briciole

lassi alla salsa di mele / applesauce lassi

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] heatlhy breakfast beverage "Everything tastes better with applesauce" has been a tenet of our household ever since I started making roasted applesauce. It is easy to make, healthy, and has an intense apple flavor undisturbed by extraneous ingredients. Just to give a couple of examples, I have used it to dress gnocchi di ricotta, to accompany French toast, and, of course, simply spread on bread. I've been making kefir at home for 13 months now. I use it in various ways, in particular to prepare lassi for my husband's breakfast (colazione): strawberry... Read more →

lassi alla fragola / strawberry lassi

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] strawberry lassi made with kefir Having a steady supply of homemade kefir means being able to experiment with it on the spur of the moment. My husband likes Indian food and when he eats at an Indian restaurant, he always orders a mango lassi, so it was not difficult to choose that fruit flavor for my first try at using kefir to make the beverage. But then, of course, I had to invent something different. You may remember from last year (and if you don't, I'll remind you right now) that I... Read more →

kefir fatto in casa / homemade kefir

mango lassi made with kefir A couple of months ago, I made kefir using this culture. The process was straightforward and in about 24 hours, we could taste it. I ended up making fresh cheese with it: I will described that in an upcoming this post. While my first adventure with kefir was unfolding, Jeri, who writes the blog of the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, published a three-part summary of information received by readers of their newsletter: 1. ordering kefir grains; 2. growing kefir grains; 3. using kefir grains. In the first post, I learned more about kefir grains (grani... Read more →

bere il tè a casa / drinking tea at home

In a recent post, I talked about my habits as far as making and drinking coffee at home. My day however, always starts with two cups of tea. This is a ritual that I follow no matter where I am, including Italy. It was in fact during my recent trip there that I bought the cute mesh tea ball in the photos. Until a few weeks ago, my morning tea came in a mug, but then I received as a gift a tumbler that — it was advertised — would not melt or otherwise be damaged by hot water, and would... Read more →

bere un caffè a casa / drinking a coffee at home

Things are pretty simple in our house when it comes to coffee preparation: I have my moka pot and my husband his espresso machine. We have no need to contemplate other ways of making coffee (fare il caffè). In the very early days of my blog, I wrote a few posts about Italian words related to drinking espresso, a sort of survival manual for Americans visiting Italy: un caffè variazioni sul tema: un caffè bere un caffè al bar The coffee in the photo above is a homemade version of caffè americano, thus defined in my earlier post: the shot of... Read more →

infuso di tè e zenzero / infusion of tea and ginger

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] In the previous post, I mentioned that from our recent visit to the Big Island I brought back some locally grown organic ginger. Until I moved to the US, zenzero for me was only an ingredient used in the pan di zenzero (gingerbread) featured in fairy tales (favole). My horizon has since expanded, yet ginger maintains an aura of exoticism. According to this informative page Ginger, the underground stem, or rhizome, of the plant Zingiber officinale has been used as a medicine in Asian, Indian, and Arabic herbal traditions since ancient times.... Read more →

variazioni sul tema 'un latte' / variations on the theme 'un latte'

If you want to make sure you are not served a glass of cold milk, these are a couple of words you can add to your basic order of un latte: caldo: steams the milk so it is hot and frothy macchiato: steams the milk and adds a shot of espresso caffelatte: warms up the milk, so it is hot but not frothy, and adds coffee. This is what I had for breakfast as a child. I would never order it in a coffee shop: it would be embarrassing. Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned... Read more →

variazioni sul tema 'un caffè' / variations on the theme 'un caffè'

Forget about large and red-eye and all the other specifications that have currency in American coffee shops. These are some words you can add to your basic order of un caffè to obtain slight variations: ristretto: concentrates the espresso so the cup is no more than half-full and the flavor more intense doppio: double-shot lungo: adds a small amount of hot water so the cup is almost full macchiato: adds a small amount of hot milk; a small pitcher with cold milk is usually available on the counter and customers are free to help themselves corretto: adds a small amount of... Read more →

un caffè

1. an espresso Ordering un caffè results in the delivery of a single-shot of espresso with a layer of froth on the top, served in a small cup. The reason you drink it is not to quench your thirst, but to sip an intensely-flavored nectar that leaves behind a wonderful aftertaste. 2. a coffee Most Italians do not have an espresso machine at home: they use a stovetop coffee pot called moka. In 1933 Alfonso Bialetti revolutionized home coffee-brewing in Italy with the introduction of the Moka Express aluminum stovetop brewer. This simple, reliable machine became a design icon of the... Read more →

caffè / coffee

Italians roast the best coffee in the world. People who like French roast should send their taste buds to rehab in Italy. Read more →