There are many of people who love Italian food above any other cuisines. Simple dishes like pasta and pizza are very popular in any age groups.. If you want to know how to cook Italian dishes, there are plenty of cooking lessons that you can learn from.

Italian cooking is not hard and basic cooking courses can teach you how to prepare simple but very tasty dishes which is often fun and relaxing. Most people enjoy a fantastic smell, appealing look and taste when preparing Italian food. The Italian kitchen has it all, from appetizers and main courses to desserts. Many who have toured Italy or tried some authentic Italian cooking will agree that it is well worth the efforts to take the time to prepare an Italian dish from scratch in order to get the full flavor and taste.

Great Appetizers

Before the main course, people usually start with a good appetizer. A famous Italian appetizer is Bruschetta which is made with French baguette, olive oil and tomatoes. Garlic bread is another appetizer that is popular. If you are watching your weight, you can opt for a salad which is also popular as an appetizer. Italians offer tomatoes and mozzarella with olive oil and basil, really tasty and light.

Delicious Main Courses

There is a lot of Italian dishes that are great main courses. Most of the best Italian dishes use pasta in them. Tomato sauce, meat sauce, Alfredo, quatro formaggi, carbonara and pasta tutti mare are just some of the dishes that are easy to make right at home with not much effort at all. While talking about pasta, let us not forget the wonderful rice dishes Italian cooking offers including risotto with mushrooms, cheese and meat.

Mouthwatering Desserts

A lot of people love desserts more than anything. There are even cooking lessons that teach you only how to make desserts. Italian desserts are almost always tasty and mouthwatering. The famous tiramisu is to die for but it is very hard to make but once you have mastered how to make it at home, you will not likely to want to eat a ready-made one again. Italian desserts also offer a wide range of ice creams and other delicious delicacies to satisfy any sweet tooth. Some desserts are easier to make than others but most of them are very tasty.

Technorati Tags: appetizer, bruschetta, cooking, desserts, dish, dishes, italian food, kitchen, pasta, pizza, risotto

When the cold winds blow, nights draw in and a nip of frost chills the air there is nothing better than a pot of soup waiting for you to return home and just needing to be heated up to make a restoring meal that warms you right through.

Vegitarian Italian recipes include heartwarming tasty soups.
The great thing about soups is that they are easy to make in double or triple quantities, so that on the weekend you can cook up a big pot of soup and have some for lunch, before refrigerating or freezing the rest for mid-week suppers. A good winter soup will even improve in flavour with the keeping and my favorite Italian lentil soup is one of these. Two or even three days after making, its flavour has developed into a robust but mellow richness that is perfectly comforting and needs nothing more than some crusty bread to make a satisfying and nutritious meal.

There is nothing fancy about this soup, its origins are the local recipes from the home  kitchens of rural Italy where you use good ingredients and don’t need to mess with them. If you are a dedicated foodie and can get your hands on some Castelluccio lentils from the high Piano Grande in the Apennine mountains of Italy, then these are just the best, but any variety of small brown lentil works well here.

Lentil Soup Recipe
1 medium onion
2 carrots
2 sticks celery
3 tablespoons olive oil
tin tomatoes chopped with their juice
1 cups brown lentils rinsed and checked for bits
1 l stock or water
salt and pepper

Chop the onion, carrots and celery quite finely. Warm the olive oil in a heavy based pan and saut the vegetables gently till softened. Add the tomatoes and cook over a medium heat with the lid off until all the liquid has evaporated and you have a thick sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the lentils and cook for a minute stirring, before adding the stock or water. This soup is tasty enough just to use water here, but if you happen to have some ham stock in the freezer left over from the Christmas gammon it will add a whole new dimension to the soup. Simmer for about 40 minutes until the lentils are tender. The cooking time depends on the variety of lentils, so you can check after 30 minutes. Add more water if the soup gets too thick as the lentils can absorb a lot of water. Serve with crusty bread and butter and perhaps a sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan on top.

This makes enough for four to six good servings, but you can easily double the amounts and freeze half for another day. Or if you are having the soup two days running and want to vary it a little, on the second day add some more water to it and once it is heated throw in a couple of handfuls of a small pasta shape to cook in the soup. The pasta will take on the flavour of the soup and make a wonderfully hearty complete meal. You never know, even kids who profess not to like anything as healthy as a lentil could be tempted by the pasta and discover that lentils actually are quite tasty after all!

Copyright Kit Heathcock 2008

Pizza Recipe:  Learn the secrets of making pizza from inside the pizzeria itself. How to make Pizza just like a pizzeria does in your own home and even better than you can get from the Pizzeria.

Delicious Vegetarian Lasagne Recipe: Easy, Meat-Free Alternative

9 Whole wheat lasagne noodles; 312g Vegetarian “Ground Beef” e.g. Yves Traditional or Italian Ground Round; 700ml Store bought tomato-based Pasta Sauce (e.g. Portobello mushroom flavour); 700ml Store bought Alfredo or 4-cheese Pasta 

Italian Three-Bean Chili

Vegetarian! It’s hearty and flavorful, yet it isn’t heavy. Serve with a simple side salad. Healthy recipes hand-picked for good taste and nutrition. Includes low fat, low calorie, good source of calcium or fiber, or low sodium recipes

Vegetarian Italian Recipes

Italian soup recipes include the famous authentic italian recipes, lentil soup and Minestrone.  

