Archive for 'Recipes'

We've already shown you how to make the famous Cacciucco alla Viareggina but the best known variety of this type of dish is actually Cacciucco alla Livornese from the town of Livorno on the Tuscan coast. Find a holiday rental in Livorno to try out the real deal and give the recipe a go for yourself for now.

Pizza evolved from flatbread dishes made in Naples in the 18th and 19th centuries. The archetypal flavour, Margherita, also comes from that part of the country and its origins are steeped in local legend. Supposedly, it was first made in 1889 when the Queen of Italy, Margherita, was visiting. The tale goes that the Royal Palace of Capodimonte commissioned Neapolitan pizzaiolo, Raffaele Esposito to produce a dish for the queen. He made three options and the queen favoured the one with tomatoes, basil and Mozzarella, recalling the colours of the Italian flag. The pizza was then named for the queen and continues to bear her name to this day. Though the legend has been disputed by scholars and recent research, the dish remains popular all over the world. However, the best place in the world to try it has to be in Naples itself. Find a villa with pool in Campania, visit Naples, give the real deal a try and be ruined for pizza outside of Italy forever more.

Pollo alla Cacciatora is a reasonably well-known dish outside of Italy due to the fact that it is often on the menus of Italian restaurants around the world and has even begun appearing among the pre-packaged ready-meals from Italian food ranges in supermarkets. Literally meaning “hunter's chicken” (more literally, "chicken cooked hunter-style"), the name probably comes from the fact that this dish has typically always been made with rabbit and game birds – the types of meat brought back to the home by hunters as most Italian food has peasant roots. The slow, gentle braise employed by this recipe is ideal for delicious meats that can potentially become dry and stringy if not carefully prepared. Coming from the Le Marche region, this dish is best tasted while holidaying there but you can also try it out for yourself with the recipe below. Once you've tasted it, you're sure to be in need of an Italian escape. Find a villa with pool in Le Marche and spend a vacation eating, swimming and enjoying the perfectly picturesque surroundings.

Have you ever tasted polenta? As well as the popular staples of pasta, pizza and risotto, polenta is an extremely popular food in northern Italy. The original recipe was extremely nutritious as it was made by grinding down mixed grains like farro, millet and sometimes chickpeas before mixing with water to make a paste.

It’s then cooked in a pot as a type of porridge but it was commonly poured onto a hot slap of stone and cooked on the side of a fire to make a type of cake. It’s believed that this method may have even pre-dated the making of leavened bread.

Here we are again for another Friday Recipe Roundup! We try each week to bring to you the best recipes, be they modern or rustic Italian, to inspire your cooking at home and on vacation! We search many wonderful food blogs to bring the best recipes we can, but there is a wealth of information out there to be found!

• Pear Balls with Parmeaan and Toasted Seasame Seed from Lucullian Delights


• Lemon Macarons with Limoncello White Chocolate Ganache from Ms Adventures in Italy

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