Each region and city in Italy has their own flavors and tastes to discover..and on a recent trip there I had a flavorful experience discovering the tastes that give Genoa its’ flavor…and secrets of it’s world famous pesto.

In Via San Bernardo, parallel to via Giustiniani, a small metal sign in a miniscule window is the front of Drogheria Torielli. But be careful, if the sun is very strong, you may miss it since the glare of the metal sign on the window will hide this little shop. But it’s name is known by gourmets throughout all of Italy. Why?? well it is here that you will find the best zafferano (saffron) both from Abruzzo and Sardinia. An assortment of the best coffee and teas and 200 types of medicinal herbs exotic and local and any spice you can imagine. Each spice is kept in a large glass jar.

The fragrant odor that fills the air is made up of thousands of different scents and you feel as if you are in a pharmacy instead of a spice shop. Many fo these spices are found in the artisan produced chocolates of Viganotti. It is there that a master chocolatier utilizes apparatus from the ‘800’s to produce sublime chocolate bars and chocolates Chocolates that are crunchy, soft, filled with nuts from Piedmont, covered with dark chocolate, filled with creams made from old artisan recipes and more. Eve nth shop itself has remained in some of its’ original style with its old wooden shelves and counter and the air filled with the smell of sugar, cocoa.

Pesto is a famous dish from Genoa,  with basil, grown famously there, it’s principal ingredient. And the microclimate of Genoa as well as the soil there is perfect for growing basil, but it is also the years of experience of the basil growers in Genoa that produces a  basil of superior qulaity.

This Pesto recipe is similar to that which is used for official tasting courses while in the Province of Genoa and is considered the official Pesto recipe of Genoa, sort of their secret recipe… however I have substituted ingredients that are more easily available for those which are local to Genoa which would be difficult for someone to acquire if not located in close proximity to Genoa. Also the original recipe is done in a pestle and mortar not a food processor as indicated here:

*1 large handful of Basil leaves only (stems removed)

*3 garlic cloves

*1 tablespoon of pinoli nuts

*2 tblsps of Parmigiana Reggiano (Aged for 24 months) grated

*1/2 tblsp of Pecorino Sardo

*pinch of sea salt

*7-8 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil ( I recommend an artisan extra virgin olive oil-Badia a Coltibuono)

Remove leaves from stems of basil. Wash and dry gently. Finely chop the garlic. Finely grind the pinolli nuts. Finely chop the basil. In food processor, place in basil, garlic, pinoli nuts, cheeese. Place in olive oil a little at a time. If the pesto is too thick add in a bit of water to thin out.

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene….

Maria

Visit me at OpenSky

For more recipes get the book that won the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards as teh Best Italain Cuisine Book in America 2009- The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions

Take a trip right from your own computer over to open sky to see the new design of my store with all the interesting products I have  found for those that enjoy The Basic Art of Italian Cooking. Please let me know how you like the new design and let me know if there are any products you would like to see or those you may be looking for. Visit here http://tinyurl.com/ygtqgcm

 There is this  saying in Italy ”E Dolce Far Niente”, in English it means ‘How sweet it is to do nothing’. It is a difficult phrase  for a ‘hyperactive’ person like me to understand unless I am  in Italy…

 Yesterday was the last day of the Christmas Holiday season here known as La Befana or the Epiphany.  It was a day to appreciate that aforementioned saying..filled with going out for a stroll for a morning cappuccino..then coming home and spending time preparing the 2 pounds of  fresh broccoli rabe   I bought from  an outdoor farm market  yesterday. My intention was to add it to  a Holiday  lunch of polenta with broccoli rabe and fontina cheese melted on top. But broccoli rabe takes some time to clean and cook…. and in between the waiting there is a lot of relaxing and sitting and drinking another espresso and watching  and relaxing and chatting and a lot of ‘doing nothing’ but waiting for the broccoli rabe to hurry up and cook and be tender. Anyway, here is the recipe we had for lunch and the rest of the day was spent relaxing in front of the fireplace..and yes it is so sweet to just ‘do nothing..You must try it sometime..

Polenta with Broccoli Rabe and Fontina Cheese

2 pounds of fresh Broccoli Rabe-cleaned

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

2 small dried red hot peppers

pinch of salt

1 cup of cornmeal

8 ounces of fontina cheese

Wash and clean broccoli rabe, cutting off the bottom, hard part. Place in boiling water and cook till tender- about 30-40 minutes. Drain well. Place olive oil in saute pan with garlic cloves and dried red hot peppers (pepperoncini). Saute for about 30 seconds. Chop cooked broccoli rabe  and place in saute pan with olive oil. Place in approx 1/2 cup water. Saute for approximately 15 minutes.

