Selection of Great Italian Recipes and Wine Selections

I love Italian food. How many times have you heard that uttered? There's something fantastic about the aromour and the shear joy of eating that Italians are famous the world over for their recipes and fine wines.

Here is a selection of Italian food articles submitted to the Liberated site over the last six months.

Secret Recipes Frittlers (Italian Pasties)

Hello a couple months ago I did an article on my families all time favourite secret recipe Frittlers (Italian Pasties). There is 2 ways you can make them one is with oil the other without oil. I love them both ways out of 5 with oil I give it 5 without oil I give it 4.75 still sensational. The article I did 2 months ago was with oil so I’ve updated this with the way to do it without oil.
The reason for this without oil is healthier then with oil so if you would like to try it but without oil this is for you. I have them both ways and love them.

Firstly the oil recipe I did 2-3 months ago is below and underneath it is how to do it without oil Secret Recipes Frittlers Part 2 (Italian Pasties).
You are in for a treat. We name the recipe Frittlers (Italian Pasties)
With Oil Secret Recipes Frittlers Part 1 (Italian Pasties)

Ingredients
7g yeast, 1 cup lukewarm water – if need more add extra but don’t make it soggy, 3 cups plain flour, pinch of salt, pepper, cheese, not mozzarella cheese but either shredded tasty cheese or shredded plain cheese, ham, tomatoes, tuna (chunk tuna) instead of ham canola oil
Put flour in bowl make a hole in the centre then add water and yeast mix together with pinch of salt. Work the dough don’t make it real dry. Then put in plastic bag, close bag up. Then put in a warm spot such as under blankets somewhere warm for about 1hour to 1.5 hours for it to rise to double its size.

While it’s rising get ham and cheese, not mozzarella cheese but either shredded tasty cheese or shredded plain cheese. Cut up ham add cheese then mix together.

Roll out dough to pasty round sizes do one at a time, add ham, cheese and sprinkle of pepper no salt then roll up pasty. When rolled up with filling at the ends with a fork press it and go around the edges. Then prick it lightly with fork twice around the middle.

Continue doing that until finished. Once done put 2 at a time in a frying pan with canola oil so oil covers the whole lot make sure oil is hot. (Just be careful because of heat) Cook to nice gold colour about 4-5 minutes then turn over and do other side. Take them out and put on paper towel to get rid of some of the oil. Can eat them basically straight away or you might wait to they cool down that is up to you.

There is no problems with freezing them they still taste fantastic.

If you want to add tomatoes you can but have it within 24 hours but don’t freeze any with tomatoes, what I do is if take them out the freezer when they thaw out I cut in half and add tomato and put in oven or griller.
Can also have chunk tuna instead of ham with the cheese. Tuna and cheese is also okay to freeze.
Also if you like you can add chopped up onion or anything that you enjoy.

Without Oil Secret Recipes Frittlers Part 2 (Italian Pasties)

You do exactly the same as with oil but instead of using oil and cooking them in a frying pan put them in the oven for roughly 10-15 minutes on 200 Degrees Celsius or 400 Degrees Fahrenheit then flip over again for extra 10 minutes and enjoy. (You can put on just a touch of oil on the Frittlers just before putting them in the oven).

This family secret recipe is one your family and friends will really appreciate, bon appetite!
Secret Recipes Frittlers Part 2 (Italian Pasties)

About The Author
Tony Pescatore loves Secret Recipes like his own Secret Recipe Frittlers (Italian Pasties). To find Secret Recipes you won't find Anywhere Else go to http://www.tpescatore.com/Recommends/SecretRecipes.


I Love Italian Wine and Food - The Tuscany Region
By: Levi Reiss

If you are looking for fine Italian wine and food, consider the Tuscany region of central Italy. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you’ll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour. Tuscany is located on the central western part of Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It gets its name from an Etruscan tribe that settled the area about three thousand years ago. It has belonged to the Romans, the Lombards, and the Franks.

More than four hundred years ago under the Medicis, Tuscany became a major European center. It is undoubtedly one of Italy’s top tourist destinations as well as an ideal place for your villa when you hit it big, really big. According to one Seinfeld episode there are no villas to rent in Tuscany, but that was several years ago. On the other hand, time in Tuscany as elsewhere in Italy is measured in centuries.

Tuscany’s total population is about 3.5 million. Florence is the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and the administrative center of Tuscany. It is one of Italy’s top tourist destinations, whose sites of interest are too numerous to list here. Siena and Pisa are two other major tourist destinations. Tuscany is a center of industrial production, in particular metallurgy, chemicals, and textiles. Given the region’s importance as an international art center for centuries, don’t be surprised that it is an excellent place to appreciate and purchase fashion, jewelry, leather goods, marble, and other items of beauty. Florence is the home of the house of Gucci.

