Buona San Valentino..

Happy San Valentino! Keep the spirit of this day alive by celebrating love..for everyone..
If you'd like to make a special dinner,here is my suggestion for a luscious seafood risotto with Orvieto classico
http://www.marialiberati.com/blog2
For a simple dessert-a scoop of chocolate or vanilla gelato or ice cream in a glass of champagne or Spumante..
See Valentine's Day around the world

Dark chocolate..(not milk chocolate)with at least 70% cocoa gives you the healthy benefits of eating chocolate -a delicious aphrodisiac.

Keep the dinner Simple & Sweet!!
Join me for two The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm Cooking school events at Whole Foods in Marlton, NJ on February 18th at 6 PM for a class on pasta nd their sauces and a book signing and/or Whole Foods in Philadelphia on February 19th at 6 PM for a book signing and cooking class on 'Cooking on A Budget" the Basic Art of Italian Cooking way..

If you'd like to hone your cooking skills in Italy stay at our villa in Umbria for 7 days, cook with me, visit local vineyards, artisan producing food purveyors, sightsee, and enjoy La Dolce Vita in the hills of Umbria! For more info email us at :
events@marialiberati.com to register or for more info.Dates are Sept 23-Oct 6th.Only 12 spots are available so hurry and reserve your place!!

Happy San Silvestro & Happy New Year!

I will be spending New Year's Eve (known as San Silvestro) and New Year's Day here in Italy between Abruzzo and Umbria..corporate events to oversee, a special New Year's Eve Cooking Class, dinner party for a corporate group..and hopefully I will still be able to enjoy the New Year. But as long as it is filled with good food and wine..I think I can survive..

If you would like to join me and spend New Year's Italian style, here is a recipe to enjoy and some traditions to follow in your own home.

http://tinyurl.com/9hv9o6

But for New Year's Eve & Day dontl forget to have lentil soup to bring you good luck for the New Year.

Here is the recipe from last year's post

http://www.marialiberati.com/blog2/?p=155
and other favorite posts with recipes for New Year's can be found here at

http://www.marialiberati.com/blog2/?p=435

http://www.marialiberati.com/blog2/?p=149

Here is wishing you a happy and safe New Year and make this a New Year to share not just with family but with friends and those in need.

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene,

Maria

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

A special thanks to those of you that ordered the book as a Holiday gift! Enjoy

San Valentino and dinner pe due

Romantic Dinner Menu for Two
Copyright 2008- Maria Liberati, art of living, PrimaMedia,Inc.
THE BASIC ART OF ITALIAN COOKING, Holidays & Special Occasions


Cocktail : Tintoretto
½ cup Prosecco Spumante (or a Spumante)
¼ cup pomegranate juice
Divide Spumante-evenly- among 2 champagne glasses. Top each glass with pomegranate juice –evenly divided among two glasses. Don’t stir- two colors of each liquid will provide two different colors or layers.
Antipasto: Bruschetta Gratinate
¼ pound of reduced fat fontina or Swiss or baby Swiss cheese
3 leaves of fresh arugula
1 large or 2 small very ripe tomatoes
4 slices of crusty Italian bread (can be day old)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tsp of Sapori D’Italia herbs- Tuscan Picnic blend (by Maria Liberati’s The Basic Art of Italian Cooking)

Cut fontina or Swiss cheese into small slices or small cubes. Wash and dry tomatoes, cut into small cubes and eliminate seeds. Wash and dry arugula and chop finely. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place bread slices on cookie sheet, drizzle with 1 tsp of olive oil and sprinkle spice blend on top. Place in oven till slices begin to get crusty and turn golden- for about 1 minute.

Remove from oven. Layer remaining ingredients in this way: First place cheese cubes or slices, then chopped arugula, then tomatoes. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and remaining ½ tsp of spice blend. Place under broiler of oven till cheese begins to bubble. Broiler times vary- should be 1-4 minutes depending on broiler.

First Course: Linguine alle Vongole
(Clams with linguine)
1/3 box or 1/3 pound of linguine.
2 tblsps of extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil
2 clove of garlic-whole
½ lb of fresh steamed clams
½ lemon (to squeeze over finished pasta)
Handful of fresh parsley

Fill pasta pot with water and small handful of kosher or gross salt. Place on medium heat.
Place olive oil in large sauté pan. Place in peeled, whole clove of garlic (if you leave garlic in whole pieces the garlic will give the clams a flavor but the flavor will not be an extremely intense one-‘if you don’t want to have garlic on the breath’. If you don’t care about garlic odor then by all means chop it finely). Sate garlic over medium low heat until oil starts to form bubbles and garlic begins to get golden color. Place in clams and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring the clams every so often to distribute the flavors. Remove from heat. Sprinkle in the freshly chopped parsley. Stir for about one minute.
Place pasta in boiling water according to package directions (about 10 minutes). Taste before draining to be sure pasta is done to your liking. Drain in colander. When water is drained off place in saucepan with clam sauce and toss with pasta pincer till pasta is coated. Squeeze ½ lemon over pasta and toss. Place in individual serving dishes

