Friday

Blueberry Plum Spiced Tea Granita



I love Italian Granita's, especially in the Summer when I'm looking for alternatives to ice cream and popsicle's for the kids. Many American granita recipes are made with a sugar syrup, here, I use honey, which was traditional for many Italian homes. 


With the non traditional addition of "Tea", the flavor boost is immense, and sooo good! 
Hope you all try this!  
Ciao!! 😘

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups water 
1/2 cup honey 
2 Plum spice black tea bags
4 cups frozen wild blueberries

DIRECTIONS:
Boil water in sauce pan. When water is boiled, remove from heat and add the two tea bags. Let steep for five minutes. REMOVE TEA BAGS,  add honey and blueberries and bring back to a boil. reduce heat to a medium simmer, and cook down for 20-30 minutes. Make sure heat is on medium low! 

When blueberries look as if they are breaking down, and mixture has thickened, its time to remove the pan from the heat. Let mixture sit covered till it is at room temperature. Pour mixture in a freezer safe dish with low sides. Place in freezer. In 15 minutes, and here after every 15 minutes, scrape the top of the mixture till a soft shaved ice like texture forms. Continue this till all your blueberry granita is completely chilled and slushed. 

Place in pretty dessert goblets and serve!  

P.S., If you make this with a different flavored tea or fruit.. I'd love to hear about your results! I'm thinking Peach with Ginger Spice Tea.. 😋 xoxo


Monday

Genoise Sponge Strawberry Tiramisu Cups





Buon Giorno Friends!! 
I am soo excited about these little dessert cups.. I've been seeing jars filled with delectable goodies all over Pinterest since the first day I joined.  Just coming from two weeks of baking and graduation preps, I had a few ingredients leftover in my fridge that I wanted to use up. 

In my pantry I had these canning jars that I bought at the hardware store, intending to can plums.. but the jars unused were just waiting for me to wash the dust off and putt off no longer there use. So voila.. perfect timing and an even more so perfect strawberry and syrup infused dessert choice for these mini's.

"Strawberries from my garden".. 
These are Alpine strawberries. An intense flavored runner less berry that grows large and has much fruit. My healthy strawberries come to you with a little companion planting of marigolds.  I love marigolds for there many uses. They are perfect for warding off pests, but they also keep the flesh healthy. I'm not sure exactly why.. I wish I had studied more botany, but when I first started growing marigolds and calendula it was to make a skin soothing tincture. Marigolds contain natural salicylic acid, and help to heal bruised skin. I use to make the tincture and leave it in the refrigerator.. just for a few days at a time.. for a soothing tonic. Again, not a botanist or chemist here.. but I did work in the skincare industry for quite a few years. Many of our high priced items had salicylic acid in them for toning, healing blemishes and minimizing pore size. There ya go.. you should all be growing Marigolds or French Calendula Flowers! 

Back to my recipe.. :)
After all these years of blogging my family recipes, I realize I don't have an actual recipe for Tiramisu here at Dalla Mia Cucina. As I was perusing my own recipe posts, I noticed that I have a picture of a holiday dinner with all the yummy food items, including a dish of heavenly tiramisu, but no recipe. And even now this isn't a traditional Tiramisu, but many of the layer elements are here and can be used in your own tiramisu cake.. or any party cake where you want to impress your guests and family with a dessert that will leave them coming back for more. 


Here in this recipe I'm giving you what I think is the most important element of this classic Italian dessert.. the Génoise Sponge. Not just any sponge, a genoise sponge originating in the city of Genoa. Some call it a genoese sponge, no matter, it's all good and perfect! 


What makes this sponge unique is that it uses no leavening. The volume and airiness of this cake is derived from whipping air into it with beaters. This all takes place at the beginning stages, first warming your eggs and sugar over a warm water bath, beating it and making it light and frothy, then putting it on an electric beater stand and whipping it till the "ribbon" stage. Alternating with the addition of a soft wheat flour, in this case cake flour,  and melted butter. This crumb is firm and open and holds up wonderfully to sugar syrups and espresso. YUMM!! You can imagine where this is going.. right?? 

After I cut out my little cake shapes to fit inside the glass jars, I douse them with the marsala espresso syrup, then layer with the mascarpone cream, topped with macerated strawberries, adding another sponge layer, another dousing.. topped with chantilly cream and let soak up in the refrigerator for 3-5 hours.  When I took the lids off, I smoothed the cream and sprinkled a generous topping of grated chocolate. Good quality.. of your choice! This isn't traditional.. traditionally in a cake form I would use a good quality unsweetened cocoa powder. 

I hope you try this recipe.. I know you'll love it, especially the Genoise.. And if not this particular recipe.. definitely make dessert in these individual sized glass jars! 

...and the recipe!!

Sunday

Argentinian Chimichurri Sauce


This Argentinian Pesto Sauce called, "Chimichurri" is a tangy blend of parsley, oregano and basil blended with garlic, red wine vinegar, red peppers, shallots, olive oil and lemon. The ingredients are easy to come by at your local market or fresh in your produce department.



Here, we made a wonderful salad from a beautiful bunch of red leaf lettuce and baby spinach that I picked up from the Temecula Farmers Market. I added grilled corn, avocados and a balsamic vinaigrette.. and topped it with the Chimichurri topped salmon. So easy and so good! Below is the recipe for the Chimichurri sauce. Enjoy!

Argentinian Chimichurri Sauce
1 cup lightly packed chopped "Italian" parsley
3 to 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili pepper flakes 
1/4 cup fresh oregano leaves
1/8 cup fresh chopped basil leaves
2 tablespoons shallot or onion, minced
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Place all Chimichurri sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until well chopped, but not pureed. Refrigerate till your ready to use.



Buon Appetito,
Laurie