With my upcoming trip to Sicily, Sicilian inspired recipes are very much top of mind! It has also been quite warm in Philly, so I have Ice Cream on the brain. This recipe for Homemade Cannoli Ice Cream is (obviously) inspired by one of Sicily’s most well-known treats: Cannoli.
The traditional dessert is a deep-fried pastry shell filled with a sweet ricotta cream. Cannoli can be decorated with candied orange zest, or chopped pistachios, depending on the region in Sicily. American Italian versions (like many found in South Philly where I live) have chocolate chips stirred into the cannoli cream.
So when I was determining what ingredients to add to my Cannoli Ice Cream, I decided to take inspiration from all three options! The ricotta-based ice cream has a hint of orange zest to bring a light citrus flavor. Mini chocolate chips, chopped pistachios, and bits of broken cannoli shells are stirred in for extra flavor and crunch.
Intrigued? Let’s dig in!
Ingredients (makes 1 quart):
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1 (15 oz) container whole milk ricotta
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
1/2 cup broken cannoli shell pieces (Wegmans sells cannoli chips that would work too)
My niece turned three recently, and she is absolutely obsessed with a certain cartoon mouse with a bow. These Minnie Cupcakes felt like the perfect way to celebrate my niece while still making a delicious dessert!
These Minnie Cupcakes are made with a vanilla cupcake topped with strawberry frosting. Mini Oreos work at little mouse ears, finished off with a cute polka dotted fondant bow.
Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes):
Vanilla Cupcakes:
1 2/3 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Note: I was sent tins of Fishwife Smoked Salmon in order to write this post for Smoked Salmon Patties. Opinions are my own.
I am loving that tinned fish is having a moment; tinned fish is a must-have in your pantry for quick and tasty meals. We have been a Fishwife household for a while now (peep at my current pantry collection below for proof), so I get super excited when I get to try a new Fishwife product!
Fishwife recently sent me some cans of their Smoked Salmon, and I knew I wanted the smoked salmon to be the star of any recipe I created with them.
These Smoked Salmon Patties are a quick and easy way to get dinner on the table in no time!
I served the Smoked Salmon Patties over a spinach salad drizzled with a homemade French vinaigrette.
I make quite a bit of homemade ice cream, with lots of those ice cream recipes using egg yolks. I am down for an egg white omelet on occasion, but what to do I do with all those other egg whites? My favorite way to use up extra egg whites is by making these Easy Meringue Cookies!
These Easy Meringue Cookies have just five ingredients and take less than 20 minutes prep time! As with all meringue recipes, these easy meringue cookies are baked at a low temperature and then sit in the cooling down oven to further bake and harden.
Note: I was sent a review copy of Domenica Marchetti’s Italian Cookies: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region in order to write this post for Biscotti Ricci Del Gattopardo. Opinions are mine alone.
This summer, my husband and I are celebrating our anniversary in style: we are heading to Sicily and Rome! So, when this Italian Cookies (paid link) cookbook showed up on my doorstep, I immediately paged through to the “Cookies of the Islands” chapter to find myself a Sicilian cookie to try. This recipe for Biscotti Ricci Del Gattopardo (The Leopard’s Rippled Almond Cookies) caught my eye immediately.
This Italian Cookies cookbook is a treasure trove of mouthwatering cookie recipes from all regions of Italy, along with stories and background on the cookies within the cookbook… there are over 100 cookie recipes in this beautiful cookbook, including classics like pizzelle, cuccidati, anisetti, and amaretti.
The cookies I chose to make, Biscotti Ricci Del Gattopardo, get their name from the novel Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. In the book, the prince of Salina visits a monastery where Benedictine nuns make these tasty almond-based cookies (you can actually still buy them at the convent of Palma di Montechiaro in Sicily).
In this cookbook, Domenica Marchetti adapted the original recipe to use a cookie press (paid link) rather than piping out logs (hence these cookies known as “rippled” almond cookies), which speeds up the process without messing with the flavor!
