Italian

Ramadan goes Italian: Palestinian chef brings twist to original recipes

By Amanda M. Rye 4 weeks ago
During Ramadan, Muslims the world over pray, reflect and get together with their families, in addition to fasting from sunrise to sunset.
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But abstaining from food during the holiday, which begins on April 13 and is slated to end on May 12, can at times be quite daunting, especially during the longer and hotter days. For this reason, many of the hallmark dishes that are eaten during Ramadan are quite filling and nutritious, including qatayef, a sweet dumpling that is commonly served during the holiday. Muslims commonly enjoy a few pieces of the delectable dessert following their fast-breaking meal, known as iftar.
Palestinian chef Fidaa Abu Hamdiya has taken the traditional holiday dish and given it a creative Italian twist.
Born in Hebron in 1982, Abu Hamdiya pursued her culinary and gastronomic studies at the University of Padua in Italy.
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Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis Embraces Vegan Meat and Dairy-Free Cheese for Italian Recipes

By Amanda M. Rye 2 months ago

Food Network’s celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is becoming a fan of using vegan meat and dairy-free cheese as swaps for animal products in her classic Italian recipes. The chef recently appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres show to promote her 10th cookbook Eat Better, Feel Better and share a bolognese recipe she includes in it using vegan Beyond Beef in place of traditional meat. 

“I had never worked with [Beyond Meat] before, for this book, I tried a few recipes and I found that the [Beyond] bolognese was really good,” the 50-year-old chef said. “I was really floored by it.” De Laurentiis then tasked DeGeneres with cooking the Beyond Beef, stating, “You brown it like you do regular ground meat.” While the recipe in De Laurentiis’ new book calls for dairy-based parmesan, on the show, the chef easily swapped the cheese with a vegan version, which DeGeneres generously grated onto

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Giada makes 3 light and bright Italian recipes for dinner

By Amanda M. Rye 2 months ago

Television personality, author and restaurateur Giada De Laurentiis is joining TODAY to share a few of her favorite deliciously healthy recipes from her new cookbook, “Eat Better, Feel Better: My Recipes for Wellness and Healing, Inside and Out.” She shows us how to make pasta with meaty mushrooms and nutty pistachios, lemony roasted chicken and a simple salad with bitter greens.

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Giada's Paccheri with Mushroom and Pistachios

Courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Mushrooms with Marsala and pistachios is a fantastic combination of flavors, which is why this pasta is currently one of my faves. Try using royal trumpet mushrooms, morels, cremini, shiitakes or oyster mushrooms. They all have different flavors and textures and experimenting with new varieties is part of the fun!

Giada's Amalfi Lemon Chicken

Kristin Teig

Lemon? Check. Crispy skin? The

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Ferrara: The Italian town with Renaissance food on the menu

By Amanda M. Rye 3 months ago
(CNN) — The signs of the Renaissance are everywhere in Italy.

Grand piazzas and palazzos. Metal-spiked doors. Looming archways. And, of course, all that ever-present art in the churches and galleries.

But in one city, you also get a taste of the Renaissance every time you enter a restaurant.

Ferrara, in the northern region of Emilia Romagna, was once home to the Estense court, or House of Este, which ruled the city from the 13th to the 18th centuries.

The court, on the bank of the River Po, was one of the most formidable cultural powers during the Renaissance. Writers including Boiardo, Ariosto and Torquato Tasso were employed by the court, and artists such as Bellini, Mantegna and Piero della Francesco worked for the Este family in their domineering, moat-surrounded castle in the center of town.

Their works have survived the centuries — but so have those of Cristoforo

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