Happy New Year to everyone who reads our posts and  the pages of our site.

A refined centerpiece for the Holiday season

We wish you the best things for the new year but especially we hope you are lucky enough to be in good health and untroubled.

But the most important  wish according to us  is you can be sustained by your family’s and friends’ love.

Greetings from Italy

The Italian Taste team

Hi, a lot of people in the world are finding for a real Christmas menu as we use to do in Italy.

Here and in the following posts we are going to show you some examples of Italian menus at Christmastime. You can choose among them for your Christmas dinner party or New Year’s Eve dinner or other occasions at holiday according to the Italian style.

At first you have to know  how we plan a menu in Italy; a menu is composed by the following courses:
1) starter made with a lot of appetizers
2) first course,  in other words a rich dish of pasta or risotto
3) second course made with fish or meat with the accompaniment of assorted vegetables or other side dishes
4) assorted cheese (only at lunch)
5) dessert

Well, now we are going to suggest you a traditional Christmas menu of the North of Italy (this is the typical  Piedmont menu for Christmas)
1) assorted canapés or other finger food with the accompaniment of a good cocktail; you are not obliged to serve them at table. You can prepare a little corner with finger food and cocktails apart. After tasting them according to the Italian style your guests can sit down at the table.
2) assorted salami with pickled vegetables and/or vegetables in oil, a savoury pie sliced, Russian salad

Assorted salami

3) smoked salmon in slices sprinkled with lemon juice just before the traditional first course
4) first course:  risotto with wild mushrooms or another Italian risotto with seasonal ingredients

Risotto with wild mushrooms

5) second course:  boiled beef with the accompaniment of some sauces and/or Russian salad; this is a traditional dish in Italy. In Piedmont we add other kinds of meat to beef such as hen, pork sausage, beef tongue …
6) second course: roast turkey
7) assorted cheese; a tidbit is serving mascarpone cheese sprinkled with cocoa powder
At last:
- assorted cakes such as typical Italian Christmas cakes (panettone, pandoro, panforte, panpepato …)
- dried and fresh fruit

Christmas pepperbread, Italy-style

Greetings from Italy

Carlo & Loretta

Hi, here it is a new  recipe suitable for Christmastime! It’s a first course in the traditional Italian menu.

Risotto with wild mushrooms and quail breasts.

Mushroom risotto with quail breasts

It’s very tasty and easy to do if you are able to make risotto. Look the recipe for risotto with mushrooms in this page of ours. Add saffron too, to colour and flavour it!
Meanwhile you are making risotto cook quail breasts.

Saute two quail breasts on both sides in a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a pan. Add half of glass of Marsala, let it evaporate and then add  an orange juice, a tablespoon of dried chives and a tablespoon of dried parsley. Season to taste with salt and keep on cooking, half-covered, till the cooking juice is almost retired and the meat is tender (about 15 minutes).
Prepare the serving dish. Pour in risotto and arrange the two quail breasts on the top. In the photo the  dish is for one people.

Your dish is ready!

Greetings from Italy

Carlo & Loretta

Hi, these simple Christmas angels are made with the paper egg trays you certainly have at home.

Concert for choir and orchestra: handcrafted Christmas angels

They are easy-to-do and cheap. Make them with your kids. What is better than crafting with your kids to get into the Holidays spirit?
We hope you are inspired by them!
Do you like these handmade Christmas angels? Have you or your kids ever made Christmas angels? have you any photo of them?  enter our competition.

Greetings from Italy

Carlo & Loretta

Hi, in this post we show you some Christmas place card ideas.  They are original and different from the usual place cards.
In fact they are edible place cards. In this way you can mark  the table place of your guests and have a starter served on the plate!

Edible snowman

Look at the photo below: this edible snowman is very nice, isn’t it? and it tastes fantastic  too!

Edible snowman: a fantastic place card!

Now we give you step-by-step instructions to do it.
You will need

Potatoes
Russian salad
Smoked salmon in slices
Cherry mozzarella cheese
Cherry tomatoes
Mushrooms in oil
Spinach with mozzarella cheese
Salt and extra virgin olive oil

Steam as many medium-size potatoes as the guest numbers. Let them cool.

