Italian Food

I dare you to eat just one of these amazing homemade beet chips. They are just downright addictive. This is healthy snack food that you can feel good about eating. They are super easy to make and only take about an hour in your oven. You don't even have to be a beet lover to love these chips. I've had a couple of people try them who loved them and were totally surprised to learn they were beets. I was slicing beets for a raw beet salad one day on my mandoline and was thinking about how it was like slicing the apples for my homemade apple chips. I wondered if I could make chips out of these, too. So I sliced a bunch farily thinly and tossed them with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper and roasted them slowly in the oven. I did several batches over several days, experimenting with the oven temperature and the cooking time until I was totally happy with them. The technique for making these kinds of chips is to slow roast them in the oven on a fairly low setting for a long time, dehydrating them. You draw out the moisture in the vegetable or fruit, which concentrates the flavor. You end up with an amazing flavor. You just have to try it. the stems on the beets make a great "handle" to hold as you slice them Slicing them on a mandoline really makes the job easy, fast and the slices uniform. If you don't have a mandoline, get one. You don't have to buy a really expensive one - they have become very popular and you can even buy a little handheld one. I have a nice stainless steel one, but I do use mine all the time. I love slicing things on it. One thing I learned from cooking several batches is that, unlike the apple chips, the beets cook up faster. You also do not need to flip them, like the apple chips. I tried flipping them halfway through the cooking time and then not flipping them, and it didn't matter. The cooking time will depend, of course, on the beets you get - how fresh they are, how large they are, how much moisture they have, etc. A convection oven will draw out the moisture even better and you will be able to make three pans at a time. If you don't have a convection oven, you will have to rotate the pans. So there are a lot of variables. Make a batch and see how your oven performs. Watch the beets - they will start to really darken and even burn a little if you let them go too long. Also, I made both red and yellow (or golden) beets. They are both delicious, but I did prefer the golden beets. I think the flavor was just a little different and they had less moisture, so they crisped up a little better. If you've never bought golden beets, try them. I love them anyway raw on salads. Homemade Beet Chips for a printable recipe click here You really can use any sized beet you like and make chips out of them. They shrink a lot in size, so bigger beets will make a nice size chip. The seasoning is totally up to you - adjust it the way you like. I like a lot of pepper on mine. If you have a convection oven, you can make 3 pans of these at one time. Ingredients: 2 large beets 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper Instructions: Preheat the oven to 300° F. (or 275° F for convection oven). Line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper. Peel the beets. Slice them to about 1/16" inch (1.6 mm) thick, at the most. Toss them in a large bowl in the olive oil and salt and pepper. (If you have time, you can wait for 30 minutes or so after this step - especially with the red beets, the salt will draw out some excess moisture). Lay them on the baking sheet, just barely touching. Bake for about one hour until the edges are crisped up and most of the beets have dried out. Because you will have different sized slices from the same beet, you will have some smaller chips and some larger chips. This will let you have a little bit of variety in the crispiness of the chips and you can decide how you like them for your next batch. Rem

