Traditional italian food - Food For Religious And Holiday Celebrations

Every Italian village celebrates its own saint's day with a festival featuring fireworks, feasting, and dancing. The traditional italian food (main dish) for these festivals is roast suckling pig. A popular Easter dish throughout Italy is Agnellino (roast baby lamb), often served with roasted artichokes.

Minestrone soup

Osso bucco (braised veal shanks) with baby artichokes
Lemon orzo (a rice-like pasta)
Arugula salad with lemon-garlic vinaigrette dressing
Ripe peaches and figs
Biscotti

Although the holiday bread called panet-tone is the best known of Italy's many holiday desserts, regions throughout the country have their own traditional holiday sweets featuring local ingredients. In the north, butter is a major ingredient of these desserts. Zelten cakes, similar to fruitcake, are filled with raisins, dates, figs, almonds, pine nuts, orange peel, rum, and cinnamon, are baked two or three weeks before Christmas because they improve with time. Strudel is popular in the Tyrol region in northern Italy. In the south, dessert recipes are more elaborate and use olive oil (instead of butter), lots of eggs, candied fruit, and honey. Among the best known arestruffoli , fried cubes of egg pastry covered with honey and sprinkled with colored sugar, a specialty from Naples.

Italian Easter Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅔ cup warm milk
• 2 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 7 eggs
• ½ cup mixed candied fruit, chopped
• ¼ cup almonds, chopped
• ½ teaspoon anise seed
• Vegetable oil

Procedure

1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, yeast and salt.
2. Add milk and butter; beat 2 minutes on medium.
3. Add 2 eggs and ½ cup flour; beat 2 minutes on high.
4. Stir in the fruit, nuts, and anise seed, mixing well.
5. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
6. Place on a lightly floured board and knead until smooth, 6 to 8 minutes.
7. Place in a greased bowl; turn once. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
8. If desired, dye remaining eggs (leave eggs uncooked); lightly rub with oil.
9. With a fist dipped in flour, punch dough down. Divide in half and roll each piece into a 24-inch rope.
10. Loosely twist ropes together; place on the baking sheet and form into a ring. Pinch the ends together.
11. Gently split ropes and tuck eggs into openings. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
12. Preheat oven to 350°F.
13. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Serves about 6.

Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread)

Ingredients

• 4 Tablespoons yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• ½ pound butter, melted
• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 6 egg yolks, beaten (discard egg whites or save for another use)
• 10½ cups flour
• 2 cups citron, sliced fine
• 2 cups raisins, seedless

Procedure

1. Dissolve yeast in the water. Mix in the butter, sugar, salt, eggs, and yolks.
2. Stir about 10 cups of flour into the butter and yeast mixture until blended.
3. Spread a little flour on a board. Turn dough out onto the board and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. When the dough is soft and smooth, knead in the citron and raisins.
4. Place dough in a greased, round pan, and brush the top with melted butter.
5. Cover, and allow to rise until the dough has doubled in bulk (about 1 hour).
6. Preheat oven to 425°F.
7. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep cross in the top of the loaf.
8. Bake for about 8 minutes, or until the top begins to brown. Lower heat to 325°F and bake for 1 hour more.

Serves about 10

Best Italian Dishes - Caprese Salad with Pesto Sauce & Panzenella

A four course meal served with a variety of 400 types of cheese, every bite of Italian food speaks of its origins from the 4th century BC. It's a favorite with everyone, from the first bread till the last tiramisu!

Italians are known to take their food very seriously. The lunch hour is the most important meal of the day. It starts with antipasti (before the meal) bites like cheese, olives, salad etc. The main course mostly comprises of pasta or risotto. Did you know that there are more than 600 shapes of pasta produced across the world? Finally, comes the dessert and espresso coffee.
Best Italian Dishes which we think are a must try.

Caprese Salad with Pesto Sauce

A great antipasto bite to start your meal with. Juicy tomatoes and mozzarella cheese salad topped with freshly made pesto sauce.

Recipe Servings	:	2
Recipe Cook Time	:	20 Minutes

Ingredients

• For Salad:
  
  2 Tomatoes
  
  Handful of Tulsi
  
  1 packet Buffalo Mozzarella
  
  
  For Pesto Sauce:
  
  Handful of  Basil
  
  1 cup Pine nuts
  
  1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
  
  1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  
  Juice of half a Lemon

Method

Salad Recipe:

Cut 2 juicy tomatoes in thick rounds and dress them with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, some salt and pepper.

Break Mozzarella into chunks.

On a serving platter, arrange the tomato slices along with the mozzarella chunks.

Garnish with tulsi and pesto sauce.

Pesto Sauce:

Blend the basil with pine nuts, Parmesan cheese with  extra virgin olive oil, until it forms a paste.

Squeeze in the lemon juice.

If the paste is too thick, add in more extra virgin olive oil to reach the desired consistency.

Key Ingredients: tomato, tulsi, basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, mozzarella cheese

Panzenella

Panzenella is a Tuscan bread salad, ideal for summer. It does not follow a particular recipe. but the two ingredients that do not change are tomatoes and bread. This salad is great with a chilled glass of Prosecco and lots of sunshine!

Ingredients

• 1 kg large fresh juicy tomatoes
  
  1 medium cucumber
  
  100 gm small mild olives
  
  1 medium onion, sliced
  
  100 gm sun dried tomatoes and their oil
  
  1 handful oregano, chopped
  
  1 handful parsley, chopped
  
  2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
  2 tbsp good balsamic vinegar
  
  1 pinch sugar
  
  Salt and pepper
  
  1 loaf Italian cibatta or French baguette, torn into pieces

Method

Chop the tomatoes and cucumber roughly into 1 cm cubes, and place in a large bowl.

Stir in all the remaining ingredients except the bread, and taste for seasoning.

Add some lemon juice if you want a more tart salad.

Put the salad in the fridge and leave, covered, overnight until you are ready to eat. The flavor will melt into something magical.

Immediately before serving, tear the bread into small pieces and stir into the salad.

Words from the chef
Sometimes I toast the bread lightly and also add some red and yellow bell peppers. The key to this salad is that the tomatoes have to be juicy. If they aren't, just add a few spoons of tomato juice to the salad.

 Ingredients: tomato, cucumber, bread, olives, onion,

oregano, parsley, garlic, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper