Alfredo Sauce – What You Must Know About Cooking With It

The secret to good Alfredo sauce is a combination of ingredients and technique. Unlike many Italian dishes, Alfredo sauce is extremely rich, with the base ingredient being cream. This makes this dish an excellent alternative to the standard red sauces and meats normally associated with Italian meals.

When you go to make your Alfredo sauce, you should make certain you have all of your ingredients prepared in advance. The process of making the sauce goes by very quickly, so you will want to make certain you have everything nearby so that you do not risk scorching your cream as you cook. As scorching the cream is the most common cause of ruin of an Alfredo dish, this simple preparation can prevent disaster.

The common ingredients of standard Alfredo sauce are: Continue reading “Alfredo Sauce – What You Must Know About Cooking With It”

Alaskan King Crab Over Toasted Pita Bread

This is a tasty appetizer that is extremely easy to make. It can be made in less than 30 minutes.

I spent a few days thinking about how to make an original recipe that is tasty as well. After a few attempts I finally came up with the creation you see listed below. The pita bread is tastier than crackers and lends a more sophisticated, custom, an tastier feel. Serve as hors devoirs if your having a party, your guests will surely enjoy this tasty treat!

Difficulty (Scale from 1-10): 4

Makes: 24 wedges Serves: 8 Continue reading “Alaskan King Crab Over Toasted Pita Bread”

Cooking Substitutions – Marsala Wine

If you’ve ever been to an Italian restaurant, you’ve encountered Marsala wine. Veal Marsala, chicken Marsala and many other classic Italian meals get their name simply by being cooked in this flavorful wine. But if you happen to be out of your vintage bottle of Marsala wine, don’t fret — most kitchens have enough of the secret ingredients on hand to fake a Marsala wine flavor.

Whether its because you don’t have Marsala on hand, or because you’d rather not have even traces of alcohol in your food, Marsala-like flavors are easily to create, though the exact flavor can not be faked. If you don’t mind alcohol and have a reasonably well-stocked liquor cabinet, just reach for dry sherry, Madeira wine, or Port. Any of these will be close enough to Marsala so that you get the bulk of the flavor you want. Of the three, Madeira is the closest match and the best substitute. Sherry is the last choice because it is salty, and also because its possible one of your guests will recognize the sherry taste and see where you “skimped” — if you consider this skimping. You can disguise the sherry taste a bit better by mixing it with vermouth (half and half sherry and vermouth). This will also add a little more complexity to the sometimes flat sherry taste.

Continue reading “Cooking Substitutions – Marsala Wine”

The Benefits Of Making Pasta A Regular Part Of Your Diet

Pasta is one of the best-loved comfort foods in the world. It is just as versatile as it is inexpensive and it can be served with a number of different sauces. Sadly, this is a simple carbohydrate meaning that your body breaks it down and burns it fast. As such, it is gotten a negative reputation among the weight loss community. Following, however, are several incredible reasons why this delicious dish should be made a regular part of your diet.

For busy people, this is one of the most portable foods out there. For instance, if you regularly pack your lunch for work, you can easily store this in a coverage dish and rewarm it at lunch time. This will provide a hearty, filling meal that will give you lots of energy and at a nominal cost. Bringing leftover pasta to work is infinitely cheaper than paying to have someone in a local deli make your lunch for you.

Another major benefit that you can gain from this food is the ability to make vegetables tasty. For instance, if you have a hard time getting your youngsters to eat lots of produce, this is a great way to sneak a colorful range of nutrient-dense veggies into your child’s meals. Your child will hardly know that you have diced up peppers, zucchini, tomatoes and olives into this dish. Continue reading “The Benefits Of Making Pasta A Regular Part Of Your Diet”

Where to Get the Best Pizza in Singapore?

Singapore is unique because it is a melting pot of cultures and a land of mixed races. Equally remarkable is its food and dining experiences. Whether you are into vegetable pizzas or a parma ham lover, an old school eater or a gourmet pizza fan, Singapore is for everyone. The place is full of pizza surprises – flash baked, wood-fired and oven baked; thick, thin or stuffed and we may always love them all.

Visit Bottura

Now, the question is where we can get them. If you want to have a thin crust pizza topped with mozzarella cheese which has a fresh, vibrant, assembled and unexpected feel to it, go to Bottura in Temasek Boulevard. Its Melone Pizza contains the classic appetisers of Parma ham and rock melon. The pie comprises of the ultra thin sliced sweet rock melon, fresh shaved Parma ham, ripped mozzarella sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil.

Come to California Pizza Kitchen Continue reading “Where to Get the Best Pizza in Singapore?”