Cook polenta as directed on package. Place polenta in oven proof dishes. Place broccoli rabe in center of polenta, place grated fontina cheese on top of broccoli rabe, place a drizzle of olive oil on top and place under broiler till fontina cheese is bubbly..

You may want to have a  simple dessert like a piece of handmade chocolates  after this dish..

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene,

Maria

copyright 2009, art of living,PrimaMedia,Inc and Maria Liberati

Hope you enjoy our continuing posting of  yummy Holiday recipes. Share your favorite Holiday recipe with us here or email to us at editor@marialiberati.com

 Here is the perfect main course for one of your Holiday meals, thanks to Fred Cohen of J & A Culinary Arts School in Philadelphia, the recipes use   Sempre Sapori-Tuscan Picnic  Spice Blend,all natural spices with Tuscan flavors, that  I developed in Tuscany, you can still get them for the Holidays here    and enjoy our Holiday Gift Guide, products that were selected by our staff for their exceptional artisan quality and for the experience  they provide consumers. Find a special coupon offer for the open sky store on the last page!

Holiday Gift Guide 2009

Tuscan Roasted Chicken with Savory Herb Bread Pudding and Buttered Cauliflower

*Bread Pudding*:
Serves 6:
One large crusty loaf bread (crust removed)
1 t Sage leaves chiffonade
1 T chopped parsley
2 t chopped chive
1 egg yolk
3 oz chicken stock
1 oz heavy cream
1-2 oz milk
2 t Tuscan spice mix

*Tuscan Spiced Chicken*:
2 Cornish Hens, halved, serves  2 – 4:
2 oz butter
1 T Tuscan Spice Blend

*Procedure*:
-Remove the crust from the bread and cut into small dice. Place into a deep
dish container. Combine remaining ingredients to form a creamy batter. If
batter seems too thick, thin it down with a little bit of water, stock, or
milk to reach a creamy but not heavy consistency. Place mixture over the
bread and mix well. Allow to soak for 1 – 2 hours.
-In the mean time, pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.
-Create a compound butter by mixing the spice mixture into raw butter. Smear
the mixture over and under the skin of the Cornish hens.
-Place the chicken onto a rack in a roasting pan and roast for 35 – 40
minutes.
-Pack the bread pudding into ramekins that have been lightly sprayed and
bake for 20 – 30 minutes, depending on how brown you want it to be.
-To plate, take the bread pudding out of the ramekin and center it in the
middle of the plate. Lay the chicken on the side and on the opposite side,
lay some buttered cauliflower. Drizzle some parsley oil (or any oil of your
choosing) onto the side of the plate.

UPCOMING EVENTS

See you on Saturday December 12th in Somerset NJ at the Franklin Township library at 2 PM.. Cooking demo and book signing will feature my latest relaese The Basic Art of  Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions- winner of The Best Italian Cuisine Book of 2009 from Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene,

Maria

http://twitter.com/Marialiberati

copyright 2009, art of living,PrimaMedia, Inc.

The Holiday Season is in full blast , especially  now that much of the US got their first dose of  Holiday snow this weekend. Here is a perfect recipe for a Holiday appetizer or light course for a brunch or light dinner. Special thanks goes to Fred Cohen a culinary student at J & A Culinary Arts school in Philadelphia for coming up with this Holiday recipe using Tuscan Picnic Spice Blend

The 2009 Holiday Gift Guide has 27 pages full of our Best of 2009 Products selected for their artisan quality and the experience they provide for the consumer. See it here:

Holiday Gift Guide 2009

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1jim0/HolidayGiftGuide2009/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=

*Roasted Fig Salad with Crispy Prosciutto and Parmigiana cheese (served with
a Tuscan spiced crouton and reduced balsamic dressing)**Dressing*:* *
Serves 6:
1/2 c balsamic vinegar reduced by half to make 1/4 cup of  balsamic syrup
2 t chopped parsley
3 T extra-virgin olive oil (check out our selections of  olive oil in the Holiday Gift Guide)
1/2 – 1 t dijon mustard
Salt  & Pepper  to  taste

*Figs*:
Black figs sliced in half lengthwise
Coarse Sea Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
A sprinkle of sugar

*Other:
Salad Greens
Crusty Loaf Bread
Shaved parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