Gluten Free Italian Recipes: Vegetarian Mushroom and Green Bean

My sweetie is not one for following recipes, so this is as close as I could get to his steps. If you haven’t made risotto before, don’t stress. Just make sure you have plenty of warmed broth on hand and add it slowly to the rice

Tuscan Tomato Soup With Basil Recipe

A recipe for Tuscan Tomato Soup With Basil containing (28 oz. size) whole peeled tomatoes with basil, pureed extra-virgin olive oil frozen chopped onions crushed garlic Italian seasoning white wine, preferably Chardonnay freshly chopped basil leaves. …  Vegetarian Cooking for Non-Vegetarians.

By: Kit M. Heathcock Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Kit Heathcock is a freelance writer and editor and has worked and travelled in Italy for many years. She shares her passion for food and many recipes on her site Food and Family and is also co-creator of A Flower Gallery, home of original flower pictures.

Technorati Tags: appetizer, food, italian, lentils, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Pinot Grigio is the Italian name for Pinot Gris wine and grapes that originated in the Burgundy region of France. It was made into wine in this area and probably went by the name of Fromenteau. By the 14th century, this grape was being planted in Switzerland and was brought to Hungary by the Cisterian monks.

However, the vines often yielded a poor crop which made them unreliable, causing this grape to be pushed to the backburner with winemakers. In the early 20th centuries a variety of the vine was developed that was able to withstand different soil and weather conditions bringing this wine back onto the wine scene.

Pinot Gris/Grigio grapes grow best in cooler climates. They ripen early and have a high level of sugar. Depending on the fermentation process, the wine can be very sweet or very dry. The dry wines of this nature have a very high level of alcohol. As the grapes ripen on the vine, there can be different colors of grapes in the same cluster, ranging from bluish-gray to pinkish-brown. The clusters resemble the shape of pine cones, which is where the ‘pinot’ comes from in the name. ‘Pinot’ is the French word for pine cone.

Wine is ofen used as a complement to  traditional authentic Italian cusine 

The taste and aroma of Pinot Grigio/Gris depends on the region in which the wine is made. Those wines that come from the Alsace region of France tend to be spicier than other varieties. This wine is full bodied and has a floral aroma. In contrast to the Pinot Gris wines from other parts of the world, which are meant to be consumed young, the wines from Alsace age well.

Pinot Gris wine from German wineries is full bodied like those of Alsace, but the taste tends to have a greater balance of acidity and sweetness, much like a Sauvignon Blanc. In the United States, wineries in both Oregon and California produce wines from these grapes.

The Oregon wine tends to be medium-bodied and the colors range from yellow to pink with aromas of pears, apples and melons. The California version of Pinot Gris tastes crisp and has a light body. You will detect hints of pepper and arugula, even though this is a plant native to Mediterranean countries.

Pinot Grigio from Italian wineries is often light-bodied and lean like a Chenin Blanc. The wine is very light colored as well, with crisp and acidic flavors. This wine can be very sweet but care has to be taken to harvest the grapes at just the right time before they start to lose their acidic quality.

Fermentation of Pinot Gris/Grigio grapes is not a long process. Many wineries like to have these grapes in their vineyards because it is a wine they can bring to market very early in the season. Within 4 to 12 weeks after harvest, this wine can be bottled and sold for consumption.

It is recommended that this wine be consumed within two years after it is bottled for the best taste and aroma. It can be paired with many food dishes, especially seafood, and pasta dishes . It is a recommended wine to serve with cheese and crackers. Because this wine is fairly high in acidity, you should avoid serving it with foods that are acidic, such as citrus fruits and dishes containing tomatoes.

By: Sarah Martin     Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

 Sarah Martin is a freelance marketing writer specializing in the history of wine making, international travel and cuisines, and fine wine varietals such as Chenin Blanc and Pinot Gris. For a wide selection of delicious wines, please visit www.wineaccess.com/.

Italian pasta salad recipes can be spiced up nicely with a good italian wine…

A World of Wine: Wine to go with simple Italian food – pasta and pizza

I’ve been reviewing wines from all around the world recently. So thought I would give you a taste of the "bel paese" and feature a wine from the heart of Tuscany in Castellina to pair with your Italian feast.

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My brother in-law, Perry Weinstein, from California, was in NY on business. He loves Italian wines as I do and finds better Italian wines rare in his home state. A visit to my favorite wine bar Gottino was in order.

AnimaMundi: Italian Wine 2008

Alfonso "On The Italian Wine Trail" Cevola dove into some statistics on the state of Italian wine in this country for the year 2008. What he found is that the heartland of America has been slowly opening up

Technorati Tags: appetizer, italian food recipes, pinot gris, wine