Using Unknown Spices, The New Recipe Challenge

When a recipe calls for allspice or some spice or flavoring you’ve never heard of, do you immediately run to the store? Or maybe the first thing you do is look in your drawer or shelf full of spices and see if you have it already. Then you question whether it is still good, because you can’t remember when you last used it or what you used it for.

Don’t panic. First take a little of the spice you have had for a while and shake some into the palm of your hand. Take a spoon and rub it against the spice in your palm. Take a whiff. Does it give off a pleasing smell? If not, that means one of two things. Either the spice is too old and you should replenish it, or it means that you may not like the smell of the spice. And if you don’t like the smell, then chances are you are not going to like the taste much either.

The good news is that you don’t have to go to the grocery store to buy something you don’t like. You’ve just saved yourself a lot of time. Nor do you have to abandon the recipe. In this case allspice is called allspice, because many think it tastes like a blend of the three important bakery spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. No doubt you are fond of one of these and have one or all of them in your spice cabinet. Continue reading “Using Unknown Spices, The New Recipe Challenge”

A List of the Most Popular Italian Pizzas

When we say Italian cuisines, we’re definitely talking about pizza. Nine out of ten people are thinking of pizza when they want to go out for Italian. Perhaps many countries own various national dishes, but only few of them become an international all-time favorite. For Italy, they have two popular dishes: pasta and of course pizza.

Pizza didn’t actually started in Italy, it began in the Middle East where pieces of flat bread were used to hold toppings or seasoned oil and eaten without using any plates or tableware. The Greeks called this early pizza plankuntos and it was basically used as an edible plate when eating stews or thick broth. It was not yet what we would call pizza today. There are numerous well-known varieties of pizza in Italy, but the Pizza Margherita have set the standard. Continue reading “A List of the Most Popular Italian Pizzas”

Italians And Their Pasta

Nobody can really tell where pasta originated. Almost every country all over the globe has a version of this food. Wherever there is wheat, there pasta seemingly is – in some form or another.

The Japanese refer to pasta as udon, the Chinese call it mein, French people call it nouilles, those who live in Poland refer to it as pierogi, Germans say it is spaetzle, and the Siberians, pel’meni.

The Italians bravely claim that pasta is all theirs from the beginning since it has fed the poorest southern Italian regions for hundreds of years. The gentle texture of pasta is a great partner to all sorts of toppings, spices and sauces. It has also been attributed to a lot of unique names as the Italians cannot seem to resist giving the strings, ribbons and other shapes with different names. Continue reading “Italians And Their Pasta”

Bread Dipping Oil: The Simple Appetizer Solution

If there is one thing that has taken the country by storm, it is the push to have restaurants do more than just stuff one’s face. People are becoming more interested in having taste experiences, and a part of this food revolution is the use of bread dipping oil as an appetizer.

Now, there are probably a number of you out there who might find the notion of bread dipping oil a little overrated and way too played out. Think about how many Italian restaurants, chain or independent, readily made a dipping oil the start of a meal. As time went on, people started trying to copy these recipes and make them at home, which meant that no matter where you went to have a nice Italian meal, you were always face-to-face with bread dipping oil of some type with a veritable amount of little flecks to add flavor.

Well, times have changed. More restaurants are deciding that bread dipping oil is more than just a throw-away start to a meal. It’s a state of mind, a conscious way to tantalize the senses and get a person ready for the rest of the meal. In short, bread dipping oil is not what it used to be. Continue reading “Bread Dipping Oil: The Simple Appetizer Solution”

Welcome to the World of Italian Desserts

We’re going to tour the sensational and tantalizing world of Italian Desserts. We’ll tread softly through acres of light and crispy Pizzelles, hopscotch down sidewalks of biscotti and streets lined with cannoli. Under skies dotted with clouds of gelato, feeling the breezes of chocolate, anisette, and almond blowing through our hair, let’s stroll through quiet, quaint streets lined with hedges of tiramisu and view lawns dotted with clumps of Farfellete (bow ties) and Italian Love Knot cookies.

Have you ever wondered how and why some of the cultural foods emerged over the years?

We’ll explore some of the folklore and the history behind Italian Desserts and compare foods which originated in Northern Italy with foods from Southern Italy and learn the reasons they differ. We’ll discover how fresh fruits, chocolate and cheeses can be combined to create desserts that will delight your taste buds. We will discover that there really is a “healthy ice cream” when we dive into mounds of gelato and sorbets. We’ll even discover how adding alcohol enhances the flavors of your dessert creation! There will be tips for using left over breads to make bread puddings, enhancing them with Italian Liquor like Limoncello, to make luscious desserts. Continue reading “Welcome to the World of Italian Desserts”