2 tsps Tuscan Picnic Spice Blend 

Proscuitto slices cut into  julienne strips

*Directions*:
-Combine the reduced balsamic  syrup with the chopped parsley, olive oil, and dijon
mustard. Whisk until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper and hold to the
side.
-Slice thin slices of crusty loaf bread and brush with olive oil. Season
with the Tuscan Picnic  spice blend and toast in the oven (or grill/broil if
desired) until toasted. For dryer croutons hold them in the oven (heat off)
until they cool.
-Lay the figs in a roasting pan and sprinkle with olive oil and the coarse
salt. Roast in the oven at 375 degrees until cooked. If desired, sprinkle a
little bit of sugar onto the figs three – five minutes before the figs are
done.
-Lay the prosciutto slices on a sheet pan and crisp in the oven, roughly 1 -
2 minutes.
-Gather the shaved cheese and assemble the salad. Lay the crouton on the
plate, topped with the salad tossed in the dressing. Lay the roasted figs on
the side and top the greens with the prosciutto and then the shaved cheese.
For garnish, paint some of the remaining balsamic syrup with a spoon on the
side of the plate.

Form more recipes get your copy of The Basic Art of Italian Cooking:Holidays & Special Occasions- winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards as Best Italian Cuisine Book in America in 2009. Thanks for all those that voted for the book and have purchased copies of the book and have been ’spreading the word’.

Hope to see you on December 12th at the Franklin Township Library at 12 noon for a Holiday book signing and cooking demo!

Thanksgiving is upon us again and in Italy it is known as Ringraziamento..well anyway you say it still means ‘to give thanks’ . Here is one of my favorite recipes for an appetizer for  Thanksgiving or anytime and a video of  Thanksgiving decorating tips from Design2Share.com

Also as a special Holiday gift here is a coupon for some Holiday shopping at my new store at the openskyproject.com  hope you will visit and check out  the interesting products we found for you. We are adding new products every day..

So many times we take for granted everything we have. but remember to be thankful for whatever you have ….food on the table..a roof over your head..a kitchen to cook in..friends and family to share with..the sun, the sky…the stars. the moon…we all have something to be thankful for…

 Avocado Italiano  

*2 ripe avocados

*juice of 1 lemon

*4 tablespoons grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

*1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

*3 tablespoons chopped sun dried tomatoes (packed in oil, drained)

 Mash the avocado. Add in all other ingredients.

If you are taking this spread with you to someone else’s house, place in plastic container and place plastic wrap against surface of avocado spread before you close container

You can use this as a dip for breadsticks, cut vegetables, tortilla chips.

Thanksgiving decorating tips video

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ie3mMY_emk

Happy Thanksgiving

Get your copy of  The Basic Art of Italian Cooking:Holidays & Special Occasions

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene,

Maria 

Mille Grazie!! to everyone at Le Cordon Bleu in Boston and Chef Enea Barbanera for hosting a wonderful event with the Italian Culinary Foundation  to promote the simplicity and flavors of authentic, original Italian cooking. Many thanks for having me there as a special guest.  The only other place I could have witnessed an event like this would have been in Italy…

I must also give a special thanks to  Mr.  & Mrs. Frankie & Maureen  Imbergamo for being such wonderful hosts for my visit. Frankie is the author of The Good Life cookbook  and  frequent guest of The Emeril Lagasse Show and is famously known around Boston for  award winning meatball recipes. They insisted that we see a little bit of Boston’s North End or Little Italy section before we left and assisted in getting us a quick tour

Yesterday’s cooking demo with Chef Barbanera was the culmination of a week of cooking demos and events with the chef promoting the authentic style of Italian cooking by the Italian Culinary Foundation at Le Cordon Bleu. They were one of the few culinary schools in the US selected for this event.  He also educated everyone with a quick lesson on flavors and how flavors must not overpower but compliment each other in a dish. His cooking stresses fresh, natural ingredients -fresh herbs, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, artisan cheeses like Grana Padano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Asiago and others as well as meats, fresh fruits and vegetables.

