As each new season passes into the next, I find myself thinking that each season must be my favorite. Being an avid home cook, I look forward to working with the new seasonal fruits and vegetables that appear in my local farmer’s markets or green grocers each season, and although I love spring for its […]

The post Harvest Lentil Salad With Kale, Delicate Squash, Apples, Pomegranate, & Walnuts first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

  This soup contains butternut squash, sweet potatoes, onions, fresh ginger, garlic, and turmeric that are all ingredients known to help support a healthy immune system. This soup is also low in fat as only a little heart-healthy olive oil is used, and the soup gets its thick, creamy texture from the sweet potatoes rather […]

The post Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato, & Ginger Soup {Immune Boosting} first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

I think that fall must be my favorite season. The temperatures begin to cool, and the vegetable selection includes winter squash, a variety of healthy greens, and a large selection of apples and pears. I have been shopping in the winter squash section of our local grocery store recently, trying all the new varieties they […]

The post Spaghetti With Sausage & Butternut Squash first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

Planning our Thanksgiving feast is not something I take lightly, and there really are many factors to consider when creating a holiday menu. My family are traditionalists, and they really feel that Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a turkey. I tried to change things up last year and wanted to create an Umbrian menu with […]

The post Italian Inspired Thanksgiving Vegetable Sides first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

Italians living in Italy do not celebrate Thanksgiving as we do here in North America although they do have many holidays called La Festa del Ringraziamento (or Festival of Thanks), which refer to a variety of religious holidays held throughout the year to honor patron saints. I believe the closest Italians (living in Italy) would […]

The post Celebrating An Italian Thanksgiving first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

We harvest around a hundred olive trees in Italy and press for our own extra virgin olive oil. In fact, I am heading to Italy mid-October to harvest our olives again this year. Fortunately, I have our own delicious oil, and I try to use this heart-healthy fat instead of butter in my baking whenever […]

The post Olive Oil Banana Bread first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

Fall has arrived although you would never know it here in Florida. When cooler temperatures arrive, I tend to prepare more soups and heartier pasta sauces  This soup is one I tasted in Arrezzo many years ago, and for some reason, even though I have made it often, it never managed to make it onto […]

The post Baked Layered Onion, Bread, & Cheese Soup first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

I am starting a new category on my blog that includes fast and easy pasta recipes. So many folks tell me they do not have the time to cook every night, so they often order out. So many pasta recipes can be on the table within half an hour, which is much quicker than it […]

The post Pasta with Goat Cheese & Tomatoes first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

If I had to choose one type of food that I had to eat every day for the rest of my life, it would have to be pasta. Luckily, there are so many types of pasta, both fresh and dried, and when it comes to sauces, your choices are endless. I do believe I could […]

The post Creamy Butternut Squash & Pancetta Pasta first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

  ]I am a huge fan of grain salads packed full of veggies, and I make them often, varying the ingredients depending on the season. There are so many healthy grains available to choose from these days that can be found in our local grocery stores. Some of my favorite grains for salads are farro, […]

The post Fall Farro Salad With Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, Cranberries & Walnuts first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

I do not eat dessert often, but when we have guests for dinner, I always like to end the meal with something sweet. I usually make some type of Panna Cotta or a Tiramisu because both can be prepared the day before, which helps to organize the meal. Traditional Tiramisu is flavored with coffee and […]

The post Tiramisu Cake first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

This is another easy pasta dish that can be pulled together in mere minutes. You can create the sauce in the time that it takes for you to heat the water and boil the pasta. This is a dish that I used to make when my children were small as at that time, my son […]

The post Pasta With Peas, Guanciale, & Goat Cheese first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

We are almost halfway through September, and the temperatures have not started to drop yet here in Florida. Although I enjoy the hot summer temperatures, I am looking forward to cooler nights for sleeping. We are still grilling our meals frequently, though, as who wants to spend hours in the kitchen on a hot day? […]

The post Grilled Garlic Parmesan Potatoes first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

I wait as long as possible to jump on the pumpkin spice bandwagon each fall. Here in SW Florida, the temperatures are still in the 90’s, so we have yet to exactly move on to heartier soups and stews, meaty pasta sauces, or heavy meat-featured meals. I am still eating a lot of salads, seafood, […]

The post Chocolate Chip Spiced Pumpkin Loaves first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

We make pizza in our pizza oven every week, and after a lot of trial and error, I found pizza dough is best made fresh each week. When I do have leftover pizza dough from our weekly pizza night, I divide it up into five-ounce balls and freeze it for flatbreads. Pizza dough is stretched […]

The post BLT Flatbread first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

I seem to be on a soup binge lately and find myself making two or three new soups every week. Although we do have a number of all time favorite soup recipes, I get bored of making the same thing too often, so I am always thinking of new soups to try. We really do […]

The post Creamy Roasted Mushroom Soup first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

My husband is in Italy for a month before I arrive there myself, so I am home in Florida alone. The temperatures are still in the nineties, so getting motivated to cook for myself is often tricky. When I do cook, I make enough for a couple of meals, allowing me to cook just a […]

The post Pesto Chicken With Roasted Tomatoes first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

For many years, I was in Italy all of September and had my share of fresh figs from our trees. I will not be heading to Umbria this year until mid-October, so I am stuck buying figs at our local grocery stores. Unfortunately, these figs are not as fresh as I’d like, so I have […]

The post Fall Fig, Prosciutto, & Gorgonzola Salad first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

I love serving bruschetta as an appetizer or even a light lunch. When fresh figs are in season, I use them in as many dishes as possible since the season is so short. I used Black Mission Figs in this recipe, but any fresh fig woukd work just fine.  This is one of the easiest […]

The post Bruschetta With Gorgonzola, Prosciutto, And Fresh Figs first appeared on Italian Food Forever.

I love almost any vegetable cooked on the grill, and if we are grilling meat or seafood I usually try and grill my vegetable sides as well. Asparagus is one vegetable that is delicious grilled lightly brown and just tender to the bite. Choose medium sized spears as they grill the best. Grilling asparagus adds […]

The post Grilled Asparagus first appeared on Italian Food Forever.