The Italian kitchen
So for this week’s episode of our Food Travel series, we are off to an Italian inspired dinner with a smell of tomatoes, garlic fresh basil, and of course cheese.
For all of you who have missed out on our previous episodes, make sure to check out our posts with the Greek dinner, Food travel to India, and the latest one where we do 4 Italian Cocktails. I really hope you enjoy this kind of post and that you’ll stick with us as we travel through the kitchens of the world. And hey, we would love to have your input on what kitchen we should try out next?
What’s an Italian dinner without some pizza and pasta right?
The tomato sauce that we made for the pasta was super easy to make, we used both fresh tomatoes and canned once. Yellow onions, garlic, fresh basil, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. As I said, it’s super easy. The trick is to keep it simmering on the stove for several hours, I think ours was on for nearly four hours, then we took it off to cool down, and as we were about to serve the pasta we reheated it, poured it over the pasta and added lots and lots of grated mozzarella cheese.
The pizza was actually made on the grill. I have told you before that the husband loves to barbeque right, so whenever he gets a chance, I’ll find him in front of the grill. If you look closely on the images you’ll see that the pizza is on this round stone platter, that’s called a pizzastone, and its made keep beneath the pizza when it’s on the grill. So you just roll out your pizzadough, add some tomatosause and grated mozzarella cheese, and start cooking it on the grill. When it was almost done, we added some Bresaola ham just to heat it up. And as we served the pizza we added some arugula. Delicious!
We just had to have some small side dishes as well, so breadsticks, of course, some well-aged parmesan cheese and my personal favorite, sliced tomatoes with fresh basil and buffalo mozzarella.
Naturally, we had a bottle of red wine with our dinner, we had a wine called Zingled out. Yes, I bought it cause I thought the bottle was pretty, but its an Italian wine made from the black-skinned Zinfandel grape, which I know is a grape that I can drink without getting a headache. There are a few grapes that I just can’t even take a zip-out off, without getting throbbing pain in my head. Unfortunately, I haven’t quite figured out the particular grapes that torture me, but I do know that the zinfandel grape is one of the good guys. Have you ever had that kind of experience with red wines, or maybe wines in general?
As you can tell, this dinner was really easy to make. I am not trying to downsize the effort at all, it really was that easy to make. The hardest part was chopping the onions, and that’s always a hassle no matter what kind of dishes you are attempting to make.
Everyone who knows me knows that I am crazy for pasta, so food traveling to the Italian kitchen was a definite hit for me. Most people like their potatoes and rise and want a bigger variety when it comes to their food. No me. I can go with pasta every day, easily. Farfalle, fusilli, rigatoni, gnocchi, spaghetti, linguini, fettuccine. I just love it!
So tell me, what is your all-time favorite dish when it comes to Italian food?
//Ann
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65 Comments
Ingelasresor
Ser jättegott ut. Pasta i alla former är min favorit
Enitalienareisverige
Åh Che buono, så gott ❤
Emmaengstrom
Åh när jag varit i Italien och bodde hos en famlh fick jag verkligen smaka på det ena och det andra, och just själva grejen hur de äter! Annorlunda jämfört med Sverige 😃 men de har verkligen så mycket gott där! Kul att upptäcka nytt liksom, det är en charm med att vara utomlands ☺️❤️
Anngelic
Haha ja för min del också, och det finns så många spännande recept som jag vill testa att tillaga 😃
//Ann
Anngelic
Ja magiskt gott, det Italienska köket är helt klart en av mina favoriter ❤❤❤
//Ann
Anngelic
Men åh vad mysigt det låter 😊
Hur kommer det sig att du bodde hos en familj?
//Ann
dianasdrömmar
Italiensk mat är det bästa som finns kram
Enitalienareisverige
Jag är så glad att du tycker om ❤❤
Amanda (Swedish Passport)
Men åh så mycket gott! Vi har också gjort matresor här hemma som ett sätt att få resa utan att resa, så himla smart ändå 😉
Anngelic
Håller helt med dig! 😃
Kram Ann
Anngelic
Åh vad kul Amanda, har du skrivit nått om det på din blogg? 😊
//Ann
celinelundqvists
Men jag orkar inte ens!!! Mums <33
Anngelic
Haha 😃
Men ja det var supergott!
//Ann
Brianne
Oh wow! What a spread! I love everything there. I would love to snack on all of it until I popped.
happyM
Muuuums vad gott!!! ❤️
Nicole Anderson
I love how easy you have hightlighted this can be and how fabulous this all looks. I even feel hungry now! Italian food is always a big hit in our home and I love the creations you have shared here. Very nice photography as well.
Christine Weis
You had me at Italian…I can eat pizza and any kind of pasta everyday. It’s so delicious! Everything in this post looks delicious!
ashley
This looks so yummy!!! I could definitely do this at home.
the joyous living
yummy. this sounds like a very great dinner. i want to come over. mozzarella and tomatoes are a terrific side dish.
