Gourmet Italian

Tiramisu has become an Italian dessert that is enormously popular everywhere. Tokyo’s elite considered serving this to be a status symbol. It first was introduced to the United States via Maimi and San Francisco.

photo credit: silas216 Palermo, the capital of Sicily, is the birthplace of the one of the most famous Italian Dessert recipes – the fabulous cannoli.  Way back when, wealthy people would make a gift of cannoli to their friends at the time of their annual carnival.  Cannoli is actually the plural of cannolo.  You don’t [...]

photo credit: jessicafm You won’t find a more authentic Italian food than the Italian pasta and bean soup called Pasta e Fagioli or Pasta Fagioli.  This is an ancient peasant dish and some say you will find the best ever made in Tuscany.  It always includes lot of vegetables, beans  and herbs and some smallish [...]

photo credit: thebittenword.com Simple Italian soups are so welcome this time of year, and none are more comforting that Split Pea and Potato soup!    A nice warm bowl of soup, a crusty chunk of bread and a fireplace and I’m in heaven.  The addition of potatoes to the pea soup just make it that [...]

photo credit: VirtualErn Beef braised with Italian red wine – Stracotto al Barolo – is one of my favorite comfort foods!  This Piemontese Pot Roast is cooked in Barolo red wine.  Barolo is sometimes referred to as the king of wines, for its rich flavor and wonderful aroma.  Barolo had admirers throughout Europe as early [...]

photo credit: JOE M500 I had this Italian Easy 5-layer Dip at a party a few years ago and now I serve it at my own dinner parties.  Everyone loves it.  What’s not to love about cheese and pesto, right?  It doesn’t get much more Italian than that.  Plus it has roasted red bell peppers, [...]

photo credit: gildas_f Italian food and wine lovers know the secret to a good stromboli is to have a good dough to start with.  The stromboli was actually given its name in a hoagie shop outside of Philadelphia in 1950.  The chef named Nat Romano was selling these lots of these baked sandwiches he thought [...]