Perugia,Italy..a Sweet City....

The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm cooking school held in a beautiful resort near Orvieto Italy..recently took some of our participants on a tour of the medieval city of Perugia..the city well known for it's chocolate and many other treats. Follow our visit to Perugia here:

http://www.gomestic.com/Cooking/Perugia-Italy-and-Its-Sweet-Treats.126185

and here is a recipe of one of their traditional sweet treats:

Ciarimicola
Ingredients:

1 lb flour
3 egg yolk
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
Lemon peel of ½ lemon
2 egg whites
¼ cup alchermes liqueur
1 packet yeast
Multi colored sprinkles
Grate lemon peel. Place flour, sugar. ¼ cup softened butter, lemon peel. Blend well. Add in alchermes and blend in. Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of warm water, add into dough. Blend into a smooth dough.

Form the dough into a ring. Place on a pan that has been buttered an dusted with flour. Bake for 40 minutes. Beat egg whites into stiff peaks. Remove ring from oven. Place whipped egg whites on top. Bake for another 2 minutes. Remove from oven, cool and sprinkle with colored sprinkles.

Don't forget to follow ouradventures in The Basic Art of Italian Cooking kitchen here in Italy at httpp://www.marialiberati.com/blog2
and http://twitter.com/marialiberati


For more great recipes get your copy of the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

Join our cooking classes in Italy or in the US. To register or get more info email us at events@marialiberati.com
Here is more info
In the US-The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm cooking school will be at various Whole Foods Markets in the US starting in February:
Feb 8-Jenkintown, Pa Whole Foods Markets
Feb 18-Whole Foods Market, Marlton, NJ
Feb 19=Whole Foods Markets, Philadelphia,Pa
Feb 26-Whole foods Markets, Princeton, NJ

Mangia Bene,Vivi Bene
Maria

The Year of the Cookie...

Could this be the year of cookies? With so many cookbooks about cookies being released –everyone from Martha Stewart to…. well everybody has been has been talking cookies.
And there is now doubt why. These goodies go back as long as baking has been documented. One reason is because they travel well. Their origins have been traced to 7th century AD Persia, when the use of sugar became common. By the 14th century they were common in all levels of society throughout Europe from royalty to common street vendors.

Most of us have treasured memories of baking cookies in the kitchen with a relative or a special occasion filled with a particular cookie. But today we have gone ‘cookie crazy’. There are so many varieties that cookies have now become upscale. Why the trend now is to give not only gourmet wines and dressings as gifts but also gourmet cookies now make wonderful gifts.
These delights have become special enough to give as a gift. They have also gone organic. Mnay companies ar now offering pre baked cookies with organic flours, sugar adn butter.
Of course, it is nice to bake a batch of someone’s favorite flavor for a gift or to show our appreciation..but who has the time??? and now you can get mail order cookies shipped to someone special.
What a great idea..cookies as gifts. A thank you gift.. a romantic gift, a corporate gift, a birthday gift…a just to say’ your kindness is appreciated’ gift.
A gourmet cookie is a gift for the taste buds but also for your mind-sort of therapy to make you happy!!
In Italy we call cookies- biscotti and here is a recipe for some..
Biscotti alle Nocciole
2egg whites
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
½ cup ground hazelnuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place sugar and egg whites in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. Add in
‘flour, and egg yolk. Blend all in well with wooden spoon.
Butter a cookie sheet. Drop dough by the spoonful onto cookie sheet with space between each cookie mound .Sprinkle each cookie with ground hazelnuts. Bake for 5 minutes, then raise oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake for 5 minutes more. Remove from oven. Makes 6 servings.

For more recipes go to http://www.marialiberati.com/ or get your copy of the bestselling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com/
Ciao for now!!Maria
http://www.marialiberati.com/
http://www.mariandco.blogspot.com/
http://mediterraneandiet-healthy.blogspot.com/

Today's souvenir I am sendng to you,while here in Italy, is not a recipe but is a town-Sora.

It is one of my favorite towns to take an aftenroon 'passegiata'. It happens to be the birthplace of a talent synonymous with Italian cinema-when it was the real Italian cinema-Vittorio De Sica and also made famous by an award winning film with Sophia Loren- known in Italian as La Ciociaria- which in dialect means the women of Sora. (By the way when you are there you will notice how many coffee bars and establishments are called "La Ciociara"). I still love to just walk up and down the streets and enjoy the scenery where some of the film was made. At that time Sora was just mainly fields and not much around.

But today we enjoyed a stroll incenter of town and in the piazza where the children were throwing colorful paper confetti in their costume for Carnevale. A quick stop at the only coffee bar open in town for a shot of espresso to go with freshly made 'bugie' ( a fried pastry traditional for Carnevale).

Enjoy..

Ciao for now..

Maria

http://www.marialiberati.com