Heather
Wow! This is my kind of meal! We eat Italian food multiple times a week.
Nkem
Mmmm why did I read this while I was hungry? It brought me right back to my backpacking trip in Firenze. Thanks for the inspiration!
knycx
Simple and nice meal and I like the pictures ~
Thanks for sharing – and I wonder why I have to get through the page block and configure my cookies to get here?
Marie Phillips
I love Italian food! My whole family would fully enjoy this spread.
Melanie
Oh my gosh this looks so good. what a fab layout and yes you are making me very hungry x
Fiona Cambouropoulos
Now I have a desire to have Italian for dinner. Your photos look so good.
Dreams Abroad
Holy cow that all looks so delishious. Italian food is one of my favorite foods for dinner. I hope you all enjoyed it.
Hayley
The Italian dinner looks absolutely delicious! It’s making me want to throw an Italian dinner party! Thanks for the inspiration!
Debs {Super Busy Mum}
Aww man, you cannot beat a bit of Italian food! Spaghetti bolognese is hands down my favourite!
emman damian
I love Italian food! I hope to eat more soon! I especially love a good slice of fresh pizza!
Jay Artale
During lockdown I bought some cheesemaking ingredients and equipement and had a go at making mozzerella … it’s was such a faff, that I’ve decided it’s easier to buy it. There is nothing better than the combination of fresh mozzerella, a ripe tomato and an aromatic basil leaf. I have both of these growing in the green house, and drizzled with balsamic glaze … and I’m in Italian feast heaven!
Stacy
Thanks for this wonderful article. I really like Italian food. There is so much of variety in it.
Lyanna Soria
I love Italian cusine and that looks so amazing. All those dishes look absolutely delicious as well.
Jenn | By Land and Sea
Wow! This looks incredible! Italian food is one of my most favorites – it looks like you nailed it! Delicious!!
Jan
Love this blog post! Italian is my favorite cuisine. I love the smell of vinegar, olive oil, garlic, thyme and oregano! All those Italian dishes look delicious. 😊
Georgina
What a lovely post! The photos are absolutely inviting! I love the aroma of basil and always have a bunch at home- add that to tomatoes and olive oil with mozzarella on a flat bread and I am a happy bunny. Your dishes look mouthwateringly delicious.
Anngelic
Thanks Nicole!
Anngelic
Thanks Christine 😊
Anngelic
You really should 😊
Anngelic
Thanks! 😊
Anngelic
I would love that!
Anngelic
Thanks for stopping by! 😊
Anngelic
Thank you 😊
Anngelic
I love Italian too!
Anngelic
Haha thanks Melanie 😊
//Angelica
Anngelic
Thanks!
Anngelic
We sure did!
//Ann
Anngelic
You are very welcome 😊
//Ann
Anngelic
I love that too 😃
//Ann
Anngelic
So do I, Italian pasta is the best!
//Ann
Anngelic
Oh wow, that sounds amazing!
I would love to pick your garden 😋
//Ann
Anngelic
There sure is, Italian is one of my favorites 😊
//Ann
Anngelic
Thank you!
//Ann
Anngelic
Thank you! 😊
//Ann
Anngelic
Thanks Jan, glad you like it 😊
//Ann
Anngelic
Haha thanks Georgina 😊 Hopefully we have inspired you for some italian food 😊
//Ann
Justine
My first ‘food’ memories of Italy was the simplicity. The simple pastas, simple main courses that just featured amazing flavours but in simple ways and the whole dining experience; just oozing passion for their food. Now I love to have a simple pasta with just some seasoning, olive oil and a little fresh parmesan cheese.
Lily
Wow look at that spread! It looks amazing invite me to the table!
Anngelic
I just LOVE that description of the Italian food, spot on Justine! 😊
//Ann
Anngelic
Haha you are welcome to join us Lily, we would love to have you over! 😃
//Ann
Renata
I love simple Italian food. I must say that your pictures make this simple yet delicious meal just spectacular – kudos! However, the very Italian colors are always alluring 😊
Steven
I love Italian food. Your pictures are so beautiful. Now I feel like eating, some spaghetti
Adebime
Oh my my, this is yummy, was thinking of a special recip to make for my family this weekend, checking online for different recipes of interest when I stumbled into this, thank you very much, have most of the ingredient already.
Marias Memoarer
Alltså mums, jag älskar italiensk mat, speciellt pizza, pasta och antipasti i form av ostar och salami. Och piadina som jag helst lägger mortadella, ost, majonnäs och rucola i 😊 Och basilika är ju bara för ljuvligt..
Claudia
All of that looks so good! You’ve got me ravenous, and I just ate! LOL. What a spread.
Jay Artale
My greenhouse looks like day of the triffids at the moment. The basil is doing really well and smells very fragrant, and I have lots of flowers and green tomatoes on my plants, I just need to have some more patience for them to turn red. Then I can truly make my own italian feast with these two foundational ingredients.