Browsing Tag

sweet

Occhi di Bue

February 14, 2017
occhi di bue

Happy Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, I made occhi di bue, one of my favorite Italian cookies. They are a simple sandwich-style cookie made of pasta frolla typically cut into a circle with a thin slip of fruit preserves, fruit curd, or Nutella spread in between. The top half of every cookie has a smaller circle cut out so the filling is visible. Every Italian pasticceria (pastry shop) or biscottificio (cookie shop) will almost always have occhi di bue behind their impeccably clean glass counters, lined with tray after tray of beautifully presented cookies, crostate, cakes, and pastries. We spent the last day of our […]

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Blood Orange Scented Cornmeal Cake

January 28, 2017
blood orange scented polenta cake

Buon anno, friends! It’s lovely to be back here writing after a much-needed break. I came back from Italy rested and refreshed. I also came home to all the things to catch up on, so it’s taken me longer to get back to blogging. I can’t believe it’s already the end of January! Now that I’m (mostly) caught up, I’ve been able to spend more time researching recipes to share here in the new year and I am excited to get cooking and writing. I love how travel gets my creative juices flowing, and after every trip to Italy, I not […]

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Pizzelle

December 20, 2016
pizzelle

Welcome to the December edition of Cucina Conversations! This month, we made our theme a little broader and are bringing you Italian recipes that are perfect for sharing and gift-giving during the Christmas season. I love baking year-round, but I really love baking during the holidays. The Christmas music comes on Thanksgiving Day, I spend a day or two with my nose in my cookbooks deciding which recipes to make for my annual cookie gift tins, and then my kitchen turns into a cookie-making factory for a solid two weeks (or more). Gifting homemade cookies from my kitchen to our dearest […]

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Apple Torta Sbrisolona

October 31, 2016
apple torta sbrisolona

Welcome to the October installment of Cucina Conversations! This month, we are talking about the Catholic feast day of Ognissanti (All Saint’s Day), which is celebrated on November 1st. The origins of Ognissanti date back to May 609 AD, when Pope Boniface IV formally established the feast day by consecrating Rome’s Pantheon (formerly a pagan temple) into a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the martyrs. He also established il giorno dei morti (All Soul’s Day) to follow the day after Ognissanti. It wasn’t until the mid-eighteenth century that the dates of both feast days were changed to November 1st and 2nd by Pope Gregory III, and Ognissanti became […]

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Ciambelline al Vino

September 30, 2016
ciambelline al vino

Benvenuti to Cucina Conversations! I’m thrilled to welcome you to this new feature on Flavia’s Flavors. A few months ago, I was invited by a new food blogging friend, Rosemarie of the blog Turin Mamma, to join her and several other food bloggers in forming a virtual roundtable with the goal of presenting our readers with a monthly post centered around a specific theme based on Italy’s seasonal, cultural, or religious calendars. We are a group of seven women from around the globe, passionate about the food of Italy, its origins and recipes. Cucina Conversations is a collaborative project which makes […]

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