Ingredients:
2 cups superfine almond flour, plus up to 1/2 cup optional almond flour if needed
It’s been a minute (or, more specifically, a year) since I shared a new salmon recipe, so I knew it had to be something special, like this recipe for Salmon with Mustard Piccata Sauce!
I found the original Salmon with Mustard Piccata Sauce recipe on NYT Cooking but have adapted it slightly for my tastes and what I tend to have in my kitchen. Not only does it taste great, but you can have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes!
This recipe for Squid Ink Seafood Pasta is the best way to really highlight a homemade squid ink fettuccine (or store-bought fresh squid ink pasta!)
This Squid Ink Seafood Pasta is bursting with flavor: briny pasta, a little heat from red pepper flakes, nice acidity from the white wine and lemon, smokiness from the salmon, and freshness from the basil.
This is a really impressive dish, but it can be made in about 30 minutes!
I am taking full advantage of the long weekend by making a recipe I’ve wanted to make for a while now: Homemade Squid Ink Fettuccine!
I’ve been inspired to finally try to make homemade pasta after Danny Freeman’s demo at Binding Agents a few months back. And on a recent stop at Ippolito’s, I noticed they had cuttlefish ink for sale and knew that homemade squid ink fettuccine was in my near future!
Homemade pasta is surprisingly easy to make, but it does take some time (the dough has to rest a few times) so just keep that in mind when planning to make it. I have a bunch of tools on hand that make pasta making even easier, so I’ll link to those throughout this post.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) cuttlefish ink
3oo grams (about 2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
I love a classic mac and cheese. But I also love a spin on a classic, like this recipe for Cajun Mac and Cheese!
This Cajun Mac and Cheese recipe is made of elbow pasta with onions, bell peppers, celery, and andouille sausage, baked in a creamy, spiced cheese sauce.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon salt
1 (16 oz) box elbow pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 (12 oz – 16 oz) package Andouille sausage, chopped
These Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies are a bit out of my cookie baking comfort zone. I tend to stay away from any holiday cookies that use royal icing — I don’t usually have the patience for decorating cookies so I lean toward drop cookies for most of the ones I make.
But this year, I figured it was time to try a fairly easy decorated holiday cookie – Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies!
These sugar cookies are topped with royal icing and then are decorated with strings of Christmas lights which are made with black icing and mini M&M’s.
The resulting Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies are colorful, fun, and oh so tasty!
Ingredients (makes approximately 2 dozen cookies)
Sugar Cookies:
1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks (reserve your egg whites!)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Royal Icing:
4 cups powdered sugar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract (can substitute vanilla extract to make nut free)
‘Tis the season for apple cider! Every year, I make sure to pick up some store-bought apple cider to enjoy. But this year, I wanted to try to make my own Fresh Juiced Apple Cider using my Hurom Juicer (paid link) and was surprised with how easy and delicious it was to make!
You can make this fresh juiced apple cider with whatever your favorite apple is, but I suggest aiming for a sweeter apple, like Honeycrisp.
I like to add rye to my cider to make a spiked cider. You can also add bourbon, spiced rum, or drink as is for a non-alcoholic beverage!
Ingredients (makes about 6 cups, multiply as needed):
12 apples, cored and sliced
10 whole black peppercorns
8 whole allspice berries
5 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
the zest of 1 orange
the zest of 1 lemon
9 oz (or 6 shots) rye, bourbon, or spiced rum (omit to make non-alcoholic)
Now that it’s fall, it is the perfect time for me to share one of my go-to quick weeknight dinners: Chicken Pesto Meatballs.
This recipe for Chicken Pesto Meatballs is equally easy, quick, and delicious – you’ll be amazed at how flavorful these meatballs are!
The below recipes serves the meatballs with a pesto pasta, but we have also enjoyed the chicken pesto meatballs on a bed of salad greens, with rice and vegetables, or on their own as an appetizer.