Chef Enea Barabanera has graciously shared his recipes with us, here is the first one (this recipe serves 8):

Sformata di Grana Padana con Pomodoretto Fresco

(Grana Padana Pudding with cherry tomatoes)

1 liter cream

14 eggs

10 1/2 ozs grated Grana Padano cheese

1.5 ozs butter

10 1/2 ounces cherry tomatoes

3.5 ozs extra virgin olive oil

1 small sprig rosemary

salt to taste

3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs

8 muffin tins

Butter 8 muffin tins and sprinkle sides and bottoms with bread crumbs. In bowl place cream, eggs and grated Grana Padano cheese. Whisk till well blended. Pour into muffin tins, bake for 20 minutes in oven preheated to 350 degrees. Remove from oven and set aside till warm

In saute pan, place 3 tblsps of extra virgin olive oil, sprig of fresh rosemary, cherry tomatoes that have been quartered, pinch of salt. Saute for 3 minutes. Place on individual serving plates.  unmold the muffin tins on side of the tomatoes on each individual plate. Place  small sprig of rosemary in center of souffle and drizzle olive oil on top, serve.

This makes a great antipasto or even a light first course. Serve with a dry white wine.

For more great recipes get your copy of the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com and http://stores.lulu.com/marialiberati

“Mangia Bene,Vivi Bene”

Maria

copyright, 2008, Maria Liberati,

The Basic Art of Italian Cooking  by Maria Liberati tm

http://www.marialiberati.com

Editor: Suzanne Russo

The Italians have been cultivating olives since the Fifth Century. They have refined the making, tasting and using of olive oil into an art, complete with a national organization of olive tasters for the discussion, transmission and development of the theoretical and practical principles of olive oil making. Olive oil tasters, assaggiatori, are highly skilled olive oil tasters with expert taste buds, trained to ensure that every batch meets Italy’s high standards.

Why all this for oil? Because it’s not just oil. It’s a substance around which legends are based. It was thought to be medicinal and magical. Homer called it “liquid gold.” And it’s the starting point for much of Italian cooking, used for everything from dipping bread to making sauces. It’s even good as an ice cream flavor. A good olive oil and enhance the enjoyment of a meal, so choosing wisely is important.

The best and most flavorful type of olive oil is Extra Virgin, the finest grade, made from the first pressing. It must be cold-pressed, spremitura a freddo, using no artificial heat or chemicals, and the acidity cannot exceed one percent. Virgin olive oil is less than 2% acidity made from slightly riper olives than EVOO, and pure olive oil, which is a blend of virgin olive oil and refined oil, usually extracted from the pulp, skin or pits of the olive.

Olive oil tasting is as fine an art as wine tasting, and just as intricate. To do so, pour about one tablespoon in a small glass, then cover the glass with one hand, shaking it gently until the oil adheres to the glass and finally warming the glass in your hands until it gets close to body temperature. Smell the oil as you would a wine, sniffing deeply three times and lifting your nose from the oil between each sniff. Then take a sip without swallowing. Instead, roll the oil around in your mouth briefly before spitting it out, allowing it to touch all areas of the mouth. In between oils, drink water and eat bread to cleanse the palate for the next type.

When cooking with olive oil, never use an oil that does not taste good to you. Even as one of many ingredients, it will leave an aftertaste. Expensive extra-virgin expensive oils are best saved for simple dishes, where their flavor can be savored. Use them on salads or drizzle over bread or on cooked meat or vegetables. For sautéing or frying, pure olive oil is fine, since the taste won’t stand out as much.

To extend shelf life, oil should be kept in small bottles and stored in a dark, cool place, in a container with a tight cap to keep air from getting to it. The best olive oils are of course purchased in Italy, where the quality is always better and the price much lower. But if you can’t travel, many websites import extra virgin oil. Try Olio2go for many varietals, all screened and tasted by experts or the Italian Olive Oil Club, that will send oil from a different region each month, along with suggested recipes. Another nice treat or gift is to adopt an olive tree for yourself or a loved one. Through Nudo Italia you can adopt a tree from in the Marche region, after which you’ll receive an adoption certificate and booklet for your tree, followed by a spring shipment of extra virgin oil and a fall package of flavored oils. Then you’ll experience the true value of liquid gold.

For more info on olive oil and great recipes iusing olive oil, get your copy of the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

and www.marialiberati.com/blog2

Related sources:

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0397/oohistory.html (history of oil)

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/notes/food/pk_olive_oil.htm (buying oils in Italy)

http://whatscookingamerica.net/OliveOil.htm (Cooking, buying, and storing)

http://www.oliveoil.org/ (The National Organization of Olive Tasters)

  copyright,2008, Maria Liberati,The Basic Art of Italian Cooking

editor: Joseph McVeigh

If cannoli is the champion of Italian desserts, tiramisu is the challenger. Although it may seem that tiramisu has been around for as long as cannoli (and in a perfect world it would have been), most people don’t know that tiramisu – as we know it today- was not created until the early 1970s by a chef named Roberto Linguanotto in the city of Treviso, Italy.

