BellaItalia food store Blog

During summer we like to enjoy the good weather and I find myself trying to spend less time in the kitchen and more time outside! This simple Pasta Salad recipe is super easy to make but is still tasty and colorful!

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Summer has officially begun in Italy and I am as always trying new recipes. As you know I love to rediscover the simple ingredients of the Italian culinary tradition and for a special lunch I made Paccheri with Broad Beans and Shrimp. Everyone loved them, and I am sure you will too!

Here is what you need for this recipe...

There are endless recipes to choose from, but today I’m making this one that I particularly love…Chanterelles Mushrooms - Finferli in Italian - and Potatoes!

Chanterelles Mushrooms are called “Jallucc” in the Cercese dialect because their shape resembles the rooster's comb. Not only that: when they grow, they raise the undergrowth leaves and come out just like the roosters that dominate the hen house with their bulk and crest.

Our goal for this summer is to eat more vegetables than ever and try to rediscover plants that we are not used to finding in supermarkets anymore, but used to be super popular for our grandparents.

The Mediterranean Diet is full of options but sometimes we forget how tasty even the most plain vegetables can be when cooked following the right recipe!

For today’s recipe, I am using Chicory - Cicoria in Italian. This tasty plant is often used as a forage crop and can be found as a wild plant in Italy and all over Europe, North America, China, and Australia.

Collecting and cleaning Chicory is not easy if you are not used to it, but the taste is absolutely worth it! Let’s make Gratin Chicory!

For the peasant people of Cercemaggiore, our small village in the mountains of Molise, one of the most popular foods was the 'pizza' made with cornflour. The flour obtained from the yellow/orange grains of the 'agostinelli' corn - so called because it ripens as early as the end of August - once upon a time was the most available ingredient for everyone. And so the women of the house worked with their hands and their imagination to vary the diet while using up their stocks.

Today we can do the same, following their example: here is the simple 'pizza' recipe, seasoned only with salt and perhaps with a few grains of wild fennel. The traditional Pizza was cooked slowly on top of the hearth, covered with a metal or terracotta cup on which hot coals were distributed. Today, just as slowly, we let it cook in the electric oven.

Among the rural traditions of my village, Cercemaggiore, the feast of San Martino on November 11th is of great importance: the sowing, a crucial moment for the survival of the entire rural community, has been completed and therefore there is a desire for celebration in the whole village.

The traditional cuisine of St. Martin's day follows some precise rules. First of all, the previous day we make the “Pizza di San Martino”, a sweet pie enriched with nuts which, out of devotion to the Saint who shared his cloak with the beggars, will be divided into pieces to be distributed to relatives and neighbors. On the day of San Martino, for lunch, it is tradition to make cavatelli with rooster sauce. Finally, the new wine will accompany the meal, which will end with chestnuts roasted on hot coals in their special pan.
Just like today, chestnuts had to be bought because in the countryside of Cercemaggiore there are no chestnut trees; this was the typical purchase made in the form of barter: you brought a bag of “Granoni”- corn - to the shop and you received half a bag of chestnuts in exchange.

Let’s make the Pizza di San Martino together!

Halloween is probably the most popular “imported” holiday in Italy. In the past years, we have seen it become more and more popular and kids love it, so I wanted to make something special to celebrate.

Luckily for us, Pumpkins are pretty easy to find in this season and I found some incredibly pretty (and tasty!) ones for this recipe!

Let’s see how I made the “Scary” Halloween Risotto!

Being Italian means that we eat pasta almost every day, and yet we are never bored of it. This is because we have so many recipes and variations that it is never the same!

For tonight I made this simple Pasta Salad perfect for Autumn and I thought I could share the recipe since it is super easy to make and incredibly tasty!

Here are the ingredients for 4 people:

Autumn in Italy brings back so many traditions! One of the most loved and known is the “Vendemmia” - the grape harvest.

In Molise, our small region in the South of Italy, the typical Grape kind is called Tintilia, and this is exactly what I used to make Mosto Cotto. Tintilia is a DOC Grape Variety - DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata (controlled designation of origin), so it can be found specifically in our area. Even if you do not have enough grapes to make wine, Italian cookbooks have something for you! This year I decided to make these fragrant Biscuits with cooked must.

What is Mosto cotto?Mosto cotto is made by cooking the liquid that results from the whole grape pressings including seeds and skin. By cooking it, the liquid is reduced to a sweet syrup that can be used for many recipes!

The first step is to grind the almonds, as finely as you like. I like to grind mine not too fine for a rustic consistency.

Mix the almonds flour with OO flour, sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Add the grated lemon peel for extra flavor.

Knead all the ingredients with the cooked must. The dough should be soft to knead and the must will make it quite sticky: help yourself with parchment paper and a bit of extra flour to roll out a thin layer of dough.

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One of the most precious fruits in my kitchen are without a doubt Figs and Pears! I am lucky enough to have these amazing trees near my house and, come September, they are always so full of delicious fruits that I simply have to come up with recipes not to waste even one of these gifts of nature!

These delicate and sweet fruits are amazing to make sweet Jams (I have a post about my secret to make an easy and delicious homemade jam every time) but are also great to accompany with other more savory ingredients to create the ultimate charcuterie boards for a stylish and tasty Italian Aperitivo!

Cheese and Pears