Beef Stew

Here is a recipe for Italian meatballs that helped win a cooking contest that I entered. The prize for the winner was a limo for the night for friends and family and a trip to San Francisco to a top notch Italian restaurant called Fior d'Italia. If you have a recipe for a dish that you love, you might consider entering a cooking contest. There are thousands of cooking contests around the United States.

Some of the winners receive money, prizes or their own cooking show on TV. The Food Network TV channel is always casting for a competition. Check out their web site for; The Next Food Network Star competition.

Here is my Italian meatball recipe. The recipe that won the award is called; "Rigatoni Pasta With Raisin Meatballs And Portabella Mushrooms Topped With A Fresh Tomato-Marsala Sauce."

Chef Vinny's Italian Meatballs

2 lb. Ground beef (chuck or regular) not lean

2 tsp of salt or more if you like

3 large garlic cloves minced

4 eggs

1 tsp of minced dry basil leafs

½ tsp of minced dried oregano

½ tsp of black pepper

¼ cup of fresh chopped parsley

¼ - ½ cup of plain breadcrumbs

¼ cup of grated fresh parmesan or Romano cheese

(Optional) ¼ cup of raisins makes great tasting meatballs!!

Mix all in large bowl with your hands and form meatballs. Place on an oven tray and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until they become firm and slightly brown. Don't over cook.

When done place all the meatballs into your favorite pasta tomato sauce and let simmer or medium heat until the meatballs are cooked all the way through. Serve with your favorite pasta. Enjoy!

Chef Vinny DiLeo is very passionate about pizza and Italian cooking. You can find some of his award winning recipes at his website at: http://www.perfecthomemadepizza.com/pages/recipes/rigatoni_pasta_with_raisin_meatballs.html

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Can you believe that an independent Sicily would rank seventh in the world when it comes to wine production? Again and again I was forced to strike suggested wines off the list because they aren't available in North America, at least not yet. So maybe you should plan a trip to this lovely, distinctive island and get local treats that just don't make it to North America such as Sicilian ices made from the snows of Mount Etna. Sicilian wine is meant for food. I still remember bringing a $40 bottle to my wine class a few years ago. Nobody, including me, was impressed. They didn't even finish the bottle, and so I had a single, small serving left. I brought the wine home and paired it with slow-cooked beef ribs. How do you say ooh-la-la in Italian?



Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but definitely prefers drinking fine French, German, or other wine. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com features a weekly review of $10 wines and new sections writing about and tasting organic and kosher wines. Visit his Italian wine website www.theitalianwineconnection.com .

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I am quite a fan of fine Italian wine, and have managed to taste and review at least one wine from each of Italy's twenty regions. This column has examined several bargain Italian wines. Today we look at a red wine from Apulia, also known as Puglia. This region is second in Italian wine production to Sicily. Both Apulia and Sicily have made major efforts to upgrade their wine quality; in general, Sicily has been more successful.



Levi Reiss authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but prefers drinking fine wine with the right foods and people. He teaches computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com features a weekly review of $10 wines and new sections writing about and tasting organic and kosher wines. Visit his Italian travel website www.travelitalytravel.com.

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It's that time of year. Many businesses are finally going into the black. If you live in our part of the world, winter is almost knocking at the door. And the new wines are here. Back in the 1930s France organized what eventually became an extraordinarily successful marketing campaign Beaujolais Nouveau. Over the years the popularity of such wines has considerably declined, yet millions of people still enjoy such wine or the accompanying festivities. This article reviews an Italian new wine coming from the Alto Adige - Trentino region of northeastern Italy. A companion article reviews a more expensive French Beaujolais Nouveau Villages.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but really prefers fine Italian or other wine, with good food and company. He loves teaching computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com features a weekly review of $10 wines and new sections writing about and tasting organic and kosher wines. His Italian travel website is www.travelitalytravel.com .

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Simple, no-effort dishes, with clear uncomplicated flavours are called for after all the rich Christmas feasting. I went looking for a recipe to cook some good Karoo lamb shoulder chops. Grilling would have toughened them, so some slow cooking was required. Revisiting my Marcella Hazan cook books, I found a couple of straightforward recipes that sounded good and put them both together. The result was delicious, an intense flavour that took me straight back to a country restaurant in Italy, where they know how to get the best from their ingredients without over-embellishing them. The meat is browned in oil with garlic and rosemary, half a cup of white wine is poured over, then it is left to cook slowly for an hour and a half. You end up with tender meat and the exquisitely flavoured, reduced juices to drizzle over it. Make some potatoes, cubed and roasted in olive oil to accompany it, some salad and a perfect Sunday lunch fit for a king is yours for very little effort.

Italian Lamb Stew Recipe

Beef Stew

You can use most cuts of lamb for this recipe, from large hunks on the bone, to chops, to boneless cubes for stewing - the only difference is the amount of cooking time needed to make the lamb tender. For large pieces about two hours, smaller pieces 1 - 1 ½ hours should be enough, but check for tenderness - the meat should start coming away from the bone easily.

