I had always loved the spaghetti alla vongole (along with, of course, the good old traditional spaghetti bolognese!) served up in my local Italian restaurant so, when I went to Bellagio on Lake Como a few years ago, I was hoping it would be on the menu. We were celebrating a special occasion and staying at a superb hotel complete with a Michelin starred restaurant. Sadly spaghetti vongole was obviously deemed insufficiently grand for it to make an appearance, so the following evening we decided to head off into town to see if we could seek it out.

The mission was easily accomplished; in fact it seemed to be on most of the menus. When my meal arrived I was slightly shocked to see a lack of tomatoes. It transpires that you can have vongole rosso or bianco, the former having tomatoes in the sauce and the latter not. If I had thought that my local Italian served up a good vongole, I was about to enter a different zone. The dish was absolutely delicious and despite extensive tasting I have yet to find another to come close.

The dish is in essence quite simple to prepare at home, even for people who normally just stick to Schwartz recipes. It revolves around a combination of garlic, olive oil, clams, parsley and white wine. My first attempt was, however, rather disappointing. Feeling slightly apprehensive of cooking clams myself, I copped out and bought a jar of clams. What a disappointment! They simply did not have the taste of fresh clams and what’s more were so tiny that they were hardly worth the effort of taking them out of their shells. My next attempt used fresh clams and in fact there was nothing much to cooking them. The main thing to remember was to remove them as soon as they opened so as not to allow them to dry out. It is also important to discard any with broken shells or ones that don’t open. They are dead and should definitely not be used.

Unfortunately I would only give myself six out of ten. I’m not sure where I went wrong (maybe not using expensive wine or perhaps the olive oil was not the same as the one used in Bellagio) but at least it gives me a good excuse to return to Italy soon!

There are lot of different kinds of pasta in Rome. It looks beautiful and it’s really tasty.

Actually to make perfect homemade pasta is not difficult as you may think. There are various different pasta resipes online with ratings, reviews and cooking tips.
Then you can choose the most suited recipe to try to prepare homemade Italian pasta.
All what you need is
1. Flour (200g)
2. Eggs (2 big or 3 small)
3. salt by taste
4. water
You even dont need a pasta machinecut but cut your pasta with a knife.

Which dishes do you love to prepare to Labor Day? Actually it can be whatever you just want, right? But however there are some special diches you kove the most. Which one?

Perhaps this is Spinach-Stuffed Portobellos, Orzo-Stuffed Tomatoes, Chicken with Mango-Raspberry Salsa or Strawberry Tiramisu Trifle? Would you share with your recipes?

I prefer such recipes that make for easy labor like tomato salad and quick Italian-style burgers.

1 pound of ground beef
1/2 pound of hot or mild Italian sausage removed from casing.
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup of seasoned bread crumbs
¼ cup of freshly grated Romano cheese
1/4 cup of fresh parsley, chopped
1 egg
1 tsp of liquid smoke
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp of fresh ground pepper

Toppings

6 slices of provolone cheese
1 small red onion, sliced thin
1 beefsteak tomato, sliced thin
1 jar of roasted red peppers
10 fresh basil leaves
8 small loaves of foccacia bread sliced in half

PREPARATION

Mix all the burger ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
Shape into burger shaped patties.
Place directly on grill for 10 minutes.
Turn once and grill the other side for 10 more minutes.
Top with provolone cheese until melted, about 1 minute.
Remove burgers and toast the foccacio face side down for I minute or you can use regular hamburger buns.
Top with sliced onion, tomato, roasted red peppers and fresh basil leaves.

You may top with other favorites but it’s delicious just like this. Serves 8.

it’s interesting that many people are unaware of the humble origins of the name for this popular Italian food. ‘Lasagna’ got its name from the Greek lasanon, which means “chamber pot.” The Romans borrowed the word to refer to cooking pots of a similar shape, and eventually the word came to be used to refer to the noodles which were traditionally layered in a lasanum, a Roman lasagna dish. Here is one of various recopes to prepare Lasagna easy and quick:

Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 medium sweet white onion, diced
1/2 large green bell pepper, seeds and veins removed, diced
1/2 lb dry lasagna noodles (requires 9 lasagna noodles – unbroken)
1/4 cup sugar
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 28 oz can (16 oz) stewed tomatoes
1/2 6 oz can (3 oz) tomato paste
1 lb Ricotta cheese
1 1/2 lb Mozzarella cheese (large flat square slices)
3/4 lb freshly grated parmesan cheese
Garlic Powder
Oregano
Italian Spice
Salt
Garlic Salt
Parsley diced (fresh flat leaf preferred)
1 Garlic Cloves, minced
White wine vinegar

Find many useful pretty kitchen utensils for your kitchen.