BellaItalia food store Blog

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.

Pasta is such a great ingredient and we love to cook it almost every day, changing recipes and sauces to create something different for every meal.

So in the past year, we added to our shop a larger selection of Gluten-free products, in particular pasta, because we know how hard it can be to find alternatives when you can’t eat gluten. 

Nobody should skip the Sunday Ragu, so here are our favorite Gluten-free options!

As for many traditions, this one began a long time ago and probably not how you would expect: Saint Valentine was a Martyr of early Christianity. One legend tells the story of Valentine as a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for soldiers, Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, deified Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.

One of the most popular chocolates for Saint Valentine’s Day are the “Baci” - “kisses” in Italian - Perugina. These small chocolates filled with gianduia cream and decorated with an entire hazelnut are both delicious and romantic as each of them contains a small note with a different quote or aphorism about love.

Baci’s story is quite adventurous: they were invented by Luisa Spagnoli who named them “Cazzotti” - punches in Italian - for their peculiar shape. Giovanni Buitoni, who was in love with Luisa, immediately suggested changing the name to Baci, imagining that young men would prefer to go to the patisserie and ask “Mi dai un Bacio?” - “Will you give me a kiss?” - instead of “Will you give me a punch?”.

Choosing the right presents for your loved ones is not always easy, but we know something that can make everybody happy: Italian food!

Ok, we are biased, but especially this year food can have a great role in making us happier and it is also an original gift idea.

We put together 3 shopping lists to help you get started and if you still can’t choose...just remember there are always Gift Cards! This year we added some original designs so you can choose the best style for your gifts!