All Saints Typical Italian Sweets

All Saints Day is celebrated on November 1 around the world the. It is a big celebration for Christianity, followed by November 2, the All Souls Day, a Christian event that traces its roots in ancient times.
Talking about seasonal cooking, every Italian region has tied these two celebrations to the table. For the most part these are recipes based on seasonal produce such as pumpkin, chestnuts, cabbage, pork, vegetables - especially beans and peas and and dried fruit. In Liguria, the custom is to eat chicken for All Saints to live up to the proverb "All Saints without beak, Christmas will be poor", probably tied to the fact that if you didn't have chicken to eat on All Saints day, by the end of December you would have had little food on your table.
The desserts, however, are certainly the most famous ritual food: in fact, each region has its typical sweet with a name recalling the celebrations.

Bustrengolo from Umbria
Ingredients: 350 g of corn flour, 100 grams of sugar, 50 grams of pine nuts, 100 g of raisins, 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 1 pinch of salt, 2 apples

Preparation:
Boil a large pot with 1 quart of salted water and add the flour as to make a polenta. Add the oil and mix together. Cook for about twenty minutes, then add the sliced apples, raisins, pine nuts and the sugar. Remove from heat and pour the mixture, which should be rather soft, on a buttered cake mold in a layer about 3 cm thick. Bake in a heated oven at 180 degrees and cook for about half an hour.
It should be eaten cold.

Colva from Puglia
In Puglia, particularly in the areas of Foggia and Barletta, it is typical of the Day of the Dead. The preparation of this cake is made of wheat and pomegranate.

Ingredients:
The kernels of a pomegranate, 1 can cooked corn, 150 grams of chopped walnuts, 150 grams of chopped almonds, white grapes, 100 g dark chocolate, sufficient mulled wine

Preparation:
Drain well the cooked wheat and place it in a bowl. Mix it with the pomegranate seeds, walnuts, almonds, the seeded and peeled grapes, chopped dark chocolate and add just enough mulled wine to mix all the ingredients into a smooth mixture. Serve in bowls.

Castagnaccio from Tuscany (for 6 people)
400 g of chestnut flour, Enough water, enough olive oil, 30 grams of raisins (soaked in warm water), 30 g of pine nuts, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon rosemary

Preparation:
In a bowl mix the water with chestnut flour and sugar stirring with a whisk to prevent lumps. Your batter consistency should be quite liquid. Oil a cake mold of 25 cm in diameter with extra virgin olive oil and pour the mixture, pour on top a thin line of olive oil sufficing for two table spoons and finally sprinkle with pine nuts, raisins and rosemary. Bake in a heated oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes until the surface becomes dry and opposes resistance when pressed with a finger.

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Anchovies to The Rescue: Bagna Caoda (or Cauda)

Today we are in Piedmont. It is a northern region of Italy, near Liguria and Lombardy, and one rich of many strong characteristics. Its distinctive dialect, rich of French influences, its important historic role, with Turin as the royal headquarters and the first capital of Italy, and its cuisine, so rich of surprisingly tasty dishes.

Today's trip will let you discover one of the most famous dishes of Piedmont and northern Italy. I am talking about the Bagna Caoda (or Cauda), a very simple dish of peasant origins. It consists of a thick anchovy sauce placed in a casserole in the middle of the table and eaten with fresh vegetables or on bread slices. It was a common dinner during the cold winter of poor farmers.
As for other dishes such as polenta, the custom of communal eating from the center of the table has pragmatic origins: dishes were few or completely lacking, plus letting each one help himself took away work from the housekeeping wife (who had also been working around the house all day). With time this custom has remained as a convivial way of sharing a meal among friends and family members.

The Recipe of Bagna Caoda (Cauda)

Ingredients: for four people you will need 400 grams of salt anchovies, 250 grams of garlic, one fourth of a liter of milk and one glass of good olive oil.
As for vegetables and other ingredients you have the choice of a variety of your favorite ones, but you should try to get cardoons, a delicious combination with the sauce.

Preparation:
Gently boil the garlic with milk until you can smash it with the gentle pressure of a fork. While you are cooking the garlic, fillet and clean the anchovies removing the central fishbone. Rinse them thoroughly in garlic to remove the excess salt. In a separate casserole, preferably earthenware, pour the olive oil and when it is warm set the anchovies to melt in the oil. Then pour the garlic and some cooking milk inside. Now mix in while cooking on low-medium heat, then process with a hand blender until you get a very smooth cream. Keep simmering until the sauce becomes moderately thick.

The preparation of vegetables is quite simple. Clean an abundant selection of your favorite ones and serve them along the Bagna Caoda sauce. If you have cardoons, the preparation is a tad longer, but definitely rewarding. Remove the leaves until you are left with just the stems. Parboil them for one minute in salty water, then remove the harder fibers gently scraping with a knife, then serve.

You can serve the sauce in separate heated bowls or the traditional way in the cooking earthenware casserole at the center of the table. Each one will deep his vegetables in.

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Sicilian Cassata

Looking for the Sicilian Cassata recipe?

As I found on http://www.academiabarilla.com/italian-recipes/step-step-recipes/cassata-siciliana.aspx, among the many regional Italian recipes Cassata is a typical Sicilian dessert with a long history and flavorful. It is a medium difficulty recipe, guided step by step. In no time you can learn to prepare this crown jewel of Italy and Sicily.
This dessert is more for winter days, during which you can achieve a better preparation of it. Moreover, it is a rich recipe that will give more nutrients during colder months.

Grab a baking pan of 7 to 8 inches in size. Here the ingredients: 5 oz marzipan, 1 lb ricotta cheese, 7 oz confectioners sugar, 3 ½ oz candied fruit, 3 oz chocolate drops, ⅛ oz vanilla, 3 ½ oz dark chocolate, melted, 5 oz sponge cake, 3 ½ tablespoons of Rum.

For the icing you will need 5 oz sugar and 1 egg white and 3 ½ oz candied fruit to garnish.

Using a rolling pin flatten the marzipan to a thickness of 4 millimeters.
Now dust the pan using powdered sugar and use a knife to line up the border of the marzipan with that of the pan. Prior to cutting make sure the dough adheres perfectly to the pan.
Smolder the chocolate at bain-marie, then use a brush to spread it over the marzipan.
Now cut thin stripes of sponge cake and use them to line the marzipan. Then use a brush to spread half the rum on the sponge cake.
Now mix in a bowl the ricotta, sugar, chocolate drops, candied fruit, and vanilla.
Spread the filling inside the mold.
Now cover up with the remainder sponge cake then brush with the remainder rum.
Prepare the glaze whisking together sugar and egg white, then remove the cassata from the oven pan and glaze it uniformly. Chill in the fridge for an hour then add the candied fruits to garnish.

That's it! You Have your Cassata! A passito di Pantelleria goes along with it just perfectly.

Here the pictures of the procedure:

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