Panettone is Italy’s traditional Christmas dessert, but some people will indulge in Pandoro as well, which is often identified with Easter in Italy as the cake of choice for that season. If you’re like me, you’ll find Italian Christmas desserts a little boring compared to the richer, Anglo Saxon pudding or Christmas cake. In which case, you can jazz up your Pandoro to make it more exciting.

You can use grapes and other fruit with your Pandoro, inserting them on skewers and then, in turn, inserting them into the gaps in the Pandoro cake. To decorate, you can use some vine leaves, even spraying them with anti-toxic gold paint to give them a little more sparkle. Another option (my personal favourite) is to cover your pandoro with chocolate sauce and candied fruit.

If you want some ideas as to what to do with the leftover panettone, we’re doing something a little more English, and making a trifle with what’s left of ours. Another option is to make a red currant sauce, melting some red currant gelatine in a saucepan and adding some orange juice. Pour it over the cake and decorate with some currants and mint leaves.

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If you were wondering what the red stuff was in your Italian Christmas dish, or New Year’s Eve recipe, you may find it was the red endive, or chicory, currently in season in Italy and used in various Italian recipes as a traditional product. It gives a special touch to a dish, with its red colour appropriate for the season’s festivities. It’s slightly bitter and crunchy and works well as a side serve to many dishes.

Italy has many types of red chicory, five of which have IGP classification. The most precious is the late picked Treviso chicory, with long, narrow leaves, which is picked between December and February. Treviso also has an early growing variety with wider leaves, that is picked between October and November.

There is also the red chicory of Castelfranco, with its yellow speckled leaves and delicate flavour. The area of Chioggia also has its own variety, with a round tuft or head, while the variety from Verona has an oval shape.

If you want to try an unusual Italian seafood dish, try red chicory with swordfish pieces, adding some anchovies and a little garlic, parsley and white wine. Start by slicing the anchovies and cooking with a little garlic, parsley and wine. Wash the chicory and cut into strips, placing in an oven proof dish by alternating layers of chicory, swordfish pieces, and the anchovy sauce. Cook in a very hot oven, at about 220 degrees, for four to five minutes.

Source | Gustoblog.it

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Continue reading: Traditional Italian products: red chicory for Christmas and winter recipes

The most classic Italian recipe for New Year’s Eve in Italy is ‘cotechino‘ with ‘lenticchie’, or boiled pork sausage with lentils. The lentils are said to bring good fortune for the New Year, and the dish is usually prepared on December 31st. If you want to try a innovative version of this traditional Italian recipe, see below for how you can make a carpaccio cotechino.

Ingredients: 300 grams of cooked but cold cotechino, 200 grams of fresh spinach, one teaspoon of raisins, one tablespoon of sliced almonds, one tablespoon of pine nuts, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt.

Take the skin off the cotechino and cut into small slices. Wash the spinach, dry them and distribute them on the plate. Add some salt and then the slices of cotechino. Garnish the lot with the almonds, pine nuts and raisins. Drizzle over some oil and add a couple of drops of the balsamic vinegar.

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This is one Italian dessert recipe which, when made at home, will certainly impress your guests, and can be considered the icing on the cake of your Italian Christmas dinner. Like any pastry, getting this part right is the trick, after which you if get over that hurdle, you can fill it with what you damn well like…! Well, not exactly. Cannoli are a traditional Sicilian pastry filled with ricotta, which is also the base of Sicily’s famous cassata dessert.

Ingredients for the shell: 300 grams of sieved flour, 10 grams of caster sugar, half a glass of Marsala fortified wine, a pinch of salt, icing sugar and olive oil. Ingredients for the filling: 500 grams of fresh ricotta, 200 grams of icing sugar, 100 grams of cubed candied fruit, 100 grams of dark chocolate flakes, one tiny packet of vanilla powder (less than a teaspoon), a pinch of powdered cinnamon, milk as needed.

To prepare the shells, you need to place the sifted flour in a little mountain, make a crater and pour in the Marsala. Add the sugar and a pinch of salt, and knead until you get a consistent, almost solid mixture. Form a large ball, wrap in a cloth and leave to rest for two hours. After resting, roll out the pastry to a maximum of four millimetres thick and cut into rectangles of 10 cm down one side. Using a metal cylinder to form the shape, roll each rectangle from one opposite corner to the other to create a hollow shell. Heat the oil in a pan and place each shell in the pan, tossing them until well cooked, and allowing the oil to drain off a little at the end of the cooking.

You’re now ready to fill the cannoli. Create the filling by mixing the ricotta, icing sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, candied fruit, chocolate and a couple of drops of milk together. Fill the canoli and dust with a little icing sugar as a finishing touch. A sweet Marsala is probably the best food-wine match with your canoli.

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If you are planning to prepare a salted-codfish dish, don’t forget to soak the fish in water for at least 24 hours. In many parts of Italy, codfish is often one of the main courses at Christmas dinner on December 24th. However if you want to prepare something really delicious here ’s a pasta recipe which features salted codfish and black olives:

300 g trenette pasta, 200g salt codfish; 15 small tomatoes; 1 scallion; black olives; half a glass of white wine, extra virgin oil; salt and pepper.

Preparation: Brown the scallion in a little oil. Throw in the chopped codfish and then pour in the wine. When it has evaporated, add the tomatoes and the stoned olives. Pour in a glass of water and cook for a while. In the meanwhile cook the pasta in slightly salted water, drain and throw in the frying pan. Stir and then serve. If you wish you can also add orange zest.

Photo | Fiore S. Barbato

Continue reading: Italian Christmas recipes: trenette pasta with codfish and olives

This ragù recipe is what you need for your Christmas dinner, especially if you are planning to cook lamb roast as a second course. Here are the ingredients for the ragout: 100 g sausage; tomato sauce, garlic clove; half a glass of dry white wine; 400 g minced beef; 1 thick slice of lard; Parmesan cheese; salt and pepper.

Preparation: brown the garlic in a little oil, remove and then add the lard, the sausage and the minced beef, stir well and cook for a few minutes. Next pour in the wine and keep stirring. When the wine has evaporated, add the tomato sauce and the Parmesan cheese. Cover with a lid, turn down the heat and cook for a few minutes. In the meanwhile cook the tagliatelle al dente, drain and stir into the sauce! It’s delicious!

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This Italian Christmas recipe is used as part of the initial Christmas toast at the beginning of the meal, and is an Italian seafood, Christmas pasta recipe.

The ingredients for four people are: 400 grams of tagliatelle, 300 grams of turbot fish, six scallops, 3oo grams of peeled tiger prawns, two shallots, one carrot, a glass of white wine, a ladle of fish broth, basil, chives, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, oil, salt and pepper.

Chop the shallots into large pieces, peel the carrot and chop it finely. Sautee them in a pan with the bay leaves and some oil. Pour in a little wine and then the broth, and heat on low heat for ten minutes. Remove the bay leaves and shallots, add the chopped herbs and then the chopped turbot, the scallops and the prawns and cook for five minutes on low heat.

Cook the pasta (if fresh, you will only need to boil it for a minute or more), drain it and add it to the pan with the seafood sauce. Mix the ingredients through on high heat, and when serving add a little oil, parsley and pepper. See our post for tips on how to cook the perfect pasta.

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Continue reading: Italian Christmas recipes: homemade seafood pasta