Can be served with dry white wine – 1small glass



Second Course : Pepperoni Imbottiti
(Stuffed peppers)
1/4 cup cannelloni beans
1 tables minced onion
2 taps of fresh garlic minced finely
1 cans tuna (6 ounces)
1 tblsp of extra virgin cold pressed olive oil
Juice of ½ small lemon
¼ cup freshly chopped parsley
½ tsp Sapori D’Italia spice -Tuscan blend

Drain tuna can. Place tuna in large bowl and flake. Then add in beans, 3 tsps olive oil, garlic, onions, spice blend (leave a pinch behind to bake peppers), lemon juice. Toss.
Take whole peppers, cut of tops and clean out seeds and inside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place peppers standing on glass or ceramic baking baking dish. Drizzle with 1 tsp of olive oil and a pinch of the spice blend. Place in oven for approx 20 minutes or until tender.

Remove from oven, let cool and scoop in tuna mixture. Divide evenly between both peppers. Serve cool or while peppers are still warm. In the summer you may want to try serving this with raw peppers. This makes a wonderful picnic dish also.



Dolce : Fragole con Limone
(Dessert course: Strawberries with Lemon)
1 pound of fresh ripe strawberries
1 fresh lemon
1 handful fresh mint
1 tblsp sugar or 3 packets artificial sweetener
(Optional- 1/4 cup red wine)

Make this dessert about 1 hour before dinner so that the lemon juice and sugar have a chance to marinade the fruit>

Wash and hull strawberries. Cut each strawberry in quarters. If you are using the baby strawberries (fragolini- little strawberries) you can leave them whole.

Place in serving bowl. Cut lemon in half, with fork incised into lemon half (use both halves). Squeeze juice over strawberries- taking out any seeds. Sprinkle sugar on top. If you want t add in red wine-do so now. Stir and toss so strawberries are coated well with juice and cover bowl, refrigerate for about 1 hour.

When ready to serve, garnish with mint leaves on the top of the individual serving dish.


After Dinner Drink: Caffe Dolce e Speziata
(Spicy Dessert Coffee)
2 cups hot espresso coffee
2 tsps artificial sweetener or sugar
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of cinnamon
2 tblsps of light whipped cream

Place hot coffee in individual espresso serving cups
Stir in sweetener, top each cup with pinch of cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg and then 1 tblsp of light whipped cream.








Other useful tips:
*Even though olive oil is very good for you, you may want to lessen the calorie content of some of these dishes by substituting Enova oil for half or 1/3 of the olive oil in the dishes. Always use some olive oil so you still
Capture that flavor in each dish. Enova oil is a ‘good for you oil’ but you do not absorb all of its fat content.

*In any of the dishes that use sugar- even though my recipes don’t generally use a lot of sugar- so the sugar calories are minimum- you can still substitute an artificial sweetener.

*This meal contains a lot of good for you ingredients, Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, pasta, seafood, olive oil. However, I have included a small amount of alcohol in the form of spumante (sparkling wine) because this is meant to be a dinner for a special occasion. But remember alcohol does add calories- even thought there have been health benefits found- you should limit your alcohol consumption to special occasions so as not to load up on unnecessary calories, etc. I also recommend that if you drink the cocktail (Tintoretto) –you serve that with your appetizer. You should never drink alcohol on an empty stomach. And you don’t want to munch away on salty pretzels and peanuts to add more calories with your cocktail.

*If you drink the cocktail before dinner and still want to drink wine with the meal be sure to drink a small glass only with the meal. Alcohol-even wine does add calories

*Since this is meant to be a romantic meal for two- you may want to partake in a small square of dark chocolate (should be minimum of 70% cocoa to get the health benefits) with your after dinner drink.

for more recipes get your copy of The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com and recieve $5 off retail price and free shipping for a limited time only..

Ciao for now!
Maria

Happy New Year from the Mountains of Abruzzo

(copyright, Maria Liberati 2007)

Here's wishing that you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you were able to include some of the special recipes we have included this past month.