experimenting on the kneading board I am determined: One day, I will invent a new pasta shape. As an intermediate step, I have created an innovative variation of an existing pasta shape called fainelle. I decided to give my pasta a different name, because it is made quite differently from the inspiring one (see details below).1 According to my source, the "Encyclopedia of Pasta" by Oretta Zanini De Vita, fainelle are typical of Foggia (Puglia). The word fainella in dialect refers to the fruit of the carrob tree (in Italian, carruba), to which the pasta shape resembles. I was not able to find a reference to it outside of the page in Zanini De Vita's book, so the idea I have is based on the drawing and the text on that page. Fainelle belong to the strascinati family of pasta shapes and are made with a sferre: "A typical knife of Puglia used to make many types of pasta. It has no handle, so it can also be used horizontally to make long strascinati." To approximate the shape, I decided to roll the dough with one of the pieces of dowel I had purchased during my experiments to make garganelli. I realized that using a mini rolling pin meant my pasta would not be a type of strascinato. (A sferre is now officially on my wish list.) The result reminded me of a patch made of cloth, in Italian pezza. I made a couple of pezze and then the presence on my working surface of my gnocchi board gave me the idea of rolling the pieces of pasta dough on it to get a ridged surface and pezze rigate were born. Then I thought about a variation: instead of placing the cylinder of dough parallel to the board grooves, I placed it a bit angled and as a result the ridges on the surface of the pezza came out oblique. You can see my hands at work on both versions in this short video:   Based on Zanini De Vita's description of the flours used for this pasta shape, I decided to make a blend of whole-wheat flour and semolina flour. I could have used farina di grano arso, also mentioned in the book, but I wanted to vary. first batch of pezze I am reading a cookbook for an upcoming review that is all about using flowers in the kitchen. I had some calendulas (calendule) I had obtained to make one of the book's recipes and I added some of their petals (petali) to the pasta dough. with calendula petals Pezze rigate are probably not the best choice to show off the use of flowers in the kitchen, but it was an interesting experiment and I will certainly work more on the idea. Ingredients for the pasta: EITHER 25 g / 1 oz. stone-ground whole-wheat flour + 75 g / 2.5 oz. semolina flour of good quality OR 100 g / 3.5 oz. semolina flour of good quality 50 g / 1.75 oz. warm water (I recommend weighing the water) A pinch of salt How to make the dough and shape pezze rigateMake a dough with the pasta ingredients and knead until nice and smooth. Let the dough rest, well wrapped to avoid drying, for half an hour or so. Shape the dough into a thick roll, then cut it into 5-6 pieces and shape each one into a roll about 3/8 inch (1 cm) in diameter. Cut each roll into approximately 1 1/2-inch (4 cm) long pieces, then place each cylinder on the gnocchi board with the long sides either parallel to the board's grooves or slightly angled. Run the mini rolling pin — a piece of dowel of 3/8 inch (1 cm) or 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) in diameter — over the piece of dough 2-3 times to thin it and "stamp" it. The resulting pezza rigata will be about 2 inches long. Lay out to dry ridged side up on a surface lightly dusted with flour.  Repeat with the other pieces of dough. Lightly dust the gnocchi board as needed to prevent the dough from sticking too tightly when you roll it. ready for the fork

"I am a serious fellow" From my most recent visit to the Temescal Farmers' Market. If you are curious about the name Tomatero, you can read about it on this page. No tomatoes yet from Tomatero farm, but I bought strawberries. We ate some fresh and I roasted the rest to make frittata with roasted strawberries and strawberry lassi. This week, I have the honor of hosting Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event. created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook and now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar. Send your contribution at simosite AT mac DOT com, namely your name your blog's name the image(s) (max 500 px wide, either orientation, max 150 kb file size) You have until Tuesday, May 21 at midnight Pacific time to do so. If you are unfamiliar with the event or need a reminder of the rules, you will find the details in this post (and in Italian here). Feel free to use the logo below. If you

You may already know this: Google Reader, one of the top blog subscription services, will retire at the end of June, 2013. I don’t want to lose connections with you if Google Reader is how you follow my blog . . . So to make sure that you’re not caught in a jam and to insure that you continue to receive new posts and recipes from La Bella Vita Cucina, here are the most recommended options to sign up for non-stop delivery of new blog updates to you: #1 Subscribe to e-mail updates (on the top right-hand side bar under my photo), #2 Follow “Rosalind Corieri Paige” on Google + (located at both the top and bottom of this blog). the links to follow through Google + is at the top and bottom of this blog! #3 Follow by ‘liking’ my page on Facebook “La Bella Vita di Rosalinda” (located at the top and bottom of this blog), the links to follow through facebook are located at the top and bottom of this blog #4 Follow through ‘bloglovin’ (the link i

