The autentic homemade "PASTA"

Hello everyone! I am here ready to share with you the second most popular Italian recipe: PASTA! homemade pasta! have you ever tryed it? I am sure some of you have probably tasted it in some autentic Italian restaurants. Who doesn't love pasta?

This is a funny story, but when I first moved to the States many people told me that their favorite Italian plate was "fettuccine Alfredo".... I know fettuccine are awesome, but.... what is the Alfredo sauce????? Yes I am serious, Alfredo is an autentic american invention, because trust me, I have been living in Italy for 16 years and I have never heard of the Alfredo sauce before. I thought this was pretty funny.

Anyway here is the recipe for making homemade pasta. It is so easy and quick that you will not buy dry pasta at the grocery store anymore.


Ingredients - makes 600g

400g of 00 flour
½ tsp salt
4 eggs
The doses can vary depending on how many people you have to feed, but make sure to use a 60 grams egg for every 100 grams of flous. If the egg is more than 60 grams you should add a little flour.

In Italy I used a different kind of flour to make the pasta dough, called "farina di grano duro". Since this kind of flour doesn't exist here I simply use the basic flour, and it actually works just fine.

To make the dough I usually use my Kitchen Aid, which I love, but if you don't have it you can simply use a bowl and mix the three ingredients together untill you get a pretty hard ball. Usually the hardest it is the dough the better your pasta will taste when is cooked.

Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for one hour before using. The dough will keep for up to 24 hours in the fridge if wrapped tightly first in cling film and then in foil.

Once you have your dough you can make a lot of different pasta shape. My favorite are the " fettuccine" or "tagliatelle". To do that you simply have to cut the dough in half and roll it one half at a time on a lightly floured surface until as thin as you want it. This is quite hard, because the dough is so stiff, but possible.

Then, to cut it into ribbons, roll the pasta into a pinwheel and, using a sharp knife, slice into strips 8-10mm thick.
Done! When you want to eat it, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the tagliatelle for 3-4 minutes until al dente!


I have to admit that I have the pasta maker accessory for my kitchen aid since we have to make pasta for a very large family, and do it by hand will be too hard and too long. But it's defenetely possible if you don't have to feed 8 hungry stomachs all the times!!! 

This time I prepared a delicious and classic "ragù" to dress my pasta which is simply the Italian translation for tomato sauce with meatballs. 

Of course my ragù was made from scratch with the best fresh ground meet and fresh tomato sauce, but this will be a future recipe that I will post. Although you can simply dress your pasta with some melted butter and spices ans the result will be just awesome. You don't really need a super elaborated sauce when you have the perfect taste of HOMEMADE PASTA! try it during the week end, surpise your family and let me know if they loved it! 

Let's start classy, PIZZA!

I have been thinking a lot about what recipe I should have posted first. Well, I though that the best way of starting an Italian-American food blog would have been with the recipe of the autentic Italian PIZZA! What is more Italian, but at the same time American, healthy and delicious? Well of course the answer is homemade pizza!

I made these three pizzas the past week end for my family and of course they were a success, because who doesn't like pizza?


Making pizza is VERY EASY! I know that make the perfect crust entirely from scratch can look scary, but trust me is not.


Here are the ingredients for 3 large pizzas for a big family like mine, although we were just five for dinner and we ate just one whole pizza. I usually love to have left over ( two pizzas in this case ahah ) because you can easily freeze them in slices and enjoy them whenever you don't feel like cooking by simply heat them in the microwave!


INGREDIENTS for three large pizzas:

       For the crust-

• 1200 grams of white flour
• 600 grams of water 
• 16 grams of fresh yeast
• one tbs of sugar
  
    Toppings-( I made a vegetarian pizza for a lighter version and two pizzas with cheese and tomato, for a classic margherita version)
• two large zucchini 
• artichokes hearts
• three fresh tomatoes
• tomato sauce "Angela Mia"
• fresh basil leaves
• mozzarella cheese

Start making the crust. The secret for a perfect crust is leave the dough rest for at least one hour after you make it.
Combine the yeast with some warm water and sugar, stir well.
Take the flour and slowly incorporate the remaining water and the yeast compost until you get a great dough consistence. You might have to add some water if the dough result too dry.
take the flour ball and put it in a container. Cover it with a clean towel and let it rise. It should take an hour for the dough to double his original size. At this time you can divide the dough in three even part and make some round pizza shaped crust.