One reason tiramisu is famous is because of the rumors that surround its invention. Rumors that were not fully cleared up internationally until recently. The first of such rumors claims that tiramisu was created in the town of Siena for Duke Cosimo de Medici. The other main story is more racy and alleges that tiramisu, which translates to “pick-me-up”, was used by prostitutes to revitalize their stamina. Both tales bear some truth in that layered cakes have been around for a long time and that the eggs, sugar, and caffeine in tiramisu are energizing. But the cakes made for dukes and demimondaines were not the tiramisu we know and love today. The credit for that famous cake goes to Roberto Linguanotto and the Beccherie restaurant.

Mr. Linguanotto began work as a pastry chef at the Beccherie restaurant in Treviso in 1970. He says he was inspired by owner Mrs. Alba Campeol to “devise new, simple flavor combinations respecting the local tradition.” What he came up with is a masterpiece. Tiramisu combines simplicity with excellence to be one of Italy’s most famous and favorite desserts. But Mr. Linguanotto, despite being the creator of such a sensation, remains sensible. On his website (www.tiramisu.it/whoiam.html), he says, “I have kept trying to conceive new ideas, with just one goal in mind: my customers’ satisfaction” and that he feels “rewarded by everything I’ve managed to learn.” I think we are all rewarded by what he has managed to teach.

Tiramisu
1 1/2 cups espresso coffee

2 teaspoons sugar

4 medium eggs
1/2 cup and 2 tsps. sugar
1 lb mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
35-40 savoiardi (ladyfinger cookies)

2 tablespoons bitter cocoa powder

4 ounces of dark dark chocolate shaved (for top of cake)

Prepare a strong espresso coffee. Dissolve two teaspoons sugar in it, while the coffee is still hot. Let the coffee cool to room temperature. Seperate egg yolks from egg whites into 2 different bowls.

Add ¼ cup sugar to egg yolks and beat till creamy. In seperate bowl, beat mascarpone cheese till creamy. Continue beating while adding in (a little at a time) egg yolk/sugar mixture.

Then beat egg whites with ¼ cup sugar and pinch of salt till soft peaks form. Fold egg whites gently into mascarpone mixture with wooden spoon.

Dip half of the ladyfingers in the coffee and place in the pan in a single layer.

Spread half of the mascarpone cream on the layer of ladyfingers..

Dip the remaining ladyfingers in the coffee and

Spread the remaining mascarpone cream on top of second layer of ladyfingers.

Sprinkle with cocoa powder and decorate with chocolate shavings and refrigerate for about three to four hours.

This is the original tiramisu recipe. If you want to make this a bit lighter, I find that a mixture of 1-8 ounce container of plain lowfat yogurt whipped together with 1-8 ounce pakage of non-fat or lowfat cream cheese makes a great lower calorie substitute for the mascarpone cheese and eggs.

Substitute artificial sweetener for the sugar although there is not that much sugar I nteh recipe.

Ladyfingers are not high calories and the small amount of cocoa and chocolate are fine and not loaded with calories.

So either way you can enjoy the dessert!

For more great recipes get your copy of the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

Editor: Joseph Mc Veigh 

copyright, 2008, Maria Liberati,The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm

http://www.marialiberati.com

Hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day celebrations for those in the US. And if you are in another part of this great big ,wonderful world – I hope you are having a great weekend. Here is a great recipe from one of our favorite movies here at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm and a great recipe to enjoy this weekend.

Famous Recipes is a new series from- The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm- highlighting a noted food from literature or movies, for being a celebrity favorite, from some famous town or restaurant.  The first recipe is, appropriately, for a breakfast item – frittata. 

Big Night (1996) is a movie about two Italian brothers discovering themselves and each other while trying desperately to keep their restaurant afloat in America, their adopted land.  Starring Tony Shaloub and Stanley Tucci,  the movie ends with the brothers silently sharing a frittata, in an emotional scene that invokes feelings of sadness, friendship, forgiveness, and love.  The fundamental and historic qualities of these emotions are mirrored in the simple and ancient frittata, which one brother makes for the other. 

Frittatas are very similar to omelets but served open-faced and sometimes placed on Italian bread when eaten.  Frittatas are easy to make and extremely versatile; any frittata recipe can be made to suit your personal tastes by adding or removing ingredients.  Even the amount of eggs can be changed to serve more or less people.  The vegetarian frittata recipe here is most commonly associated with the Liguria region of Northern Italy, which has a history of people using goat cheese in their recipes because of the area’s remoteness and the goats’ ability to live on mountainsides. 

