fast portal to cooking with stress. Cooking Italian food is hard even with a recipe to guide you on your way.

Recipes of Italian food may contain a lot of words that you will not be able to find in ordinary dictionary. This is perhaps because Italian food is often being cooked by those who already have the experience in cooking.

But still, who’s stopping you from trying out the different recipes that you will find in an Italian cook book? Who knows, you might even master one dish and another through practice.

One advantage of having a cook book is that everything is already laid out for you. This means that you already have a guide on what to do to make an Italian dish. All you need to do is prepare the ingredients and follow the cooking procedures to the letter. But this is of course easier said than done. Here are some tips that will at least lessen the hardships of coking Italian food.

Buy a good recipe book

A lot of the procedures involved in Italian cooking is sometimes very hard to comprehend in words. Sometimes you need a real life demonstration to go with it. Unfortunately, you don’t have a real chef in front of you. All you have is a recipe book.

If this is the case then buy a recipe book that will at least explain the very basic procedures that you will encounter in Italian cooking. Some recipe books have a section that explains all that. Some even have illustrations and pictures of the procedure per dish so that readers will have an idea what it is being done.

TV Research

There are a lot of cooking shows on the market that will help you a lot with improving your skills in cooking Italian food. And with TV, you will have a first hand demonstration of what is being done with various ingredients. Even if you are not actually there with the chef, you can still see what he or she is actually doing.

Know the terms

Constant research and watching TV will expose you to a lot of terms of Italian cooking. This will help you a lot in terms of cooking the other dishes that are in the recipe book. Remember, the procedures are actually all basic and are being done in many of the dishes so all you need to do is master each one and you are already good to go.

Be precise In cooking, whether Italian food or other cuisines, you need to make sure that your measurements are correct and precise. The taste of your dish will depend upon the rightness of the ingredients that you put into it. A small difference in the ingredients can alter the taste. Too much salt will make it too salty. Too much flour in the sauce will make it gooey. Too much water will make it bland and thin. And it goes on and on. The flavorings that you put and the amount of the ingredients will factor a lot in the food that you are preparing so be cautious and use those measuring tools.