[cliccare il link per andare direttamente al raccolto della edizione italiana di WHB] As the host of last week's edition of WHB, I am pleased to present an interesting set of posts submitted by bloggers from various countries. For each contribution, I will give you the official information (author, blog name and post title) and a short quote or brief description that summarizes it, a teaser that invites you to follow the link to read the relevant post. Follow me: it will be an interesting tour. Janet of The Taste Space prepared a Mediterranean Beans atop Lemony Arugula"Contrasting the two components was good. Lots of greens. Lots of beans… and surprisingly enough, leftovers were good, too. What is your comfort food? Surprised mine includes beans?" Elizabeth of blog from OUR kitchen presents Aloo Anardana (Potatoes & Pomegranate Seed

Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day and so I’m sending flowers for you via my blog in cyberspace! Home-delivery of flowers to each of you was a tad bit too difficult, so I’m sharing a peak into my Mother’s Day garden with you. The azaleas are late for us this year due to the colder spring temperatures, but all of the rain brought abundant blossoms with stunning colors! I hope that you spent your day doing whatever brings joy into your lives! What a joyful day for me — I just found out that I am going to be a grandmother today! Our prayers are being answered for our daughter and her husband! My Mother’s Day gift was a framed photo of the ultrasound image. Fun times lie ahead! Along with this wonderful news, nothing could be finer than to spend a warm, sunny, breezy and lazy day in my gardens! Once again, Happy Mother’s Day! a perfect spring day to rock on the front porch among the roses the variegated azaleas are so beautiful! double knock-out red ros

from pasta to plant container Another class at the Loka Yoga studio and another chance to take some photos of the plant containers hanging on one side of the building. After the cookie tin from Macau, a pasta tin from Italy — which gives me the chance to remind you that this month I am hosting Pasta Please. This is my contribution to edition #82 of Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar, and hosted this week by Shruthi of Food & Clicks. The photo was shot in color and then converted to black and white (Lightroom preset Split Tone 4). On this page, you can find out who is hosting the current and future editions of the event. Related articles scatola di biscotti / cookie tin annuncio / announcement: Pasta Please

My mom is the best person I know. She is everything to me and even though we're very different and we sometimes butt heads, she is my hero in every way. For those that know my mom, they'll know that she is a white chocolate fiend. For real. She'll steal your white chocolate from you and smile whilst doing it. I made her a special breakfast with a big jug of white chocolate sauce for her to pour over everything. And she did. I love you mommy!

Risotto alla Milanese is one of those all-time Northern Italian classics! Personally, I think that rice is just one of those blessings from God in that you can prepare so many, many recipes with rice . . . from salads, to side dishes, to main entree’s and even desserts (think rich rice pudding)! This month, I was able to decide the theme for the Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club. With many of us trying to reduce the amount of meat in our nutrition (I know that I’m on that journey), I selected “Rice and Beans” as the focus for May. Instantly Risotto Milanese came to my mind to find a ‘lighter’ version. It really wasn’t difficult at all; there are numerous recipes for Risotto with less calories. I hope you enjoy this golden-colored rice ‘i primi’ (first course/entree in Italy) that gets its color from the addition of precious and rare saffron. The recipe is from Cooking Light and I added the traditional saffron for greater authenticity and of course

warm and aromatic Dan Leader's Simply Great Breads is a small book, but, true to its title, contains great recipes. Do you remember the pretty bialys and thin grissini featured previously? They came from the same treasured book. Mana'eesh (or Manakish) is a flatbread (schiacciata) typical of the Middle East. It comes out of the oven hot, soft and smelling heavenly. But before being flattened to go into the oven, it is a nice ball of dough: soft on wood The photo above was taken stogether with the sepia one I shared a few days ago. Bread dough holds fascination for the baker in love with the magic of mixing flour, water and yeast (farina, acqua e lievito). The simple recipe uses delayed fermentation and requires a little planning if you want to serve the flatbread warm out of the oven, something I recommend. You can find the recipe on this page (though I suggest getting the book, which has truly great recipes). I usually halv