750g-900g (1 ¾ - 2lb) lamb

4-5 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cloves of garlic

1 sprig of rosemary or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary

125ml/ ½ cup dry white wine

salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan, to which you have a lid, over a medium-high heat. Put in the lamb, garlic and rosemary and brown the lamb on all sides. (Don't let the garlic darken too much). Once the lamb is nicely browned, add salt and freshly ground pepper then pour over all the wine. Let the wine bubble and turn the meat over in it a couple of times, then turn down the heat and put on the lid. Cook at a gentle simmer for 1-2 hours depending on the size of the meat pieces. Turn the meat once or twice during this time. If all the liquid has evaporated before the end of the cooking time, add two tablespoons of water. Once the lamb feels tender when you pierce it with a fork, take it out on to a warm serving dish. Draw off most of the fat with a spoon. If there is a lot of liquid in the pan, turn up the heat and let it bubble to reduce. If there is hardly any, add a couple of tablespoons of water and scrape up the cooking residue to make a delicious gravy. Pour this over the lamb and serve immediately.

There are lots of variations on this basic recipe. If you ever tire of this simple version, try adding one of the following:

450g/1lb fresh French/green beans topped and tailed and added after the wine has bubbled, before you turn the heat down.
225g/8oz tinned tomatoes with their juice, added after the wine has bubbled, before you turn the heat down.
1 red pepper peeled, de-seeded and cut into thin strips added to the lamb near the end of its cooking time

After the holiday season of too much rich food and complex flavours this was the breath of fresh air I was looking for - simple and straightforward but satisfying. My mouth is still watering at the memory!

Italian Lamb Stew Recipe

Kit Heathcock - worked and travelled in Italy for many years, is passionate about food and loves being a fulltime mother. Co-creator of A Flower Gallery home of original flower pictures, Food and Family and Great Books Reviewed

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The old saying "the Italian food is just composed of about twenty dishes" found at the Italian restaurants in the United States is quite false. Actually, Italian food has an extensive variety and it differs really throughout the world. The diverse regional Italian cuisines present in Italy takes cues from surrounding inhabitants and spices it up with a lot of local inspiration to offer the unique Italian cuisine. An attractive example of the famous Italian food is the cuisine from the area of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

This area has its border with the previously Soviet state of Yugoslavia, and has a lot of common traditions and customs including culinary trends. The famous Italian food of this area has an Austrian, Hungarian, Croatian, and Slovenian influence to it. The beer halls of this typical state reveal the most significant influences. Italian dishes for example Goulash and Viennese sausage are easily available here, goulash which formerly was a Hungarian dish, now acquired the unique Italian taste from this region. Goulash -has become an Italian dish which, among numerous other famous Italian foods, is extremely popular in this region and can easily be found in nearly in all restaurants within and outside of Italy. This particular famous Italian food constitutes a chunky beef stew and it includes fresh vegetables like onions and red peppers. It is generally served with pasta here (although with rice in Hungaria).

Another famous Italian food, the San Daniele del Friuli hams, are also of utmost importance in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and these hams are the staple food of the local population. This whole area is famous for its Italian sausages and bacon. The local soup, jota (pronounced yota), a specialty of this region, is usually prepared with bacon and beans. The pork used in this Italian dish is spicy which is really loved and liked by foreigners and tourists which usually are not familiar with this fiery product of Italian cooking. Though one might not associate sauerkraut with Italy, it's common in Friuli, and is central to Jota, a simple, hearty bean and sauerkraut soup from Trieste.

But perhaps the most famous Italian food offered in this area is polenta. This is quite similar to American grits (grits are similar to porridge or oatmeal, but are closer to the Italian dish polenta) and includes boiled cornmeal and constitutes a major part of the Italian dishes of this region. Polenta can be served with cheese and meat dishes.

Some Italian staple food ingredients like dairy products are also among specialties of this region. The Montasio cheese which is well-known all over the world comes from this region. If you like Italian cuisine with heaps of cheese in it then this region is definitely for you.

Brovada is another famous Italian food from this region. Undoubtedly, this dish is very special to this area and believe it or not it is pickled turnip - sometimes called Turnip -Kraut It is made with red wine vinegar and often contains the wine marks from the bottom of the tank. The turnips are shredded before being macerated in the vinegar. It is really good and not "turnipy" at all.

Though this typical dish is not among famous Italian foods but still most of the people like it very much. Brovada is a dish that is very popular in Italy so it constitutes an important part of Italian cuisine.



Kath Ibbetson has a BSc, a diploma in aromatherapy and a certificate in counselling. But most of all she is a mother and an enthusiastic Italian cook. Italian food is her passion and she has been cooking it for 30 years. Visit her site FoodTheItalianWay.com

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It's been quite some time since we have written about Italian wines. Make no mistake, we still love them. But we ran through all twenty regions of Italy (not literally) and reviewed at least one wine from each region with two exceptions. Then we proceeded to review French and German wines. There are scads of Italian wines to taste and review, but we have to give other wine countries a chance. Here we review a very timely wine, a Vino Novello. Each year, starting in early November, Italy releases Vino Novello, pleasing some people and disappointing many others. Will you be delighted or disappointed with the 2007 offering? When you finish reading this article, rush out to your favorite wine store and sample the wine. Whether you are delighted or not, you probably will have fun. Traditionalists consume roasted chestnuts and fresh figs with such wines.





