Tag: mistakes

Tiramisu: 10 common mistakes – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine


Tiramisu is the dessert most loved by Italians, there is no doubt. You are sure you can do it in a workmanlike manner!

In doubt about the cake to prepare, make tiramisu which is always a certainty. Everyone likes it, even children, and it's easy, fast and cheap.

Savoiardi or Pavesini?

The choice is yours, even if the answer is only and always one for the lovers of this dessert: Savoiardi.
In fact, the result is completely different if you use these biscuits which are taller and spongier and absorb less coffee. The consistency will therefore be less creamy and slightly more compact.
The only precaution is not to wet them too much because otherwise the excess coffee wets the mascarpone cream.
How to place them in the baking dish? Simply straight, with the sugared part facing up.

With a little sugar …

Sugar should not simply be whipped with eggs, but should be dosed following the half and half rule.
Then one part will be whipped with the yolks and another with the egg whites.
In this way the cream will be soft and compact at the same time and the sugar will leave no trace of itself.
You can also use it loose, boiling and slightly caramelized if you want to pasteurize the eggs.

Yes or no cream?

In the classic recipe, there is no mention of whipped cream, but someone likes to use it instead of egg whites.
If you decide to use it to give more coverage and flavor to the cream it is fine, but if it is only to remove a part of eggs because you do not like the aftertaste we suggest you to take other tricks, for example add marsala to the yolks while you mount them with the sugar.

Coffee, tea …

There is no doubt, in tiramisu there is coffee, and it must be good and restricted.
To make the dessert less strong, you can dilute the coffee with a little water or you can use it decaffeinated, while we do not recommend American coffee which is less tasty and therefore not too suitable for this preparation.
And if there are children at the table, opt for barley, but this is the only exception.
For all the variants of tiramisu that include fruit, instead, choose tea, milk or apple juice which has a delicate taste that goes well with everything.
And to give it an extra boost, add some liquor! Limoncello is good with fruit, and rum with classic tiramisu.

Everyone has their own secrets when it comes to preparing an excellent tiramisu, but sometimes small mistakes can be made. We offer you at least 10. Pay attention!

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How to make the perfect polenta: 5 mistakes to avoid – Italian Cuisine

How to make the perfect polenta: 5 mistakes to avoid


It is one of the most traditional dishes of northern Italy and is perfect paired with fish, cheese or meat. Preparing it in a workmanlike manner is a question of proportions and times, of flour, pot and salt. Find out how to do it without making these 5 mistakes

Polenta (from the Latin puls, farinata di farro) is a food whose history is lost in the mists of time. In the Middle Ages it was one cream made from chopped beans cooked with oil, onions and sometimes with the addition of cereals such as buckwheat and spelled. It has always been a food for the poor, even when the beans were replaced corn meal, and starting from 1700 it became a typical meal in the regions of northern Italy. Polenta has always been served as a substitute for bread, as a side dish, accompanied by other foods, or sliced ​​and toasted or fried. For a very long time it was a subsistence food, so much so that due to its continued consumption, without the addition of other nutrients, it has contributed to the spread of a disease called pellagra, due to a lack of vitamins. Currently, polenta, like many other poor foods, is experiencing a period of rediscovery like gourmet dish and tradition. And like all traditional dishes, you can prepare them at home, provided you don't fall into these common mistakes. Let's see them together.

Polenta: 5 mistakes not to be made

Don't give her time
Polenta is a dish that needs patience, to cook well, to become that soft and smooth mixture, perfect to accompany a meat stew, a tasty fish or a cream cheese. After pouring the flour into the pan with water and salt, the secret to obtain a homogeneous mixture, without lumps, is to mix the flour, slowly, for a long time, with a whisk, while it slowly thickens and cooks. Resist for at least an hour. If constancy does not belong to you, change the menu.

Choose any flour
The polenta has been preparing for about 400 years with the flour of longed corn (large grains). You can choose a full one if you like a more intense aroma. Also there buckwheat flour it is perfect, and is used above all in the valleys around Sondrio, in Lombardy: it has a darker color than that of corn, a rougher consistency, suitable for local cheeses. If you are not so foolhardy, you can try a mixture made from buckwheat flour and corn flour, to get what is called polenta taragna. In Veneto, instead, white corn is used, for a polenta accompanied by cuttlefish or cod. In the south, between Naples and Foggia, polenta is made with well-ground maize flour: it is fried, cut into slices and becomes street food.