Put the toppings and leave them rest for another 30-45 mins before baking them to get a better and softer crust consistence. Bake for 20-25 minutes. And ENJOY!

Tomato sauce "Angela Mia" is defenetely to try. I found it at Sam's and the taste is very mush like the homade italian tomato sauces.

I always add some fresh basil on my pizza. It defenetely completes it and create the perfect taste.

This time I used some delicious tomato souce, fresh tomatoes, cut zucchini and artichokes hearts to create a vegeterian ligh version of pizza. ( 170 calories a slice).   Looks and taste awesome!

 This is the original Italian pizza recipe called PIZZA MARGHERITA. Nothing more than tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and oregano. HEAVEN.

Ready steady go!

I have been thinking to start my own blog since decades, but since I have to many hobbies and passions I wasn't sure what my blog was going to be about . Well, I finally decided it will be a food blog.  I am VERY addicted to food ( I love cooking and eating, but no, I am not fat :)). I realized the thing I enjoy the most and I can do better is spend time in the kitchen and create! My mom always involved me while she was cooking. She tought me how to cook savory plates with the most HEALTHY ingredients and the LOWEST calories possible. I learned from her to cook from scratch,  to chose the best and  most natural ingredients.

I remember when I was younger somethimes I was annoyed by this; because trust me, we NEVER bought industrial cakes, ready to go food or any kind of processed food. I remember somethimes wanting to buy at the grocery stores some chocalate cakes, or cookies, and when I asked her if we could get them my mom always replied: " Sure, we can have a chocolate cake. We can bake one together today!" ---->  which meant we were not going to buy a ready one, of course. I soon realized how lucky I was to have a mom that tough me how to chose the right things to eat and how to cook from scratch whatever thing I wanted that was in the grocery store shelves.

You hear always more ofter how industrial foods are packed with unhealthy and bad ingredients. I hear more sotries of people affected by deseases! These can vary from obesity to cancers and I am always more convinced that there is ALWAYS a prevention. You are what you eat.

There are many many things you cannot prevent, many deseases you cannot do anything about, so let's try to do what we can control from the outside! Let's be the masters of what we eat!
With this, I am not saying that you have to ban everything you like from your diet,NO! You just need to cook the right food the right way! And trust me, I am getting always more expert about the subject !


I have to admit I lately spent a lot of time reading all the properties of fruits and veggies as well as how to avoid trans fat( that are apperently hided in foods you will never think of!) and many more things as when and how to assume carboidrats as rice, or many more things about proteins, meats and fish!


Omg, so, how do I start a food blog? there are too many things I would like to start with. I will begin telling you something more about me and my life.


Surprisingly I am not a mom, or an adult woman, I am just a teenager! As I said I am really good at cooking and I love it.
I know you are surprised, you don't see very often 17
years old girl that starts a food blog.I just graduated from high school and of course the next step is start to study medicine in college. Medicine and nutrition it's always been my passion. I always wanted to become a doctor and finally I have the chance to start classes related to what I love to learn about! (even if, of course, I already took many medicine related classes during high school, and proudly I got the honors award as best student in the school).

You aready know that I am young, but I am going to give you somemore hints. First of all something that fully describes me:  the title of my blog, ITALY and USA. Yes, exactly! I am Italian, I have been living in italy for 16 years, most of my life. I moved to the USA only two years ago. Now I see myself as half american and half Italian. 
I speak Italian a lot better that how I speak english, so please don't judge me if my grammar is terrible. I am still learning the new language!

I have four amazing sisters and fantastic parents, family is everything to me. My family is the reason why I am always more interest in healthy cooking, I really want the best for me and them and I love to suggest them what to eat and cook!

Soooo, summary of this huge introduction about my blog and myself?

I am an Italian young woman, living in Texas from two years. My passion is cooking HEALTHY Italian product with awesome ingredients from scratch, that of course you can find in the States! I can make savory plates with low calories and nutricious ingredient! I have many many recipes and suggestion to share with you! As well as many tricks from Italian cooking as well as some from etnic recipes!
Follow me and my recipes if you, as me, really care about what your family is eating, but you like to surprise them with awesome new, fresh and delicious recipes! I promise I won't disappoint you.

I think this is enough as my first post ever, so I will stop here, and post something new very soon!

Kisses from Texas State!