New wines are produced by a special method known as carbonic maceration in which whole grapes ferment in stainless steel tanks, often reaching a temperature of 25 to 30 degrees Centigrade (77 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit). This process continues for some 5 to 20 days, and may be followed by crushing the grapes, which then undergo traditional fermentation for a few days. The exact procedure varies from one winemaker to another, but the ensuing wine is virtually tannin free. The lack of tannins implies a short shelf life. While you don't have to drink the wine immediately, most people finish the season by Easter. According to the Italian winemakers, perhaps not the most impartial of groups, the 2007 harvest was the earliest and leanest wine harvest in thirty years. Is this yet another proof of global warming?





New wines are usually colored bright red or violet. They tend to be fruity, tasting of cherry, strawberry, raspberry, banana, and freshly squeezed grapes, depending on the grape variety used, the production method, and the area in which the grapes are grown. Detractors talk about bubble gum, lollipops, nail polish, and jello. Many people claim that new wine tastes of grape juice with alcohol. You can be sure that if you don't like a given new wine, you will gain nothing by storing it for two years. It won't improve with time.





Italy is a major player in the new wine game, producing about 18 million bottles a year. Appoximately one third of the production is exported to Germany. The most important Italian new wine regions are Veneto and Tuscany, followed by Piedmont and Trentino-Alto Adige. Let's take a closer look at one new wine.





Wine Reviewed Novello del Veneto IGT 12% about $9.50





I bought this bottle in mid-November, shortly after its release. The Novello del Veneto wine, with a designer label, is made from Corvina and Rondinella grapes native to the Veneto region in northeastern Italy. Interestingly enough, the Corvina grape is quite tannic, but you would never guess from tasting the final product. You may be familiar with these two grape varieties; they are the major components of Valpolicella and other well-known wines from Veneto. I'll spare you the marketing materials that supposedly described this wine.





I first tasted these wines with a slow-cooked beef stew with potatoes and Romanian style smoky eggplant. The wine was dark but thin. I tasted some tobacco and the combination was quite pleasant but perhaps the meat's spice, harissa a pungent North African condiment, was too much for the wine. When I tasted the wine with chunks of spiceless meat, the Novello del Veneto was a bit more forceful.





The next pairing involved kubbe, alternate spelling kube, mideastern ground rice balls with a beef stuffing in a spicy tomato sauce. And they are excellent. The wine was fruit forward, it didn't seem like a new wine. This is a complement. The wine balanced well the pepper in the tomato sauce. On the downside it was grapey.





The final meal was a broiled rib steak that was briefly marinated in a ketchup, mustard, onion, and garlic sauce. The wine was fruity, but frankly not up to the steak. Do I taste bubble gum? As this description, the wine wasn't very long.





My German Emmenthaler (Swiss-type) cheese has become quite old and hard. The wine was moderately acidic and fruity, with some black cherry. Perhaps its presence was because the cheese has become rather tasteless. The French goat cheese's ammonia overwhelmed the wine.





Final verdict. Faith tells me that one day there will be a new wine that meets my not very rigorous standards. Reason tells me that this will not happen; the rush to market makes for inadequate processing of the grapes. In this case reason triumphed and the wine did not. On the other hand, what do you want for $9.50?

In his younger days Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books. Now he prefers drinking fine Italian, German, or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and the right people. He knows what dieting is, and is glad that for the time being he can eat and drink what he wants, in moderation. He loves teaching various and sundry computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his new wine, diet, health, and nutrition website www.wineinyourdiet.com and his Italian wine website www.theitalianwineconnection.com.

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I liked it more than a bowl of soup, Italian wedding over the years and have always been curious about its history. As I have often wondered, has become a staple at Italian weddings? And I wondered, is responsible for preparing the soup? Seemed to be the mother of the groom. I did this as a sort of tradition as a symbol of the last meal of the child by the hand of his mother.

So I went online and discovered many amazing thingsAbout this delicious soup. The most surprising thing I learned is that the Italian wedding soup has nothing to do with the Italian wedding. Marriage is marriage of ingredients for the soup.

I also learned that there are as many variations as there are regions in Italy. I do not know if anyone has used spinach instead of broccoli Rabe, so maybe I'm the first. Here's a quick and easy for youTry:

1.12 g of small parcels in Italian meatballs
1 bunch broccoli, cut into 1 inch
2 large cans (49 ounces each) chicken broth
1 1 / 2 cups tortellini
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 teaspoon teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ cup Parmesan cheese

Instructions

In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a boil. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 10Minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring frequently. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

I used balls that were fun and with a combination of beef and turkey. Serve with crusty Italian bread!

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