BellaItalia food store Blog

I love making fresh fruit jams: The recipe is so simple and it allows us to preserve these delicious summer fruits so that not a single cherry is wasted!

We decided to make Peas with “Pallotte casce e ove” - cheese and eggs balls. This recipe was created, like all the other dishes of our tradition, from a very poor cuisine, dependent on the availability of ingredients: we used to eat according to the season and using every last bit of what a well-curated vegetable garden could offer, as well as what the chickens and the sheeps made gradually available: our grandparents got super creative with what they had!

I’m back with another typical recipe that we love to make around this time of the year. In Cercemaggiore it is called Torchio and I wanted to share a bit more about its history and the beautiful traditions that it is connected to.

For this year’s Mother’s Day, I decided to try a new recipe. Pesche all’Alchemes - Alchemes “peaches” - are a very refined dessert and they look super elegant. Moreover, the pink color felt perfect for Mother’s Day!

Making these Peaches was easier than I thought so I am super happy to share the recipe with all of you!

Pasta e Fagioli - Pasta with Beans - is a classic of the Italian Culinary tradition: it is considered a “poor” plate since it is quite cheap to make, but it is rich in taste and in nutrients! I love Pasta e Fagioli and I love to experiment with classic recipes, trying to spice things up and make them my own: this how I came up with today’s recipe!

Sunday calls for homemade pasta! I love making Cavatelli with Nonna Maria, she makes them every week for the whole family. Despite her age, she loves kneading and Cavatelli are definitely her masterpieces.

Last week we made Cavatelli together: I learned from my Nonna to make Cavatelli and it makes me super happy to see also my niece Sara helping and learning from her!

Once you learn to make pasta at home, everything seems possible. It takes only two ingredients and quite a lot of practice, but the results are incredible!

I hope you enjoy discovering traditional Italian recipes with me! Today we are making Fiadoni following the traditional recipe by Zia Angelina.

This year I was lucky to be able to make mine with Angela, an expert baker who knows many traditional recipes. Angela is an incredible cook and she is a precious source of knowledge when it comes to customs and traditions in our village: every time I cook with Angela I learn more about incredible stories, old recipes and ancient flavours, so this year I asked her to let me follow her secret recipe for the traditional Pastiera (which she rigorously cooks in the wood oven).

We are getting ready to celebrate San Giuseppe on March 19th. San Giuseppe is the father of Jesus, so in Italy this day corresponds also to Father’s Day!
Also this year, unfortunately, we will celebrate at home as restaurants are still closed, but this gives me an opportunity to bake at home one of my favorite desserts and to share with you my first recipe. Get ready to make Zeppole with me!

In this Blog we already shared a bit of our story. As you know Laura and her family came back to the US in 2014 and founded Bella Italia here with the mission of bringing the best Italian food anywhere in the world.

Our strong Italian roots are what distinguishes us: the rest of our family, which still lives in Italy, helps us everyday scouting the best artisanal producers and finding new products to add to our offer.