Ingredients:
Chicken Pesto Meatballs:
1/2 cup homemade or store-bought pesto (if buying store bought, I strongly suggest going to the prepared foods section of the supermarket to see if they have any freshly made pesto rather than jarred)
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Pesto Pasta:
16 oz pasta of your choice (my favorites are fusilli and orzo for this recipe)
One of my favorite parts of being a member of a CSA is the abundance of tomatoes that they provide. During tomato season, I gobble up tomato sandwiches, salads filled with tomatoes, and basically any tomato-filled recipe I can. Recently, even I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with, so it felt like the right time to make some homemade gazpacho, or more specifically, Juicer Gazpacho Shooters!
As I gathered my ingredients, my husband asked if I was using our Hurom H320 Cold Juicer (paid link) to make the gazpacho. Now, why didn’t I think of that?
let’s take a moment for my pretty tomatoes
These Juicer Gazpacho Shooters are so easy to make! Most ingredients are added straight into the hopper, and the juicer does the hard work for you.
The result is a beautifully silky-smooth gazpacho, perfect for serving in small shooter glasses (paid link) for a great summer party appetizer or a fun start to a meal.
Note: I have permission to share the below Fried Rice Carbonara recipe from Danny Freeman’s latest cookbook, Italianish (paid link)
Before I share this recipe for Fried Rice Carbonara, I want to give some background on its inspiration. Recently, I attended an event at Binding Agents, Philly’s only cookbook store, located in the Italian Market. The event included a talk, signing, and pasta demo with Danny Freeman to feature his new cookbook, Italianish: Modern Twists on Class Italian Flavors (paid link).
Danny Freeman, or Danny Loves Pasta, is known for creating fun and beautiful, colorful pasta shapes and recipes (his first cookbook, Danny Loves Pasta – paid link – is an absolute delight). His latest cookbook, Italianish, is a celebration of Italian American flavors reimagined for easy family-friendly and many weekday-friendly recipes.
During the talk, Danny spoke of his inspiration of this latest cookbook, growing up in an Italian American home, and adapting those flavors and recipes for his own family. Italianish is filled with creative, inventive, and playful takes on Italian classics, including recipes for Lasagna Soup, Rigatoni alla Vermouth, and Rainbow Cookie Cookies.
The cookbook includes a bunch of indices that make this cookbook so incredibly useful. There is a time index so you can quickly scan recipes based on how much time you have – some recipes can be made in as little as 15 minutes! There is also a sauce index and a meatball index to help you better mix and match to create multiple versions of the recipes within the cookbook. Italianish also includes three “intermezzos” which highlight cicchetti (small snacks originating in Venice), fresh pasta, and farro bowls.
While providing insights into his latest cookbook, Danny Freeman also gave a demo on different fresh pasta shapes, which I can’t wait to try for myself at home!
Danny Freeman was kind enough to allow me to post one of the recipes from his cookbook on my blog.
To highlight the imaginativeness of Italianish, I’ve chosen to recreate Danny’s recipe for Fried Rice Carbonara.
As Danny writes, “With the pork and the eggs, [fried rice] is not so different from a carbonara! The classic pasta dish is made with guanciale, Parmesan, and egg yolks, and we can use those same flavors to whip up this quick carbonara fried rice.” I absolutely love Spaghetti Alla Carbonara, so I couldn’t wait to try this recipe!
Ingredients (serves 2 as a main dish, or 4 as a side):
3 cups cooked rice
4 oz guainciale or pancetta, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
If you’ve never had Homemade Corn Ice Cream before, you’re in for a treat!
It’s summer, which means there is an abundance of corn at the moment. I am a member of a CSA (Penn Farm CSA in New Castle, DE run by students at William Penn High School), so I’ve received about half a dozen ears of corn the last few weeks — that’s a lot of corn! So I decided to use some of those sweet cobs to make Corn Ice Cream. (If you, too, have quite a bit of corn on hand, try one of my corn-filled recipes!)
The natural sweetness of corn makes it a perfect choice for ice cream. The addition of egg yolks to this recipe makes a beautifully creamy and decadent Corn Ice Cream!
