Orange Cake

It’s  a cold and snowy afternoon, so sitting in front of the fireplace  we sip a hot  tea( a little bit English style) and  a simple cake

Torta d' Arancia

• 300 g Sugar 
• 3 large eggs
• 2 oranges
• 350 g flour                                
• Butter 100 gr                
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Start by squeezing the oranges .Melt the butter.

Beat the egg yolks with sugar until frothy, add now  the orange  juice .

Now slowly add the flour and stir quickly  not  to form lumps, then add the melted butter and baking powder.

Now whisk the egg whites until stiff and embed them into the mixture

.Butter a cake pan, pour the compost in  and bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

When  ready decorate with powder sugar.

Hearts with Pumpkin

Valentine's Day Recipe

For the dough:               
300 g flour                  
3 eggs                
1 tablespoon of olive oil   
a pinch of salt
For the filling:
200 kg of pumpkin
80 g of grated Parmesan cheese
50 g cream
50 g of bread crumbs
2 eggs     
nutmeg and salt to taste
for 27 hearts

Clean the pumpkin, removing the seeds from the central part , cut into thick slices, wash and dry them, then put them to cook in the oven at 200 ° C for one hour.

When the pumpkin is cooked, remove the peel and pass the pulp through a strainer, collecting it in a bowl.

Add the eggs, cream, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, salt and nutmeg.Stir  the mixture with a  spoon and then let it rest for a few hours.

 With flour, eggs, oil and a pinch of salt, prepare the dough and roll it out , not too thin. Cut into squares. Place in the center of each square a spoonful of filling, fold in on itself and cut with a heart shaped cookie-cutter .Press the edges with your fingers  to make it adhere well.

Boil a pot of salted water, bring to a boil, pour the hearts  (7/8 at a time) in the water  to cook  for seven or eight minutes.

Pull them out of the water with a slotted spoon when they float, pour in layers in a bowl and toss with butter, sage and parmesan cheese.

How to prepare an easy Italian Christmas dessert

Today we want to offer a nice idea for an easy and quick Italian Christmas dessert :

Albero di Natale

A Pandoro Christmas- Tree shaped:

Buy a Pandoro (it cannot be prepared properly in a normal family oven).

Slice it large side. Rebuild it turning the layers to shape a tree.

Decorate with whipped cream ,pomegranate or colourful decoration, such as those little round coloured chocolate everybody knows .

Tomatoes, Olives , Capers snd Basil Spaghetti Sauce

Puttanesca sauce is made from tomatoes, black olives, capers, anchovies,  garlic, and herbs, usually oregano and parsley but sometimes also basil.  It is an easy sauce, briefly cooked, or  no cooed and served cold in summertime It' s very fragrant and spicy.  The name derives from the Italian word "puttana" which means whore.  Why does we call it with this name?  There are multiple explanations.
Whatever its origins, Puttanesca is a tasty sauce.  There are many different recipes, most of them varying on the amounts of the ingredients.  Below there is the one we prefer

Salsa alla Puttanesca

150g black olives

150g green olives

500g peeled tomatoes

6 anchovies

1 spoonful  of capers

garlic

Salt  and pepper

Oregano

Olive oil

Chop  the garlic, olives, anchovies and cappers . Put them in a saucepan with oil and fry gently for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes, season to taste with salt , pepper and oregano. Simmer for a further 20 minutes. Cook the pasta an pour over the sauce, toss everything together and serve at once or put in the oven at 200° C for 10 minutes.

Suggestion: in summer you can use fresh tomatoes. Cut tomatoes and olives, anchovies and caper and place them in a bowl. Add the oil, mixing well. Cook the pasta and add immediately the sauce.  Put it in the refrigerator for a few hours

Tuscan Week Menu

An idea for a Tuscan menu from Toscana Mia cooking classes last week


Apetizer/Starter  Antipasto

Black Olives Crostini  
Crostini alle Olive Nere

http://toscanamiacooking.blogspot.it/2011/12/italian-black-olives-apetizer.html

First course Primo Pasta

Tuscan Spaghetti with  Garlic and Cherry Tomatoes  
                           Pici all' Aglione 

http://toscanamiacooking.blogspot.it/2011/12/how-to-make-pici.html

http://toscanamiacooking.blogspot.it/2011/12/cherry-tomatoes-garlic-sauce.html

Second Course  Secondo 
Balsamic Vinegar Scaloppine Scaloppine all' Aceto Balsamico

http://toscanamiacooking.blogspot.it/2012/03/scaloppine-balsamic-for-poultry-day.html

Contorno
Beans Tuscan Way   Fagioli al Fiasco

http://toscanamiacooking.blogspot.it/2009/01/cooking-cookery-typical-tuscan-cooking.html

Dessert  Dolce 
Panna Cotta with Chocolate and Safron Panna Cotta con Cioccolato e Zafferano

http://toscanamiacooking.blogspot.it/2009/10/panna-cotta-in-tuscany.html 

Black Olives crostini

Pici with Garlic and Cherry Tomatoes

Fagioli al Fiasco

Pici all' Aglione

balsamic Vinegar with Beans

Panna Cotta with chocolate

Panna Cotta with Safron and Chocolate