Tuscany produces a wide variety of cereal, olives, vegetables, and fruit. But not only vegetarians eat well. It is home to cattle, horses, pigs, and poultry. One local specialty is wild boar. On the coast, seafood is abundant. Tuscany devotes over one hundred fifty thousand acres to grapevines, it ranks 4th among the 20 Italian regions. Its total annual wine production is about 58 million gallons, giving it an 8th place. About 70% of the wine production is red or rosé, leaving 30% for white.

The region produces 44 DOC wines. DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, which may be translated as Denomination of Controlled Origin, presumably a high-quality wine and 7 DOCG white wine. The G in DOCG stands for Garantita, but there is in fact no guarantee that such wines are truly superior. The region produces 9 DOC wines. Tuscany also produces Super Tuscan wines, wines that may not have a prestigious classification but that are known to be outstanding.

These wines are arguably the main reason that Italy was forced to revise its wine classification system. Fully 55% of Tuscan wine carries the DOC or DOCG designation. And remember, many of Tuscany’s best wines carry neither designation. Tuscany! is home to more than three dozen major and secondary grape varieties, about half white and half red. Widely grown international white grape varieties include Trebbiano, Malvasia, and Sauvignon Blanc.

The best-known strictly Italian white varieties are Vermentino and Vernaccia. Widely grown international red grape varieties include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The best-known Italian red variety is Sangiovese, which is grown elsewhere, including California. A strictly Italian variety is Canaiolo. Before reviewing the Tuscan wine and cheese that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are a few suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region. Start with Panzanella, Bread and Tomato Salad. For a second course, eat or share a Bistecca alla Fiorentina, (Texas-sized) Beef Steak. If you have room, indulge in a Torta Rustica, Cornmeal Cake with Cream.


OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY

While we have communicated with well over a thousand Italian wine producers and merchants to help prepare these articles, our policy is clear. All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price. Wine Reviewed Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico 2004 12.8% alcohol about $21 I’ll start by quoting the marketing materials. “…A wine that would complement a veal chop or game birds, expect aromas of cranberry and cherry. On the palate, it should be round and ripe with enough tannin for balance.” As a point of interest, the label included the warning “contains sulphites” in ten languages.

I first tasted this wine with slow-cooked boneless beef ribs and potatoes accompanied by a spicy commercial Turkish salad. The wine was thick, loaded with plum and cherry flavors, and some tobacco. The tannins were moderate. Dessert was a cocoa cake whose label said strudel. The wine went well, its fruit really came out. I next tasted the Chianti Classico with slow-cooked meat balls, cauliflower and chickpeas in a tomato sauce, and potato wedges. The wine was plumy and powerful, with very pleasant tannins, a little tobacco and a little earth. Just so you know, I’m not usually partial to tannins. The wine was so round that I enjoyed finishing the glass when the food was gone. No dessert this time. I decided to follow the distributor’s suggestion and grilled a veal chop with a mixture of spices (minced onion, cayenne, and a bit of curry powder), accompanied by grilled eggplant slices with the same spices, and a commercially prepared Turkish salad, based on red pepper and tomato.

The wine bounced nicely off the delicious somewhat fat, somewhat rare meat. It didn’t add flavors of its own, but accompanied the food’s flavors excellently. It was powerful, but not overpowering. As its name indicates, Pecorino Toscano cheese comes from Tuscany, where it has been made from sheep’s milk for thousands of years. The cheese is moderately strong smelling and has a complex nutty flavor. The wine was smooth and round and had a pleasant tinge of tobacco. Just for the record I am not a smoker. In the presence of Asiago cheese from the Trentino-Alto Adige region of northern Italy, the wine became more robust. I remember when Chianti came in straw-covered bottles. In fact, I remember the bottles more than the wine itself. But times have changed.

This Chianti Classico was excellent, quite deserving of its top-of-the-line DOCG classification and well worth the price.

About The Author
Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His wine website is http://www.theworldwidewine.com/.

Editors from LPR contribute to the Liberated Blog by selecting and highlighting some of the best articles and also posting some amusing stories.

Other Food and Wine Links From LPR


Vacation To Italy And Get A Major Dose Of History By:-will mooreFrom Naples to Florence to Rome; Italy has fabulous culture and history. Travel to Italy and enjoy your stay one of their luxurious hotels.

Italian Food and Wine Suggestion - Eat and Drink With The Italian Style By:-Ann CoveneyStart with Panzanella, Bread and Tomato Salad. For a second course, eat or share a Bistecca alla Fiorentina, (Texas-sized) Beef Steak. If you have room, indulge in a Torta Rustica, Cornmeal Cake with Cream.