Meanwhile prepare  Russian salad. It’s necessary to fill your potatoes. You need a small quantity of Russian salad but if you have some salad left, don’t worry! you can make a nice accompaniment to roast meat or steak. Another solution: serve the Russian salad  with salami as starter dish according to the Italian menu.

You also need  spinach  with mozzarella cheese. To make spinach with mozzarella cheese it’s enough to saute a shallot -  finely sliced – in extra virgin olive oil, add boiled spinach together with some green olives and dried tomatoes – sliced – and flavour all these ingredients on medium heat stirring frequently.  At the end, when all the cooking juices are well retired,  season to taste with salt, stir and, just before switching off the gas, add grated mozzarella cheese. Cover with a lid and let the mozzarella melt. You need spinach to simulate grass covered with snow.

Peel the potatoes and slice off the top. Now hollow out every potato: using a small spoon  scoop out most of the flesh inside and put apart. Fill the hollowed potatoes with Russian salad.
Prepare some extra virgin olive oil with a pinch of salt. Brush the outer part of every potato with this mixture. Place it on the plate as you can see in the photo. Use mushrooms in oil as buttons.
If you want to use the potato flesh you have put apart you can mix it with tuna in oil, aromatic herbs, olive oil and salt and fill with this mixture the hollowed potatoes instead of using Russian salad.

Insert a toothpick inside a cherry mozzarella and then insert the toothpick into the potato.
Half the cherry tomatoes,  hollow them out and season to taste with salt and oil. Cover every cherry mozzarella with half a cherry tomato: this is its hat!
The final touch: cut rectangles from smoked salmon slices. They are  the scarf of your snowmen!

Cut out as many little rectangles from  a sheet of white paper as your guest numbers. Glue a little Christmas image in a corner and write your guest name with a glitter pen. Insert the card into the snowman with a toothpick.
Arrange spinach around the snowman just before your guests sit around the table.

Look at the photo for more details.

Edible Christmas place cards

Look at the photo below. You can see some savoury cod puddings you can use as place cards. It’s enough to insert a toothpick  in every little pudding with a little card in which you have to write the guest name. Place every pudding on a little plate on the table place. It will be your first starter.

Edible Christmas place cards

Ingredients /it serves at least 12

500 g (1.1 lb) salt cod
300 g ( 10 1/2 oz) frozen artichokes in slices
500 g (1.1 lb) bell peppers
50 g (1 oz) shallot, finely sliced
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 tablespoons dried chives
3 eggs
Half a glass Marsala wine or white dry wine
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Quail eggs, mayonnaise sauce, mushrooms and bell peppers in oil to garnish
Silicone Christmas cake mould
Salt

Soak the salt cod in cold water for almost 24 – 36 hours. Remember to change often the water.
Put the cod in cold water, bring to the boil and cook on low heat for about 10-15 minutes. Let the salt cod  cool and then remove its skin. Mash it with a fork.

Prepare the artichokes.
Put two tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and add half of the shallot. Saute on low heat for few minutes stirring frequently, then add the frozen artichokes, Marsala wine, 1 tablespoon of chives and 1 tablespoon of parsley. Season to taste with salt and cook until tender (about 15-20 minutes). Let the artichokes cool and then puree them.

Prepare the bell peppers.
Cut the bell peppers into quarters, remove the seeds and wash them. Grate the flesh through a flat grater. In this way you can remove the skin.
Saute the remaining shallot in two tablespoons of olive oil, add the bell pepper flesh, the remaining aromatic herbs; season to taste with salt  and keep on cooking until the cooking juices are well retired.

Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt.

Combine the bell pepper sauce with half  the cod meat. Add half the beaten eggs and stir accurately.
Combine the artichoke puree with the remaining cod meat, add the remaining beaten eggs and stir accurately.

Preheat oven to 180°C (350 °F). Share out the two mixtures into silicone cake moulds with Christmas shapes.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the surface is golden.
Turn upside down your puddings on a serving dish. Garnish them with hard-boiled quail eggs (halved), mushrooms in oil, little pieces of bell peppers in oil and mayonnaise sauce as you can see in the photo. Transfer everyone into a little plate.
Your place cards are ready! You have only to add a little card with your guest name.

If you want other ideas to plan your Christmas party look at our “Christmas Planet” page.

In the next days we’re going to show you other Christmas place cards.

Greetings from Italy

Carlo & Loretta