Use any pan
Polenta has always been cooked in cauldron, that pot with high sides and a convex bottom, made of copper (or cast iron), able to spread heat evenly and cook the corn perfectly. All the others don't even consider them. The pot has only one tilting handle, because in the past the polenta was cooked in the fireplace. Fashions have changed, but the good habit of cooking polenta in the copper pot remains.

Miss the doses of flour and water
Only the veterans of polenta are allowed to enjoy the luxury of going to the eye. For all others, the doses to consider are: 4 liters of water for each kg of flour. Bearing in mind that the more raw the flour is, the more it will absorb water. So, if you use one of buckwheat, add liquid at your discretion. Indicatively then, 500 g of flour is enough for 4 people, unless you have invited the greatest admirer of polenta to dinner.

Abound with salt
The hand that prepares the polenta must be slight. There is no exact dose of salt that must be put into the water while it is warming up, but eating a too tasty polenta is really unpleasant. Keep in mind that often the foods to which it is accompanied are very savory (see cheeses): for this reason it is better to be light, so as not to ruin such a job. Salt can also be added once the polenta is cooked.

How to combine polenta

Discover in the tutorial our recommendations for a dish based on polenta.

5 mistakes to make when preparing the pumpkin pie – Italian Cuisine


Pumpkin Pie is the American sweet of autumn! Here is the original recipe and the 5 most common mistakes to avoid when preparing

There Pumpkin pie is the recipe that traditionally in the United States is prepared for Thanksgiving Day, but that is so good that it has now gone around the world.
As soon as the comes autumn season, here we are all ready in the kitchen to knead to bring to the table a delicious sweet that warms the heart. A real comfort food! But how do you prepare the traditional pumpkin pie?

The dough

It is not a pastry and it is not a pastry although many prepare the dough with eggs.
Actually the pie crust American is a kind of brisée dough that is made with 160 grams of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 110 grams of cold butter cut into cubes, 40 ml of very cold water and 1 teaspoon of vinegar of apples.
Leave it to rest in the fridge and then spread it out.
Before going into the oven, put an hour in the freezer.
Baking in the oven is in white, in the sense that first the base is cooked only with beans on it and then the filling is added and the cooking is completed.
To cook the pumpkin pie, a round glass or ceramic dish with fairly high edges or an aluminum mold is generally used.

The stuffing

Many use the pumpkin puree in a jar. It is certainly a shortcut as well as a very tasty product, but why not use the beautiful pumpkins what we have available this season?
The best variety for this recipe is that of Chioggia.
That's enough roast it in the oven with the peel well wrapped in silver foil for about an hour and a half and then once the peel is removed the pulp is cooked with sugar and spices and the filling is prepared.

The spices

Cinnamon and ginger they must not be missing, but neither must nutmeg and cloves.
There are some pumpkin pie mixes on the market with all the spices perfectly mixed inside.
But if you don't find anything like that, don't despair. Simply dose the spices according to your tastes.

Pumpkin pie

The classic American recipe

After preparing the pie crust as explained above, switch to the filling.
Bake in the oven at 200 ° for about an hour and a half a whole pumpkin for three or four kilos just private of the seeds and cut into pieces. Once soft, remove the peel and cook everything over low heat with 180 gr of cane sugar mixed with 20 gr of molasses (or maple syrup), cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg in quantities to taste.
Let the mixture cool once ready and blend it.
Add 180 ml of milk and 180 ml of fresh cream stirring with a whisk, then three eggs, one by one.
As mentioned above, roll out the dough into a buttered round baking dish and let it cool in the freezer for a while, then cook it in the oven at 180 ° for 10 minutes covered with beans and then fill it to finish cooking.
The pumpkin pie is ready when the cream solidified outside with small cracks, but it remained soft in the center.
Serve warm with the semi-whipped cream.

Browse through the tutorial that reminds you the five errors which you absolutely must not commit when preparing the pumpkin pie!

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