I am writing from my office in Italy- high in the mountains of Abruzzo.
The Holiday season still goes on here. While you are waiting to ring in the New Year as we are here as well, we will be celebrating until the 6th of January. This last Holiday is the Epiphany or La Befana and marks the end of the Christmas Holidays.
Here the Holidays are the topic of conversation for everyone for at least 4-6 weeks. I was really tired and not too awake when we landed in Rome. But I really realized I was here when I had to stop at customs to show my passport. No, showing my passport didn't wake me up. The customs officers- there were 3- that had to look at my passport were discussing a recipe that they had for Christmas Eve dinner (Vigilia) as they glanced at my passport- paying more attention to the details of the recipe than the looking over of passports. And unfortunately I did not hear the entire recipe. Although as tempted as I was to ask, I decided it was best not to ask.
Besides, I knew that the sooner I left the airport the sooner we would be having a cappuccino and cornetti at Palombini-in EUR (a neighborhood in Rome) right in front of the 'square coliseum'-that alone is sight for sore tired eyes.
And as I have been continuing this series, here is an excerpt from my upcoming book- The Basic Art of Italian Cooking-Holidays and Special Occasions (to be released in late 2008). This chapter is about our New Year's Eve last year -to bring in 2007.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

(excerpt from The Basic Art of Italian Cooking-Holidays & Special Occasions

copyright, Maria Liberati 2007, art of living,PrimaMedia,Inc.)
Never plan for anything..As all the highways were closed because of icy conditions and two terrible accidents on the A24 highway (the highway that goes from Abruzzo to Rome)–we had to quickly think on our feet to save the festivities for New Year’s Eve. Which we did….
As luck has it we found out this morning that we could not get out of town safely so we had just enough time to grab all of the ingredients we needed to make a 7 course New Year’s Eve fest fit for a king.. for 25 people….

Menu
Primi (first course)
Spaghetti lightly tossed with fresh shrimp and calamari in an ‘aglio e olio’ (garlic and oil) topped at the end with fresh parsley.

Secondi (second course)
Zuppa di lenticchie (lentil soup) with freshly made crostini (croutons)
Served with Cotechino (a type of ham)

Terzo (third course)
Fresh baked salmone

Quarto (fourth course)
Frittata made with fresh escarole and grated parmigiano cheese

Contorni (side dishes)
*Fresh swiss chard- cooked and lightly tossed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice
*Fresh mozzarella

All of this was served with Vino Novello. This is the new wine that comes out about this time of the year. It is called vino novello (new wine) because it is only aged for 3 months versus aging for at least 1 year.

Dolci (desserts)
*Torte di panettone (see recipe in my next blog later this week)
*Artisanal chocolate torrone made here in Abruzzo. (It contains 80% cocoa and hazelnuts grown locally. This is a specialty here in the province of Abruzzo).

Fruit course
Fresh grapes (you must eat at least 12 grapes on New Year’s Eve for good luck).
Fresh apples

To bring in the New Year, Braccchetto D’Acqui was served. It is a sparkling red wine that is delicate and with just a hint of sweetness

Torte di panettone recipe
(Copyright 2005- Maria Liberati)
Many of you who have been at my book signings have savored this torte (cake). We make it around Christmas time because it is made with panettone (an Italian sweet bread made for Christmas). We usually have so much panettone left over and try to think of creative things to do with it. So I came up with this recipe with a friend of mine that is a pastry chef here in Abruzzo. It is really very easy to make but is so yummy they will think you were baking all day.

And as I always recommend in all of my cookbooks- use only the best ingredients you can find for this torte. Since there are only a few ingredients each and everyone is important.


*1/3 to ½ of a pannettone (most gourmet stores carry these now, if you are lucky you may be able to find a fresh baked one as well).
*1- 4 ounce chocolate bar (must be 70-80% cocoa)
*4 large dried figs
*2 cups whole milk
*1/2 cup sugar
*¼ tsp vanilla
*2 whole eggs
Baking paper
1- 8” shallow cake pan
Small piece of solid chocolate to shave into chocolate curls on top
Confectioner’s Sugar

Instructions…
If panettone is a few days old it should be dry. If it is not dry, tear panettone into small cubes, preheat oven to 375-400 degrees. When oven is preheated place panettone cubes on flat baking sheet and bake till begins to turn golden and becomes dry.

Line shallow cake pan with baking paper. Chop 4 ounces of dark chocolate into small pieces. Chop four figs into small pieces. Set these aside.

Cover pan with one layer of panettone cubes. Press cubes gently to fit form of pan. Sprinkle chopped chocolate and figs on panettone cubes. Place another layer of panettone cubes on top, again press gently to cover the first layer and to fit form of pan.

With wire whisk, whisk together 2 cups milk and 2 eggs. Then little by little add in the sugar and whisk and then add in vanilla and whisk for 1 minute or until well blended.

With soup ladle gently pour this mixture over panettone cubes and then gently press down to form panettone and mixture to pan and then let
sit for 10 minutes so all is absorbed. Then place in oven preheated to 375 degrees for 40 -50 minutes.

Top should be golden and all liquid should be absorbed.

When cool, take out of pan by edges of baking paper. Garnish top with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar and chocolate curls shaved from chocolate bar.

Should be kept in refrigerator and best if made the night before.

Serve with Bracchetto D’Acqui sparkling wine.

Tanti Auguri for a safe and Happy 2008!

You can purchase the bestselling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking and still receive $5 off retail price and free shipping at http://www.marialiberati.com/
and portion of proceeds go to Gilda's Club.