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Frittata

Ingredients:

10 eggs

½  tsp. salt

1 Tbs. unsalted butter

1 tsp. thyme

2-3 small zucchini, sliced thinly

2 Tbs. oregano leaves

2 tsp. chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, plus more for garnish

4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

Directions:

1. Whisk eggs and ½ tsp. salt.
2. Melt 1 Tbs. butter in pan over medium heat, add zucchini, thyme, and oregano leaves when butter foams and sauté for 30 seconds.  Add oregano, 2 tsp. parsley and cook for 30 seconds.
3. Add eggs, stir in circular motion and lift cooked edges to allow uncooked egg to flow underneath.
4. Sprinkle cheese on frittata, do not stir, cook 4-5 minutes more.
5. Place plate over pan and flip pan so that frittata turns over onto the plate.  Then slide the frittata back into the pan, uncooked side down. 
6. Reduce heat to low and place pan back on stove.  Place plate back on top of the pan and cook, covered, for 3 minutes. 
7. Remove plate and cook until eggs are set.  Then slide frittata onto plate (some people like to drain frittatas briefly on paper towels before serving). 
8. Serve with salad and/or Italian bread.

Slow food is really a healthy food concept that originated in Italy and now boasts chapters all over the world. It is what the original Mediterranean diet was based on. It is a concept of cooking food and eating food- slow. So as to promote the use of fresh foods and not processed foods when cooking and also to promote sitting down and taking time to eat your food in a slow manner.

I base most of my recipes on this since they follow the Mediterranean diet.

However, as far as low-cal slow food, here are some points to ponder:

*Slow food is recipes that are made in the original way using the original ingredients. So for instance you would not substitute fat free margarine for olive oil to make the recipe lower in calories. Fat free margarine has a lot of preservatives in it and the concept of slow food also promotes eating food in it’s’ most original state. But you can use less olive oil in your recipe if it will still work. When I cook ‘tomato sugo’ (tomato sauce). I tend to use only a light touch of olive oil-1 tblsp. Most people tend to use 3 and 4 or more. This is not necessary as long as the other ingredients you use are first quality-fresh red ripe sweet tomatoes, fresh basil,  fresh onions, and garlic. All the flavors complement one another and should be balanced and not be overdone.

*Slow food also promotes using artisan foods- foods that are literally handmade and not machine made or usually made in smaller production-not mass produced in a factory. So you couldn’t use fat free mozzarella in a recipe and still consider it really slow food. You would have to use freshly made mozzarella and cut back the portion size or the amount you are using. You would not use fat free lower cal bread that is probably produced in a factory with loads of preservatives but a freshly made loaf of bread cut in thinner slices.

*Of course fresh fruits and vegetables are part of the slow food regimen and are all lower in calories than processed foods and healthy for you.

It is all about keeping true to the origin of the foods and even true to the traditional recipes that originated in the town the recipe originated from. So if you want to stay true to slow food and have lower cal foods- cut back on the ingredients like olive oil, cheeses and pump up the fruits and /or veggies. However you will be altering the recipes so it will not remain true to its origins. But it will give you a lower cal way to experience a version of it.

*Most cheeses in Italy are not extremely fat laden except for mascarpone which is absolutely delicious but loaded with calories and fat. Parmigiano-Reggiano is actually a naturally low fat cheese and is easier to digest because of the artisan way the milk is produced and the grasses that cows eat that produce the milk for this cheese.

*Also eating foods slower does force you to become fuller and you will generally not eat as much as you would if you ate fast. It also is healthier for digestion, so it does have an indirect effect on losing weight as well. Many diet programs teach you to eat slower.

However, also keep in mind that there have been studies done that show that eating less processed foods makes your metabolism work faster and people that do eat less processed foods burn calories quicker.

The slow food diet is a healthier diet not necessarily a low cal diet but natural foods are lower in calories in general than their processed counterparts.

If you would like more info or recipes, let me know. I have included one that is a lower cal version of Tiramisu. It is based on the classic version but lower in calories. Mascarpone cheese is so heavy in calories and fat that I thought it would be best to enjoy this dessert in a healthier way so I substituted fat free cream cheese and yogurt for the mascarpone cheese.

ALso check out my new blog at: http://mediterraneandiet-health.blogspot.com

    Tiramisu (light version)(copyright, 2005,2006,2007, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking, Maria Liberati)

   For more recipes go to http://www.marialiberati.com and also get a free excerpt from my bestselling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking Ciao for now!
Maria