copyright 2009, art of living, PrimaMedia,Inc

Someone once said that ‘poetry is made up of memories and the act of recalling a special moment and without remembering or the act of  recalling experiences  there is no poetry’

A pizza is a pizza or why all pizzas are not the same…or   where have all the great pizzas gone… Last night I had dinner with friends in a local pizzeria. As is typical to have before a pizza ..an appetizer known as a a ‘suppli’ which is sort of a fried rice ball with mozzarella cheese in the center and sometimes a sauce inside. As I don’t like a meat sauce in my suppli I asked if they are made with meat sauce ..I knew we were in trouble when the waitress told me that she must look on the box they were packaged in to see if they have a meat sauce inside. (Pre-packaged ‘suppli’) not a good sign…not freshly made…

The local pizzerias that were run by families always made everything from scratch..nothing prepackaged.. the pizza I must say was a disappointment..my stomach this morning reminds me of the acidy flavor left over from a wood burning oven that may have not been properly cleaned and the ashes left over leaving a bitter taste to the pizza…no olive oil on the pizza..no flavor..just the flavor of flour, water ,mozzarella cheese…

Unfortunately this is the way things are going here..many restaurants are opting for cheaper ingredients and compromising flavors..with most restaurants and eating places not using extra virgin olive oil because of the price of olive oil today, the flavors of the foods have been really compromised..or should I say not many flavors seem to be present..except in a few restaurants that are ‘die hards’ and insist on not compromising quality for cost.

I fear I have become my grandparents..preferring to eat mainly at home..knowing that all the ingredients I use will be ingredients I choose…and so returns another ‘old fashioned’ but so timely habit of preferring to eat at home.. now where did that come from? And how boring and old fashioned I used to think of that when my grandparents used to profess to the advantages of preparing things fresh at home..’so slow’ I would think..my grandmother spending all day to make a great tomato sugo to sit atop our pasta or the dough for a ‘tomato pie’ as they would translate ‘pizza’ in Engllish.

Never understanding why they couldn’t just go out and ‘grab a bite to eat’ like the rest of the families I knew.

 So this situation brought to me many memories of full mornings of preparing a meal by a team of people (aunts, parents, grandparents) then sitting down to eat the highly anticipated meal..stomachs growling in anticipation from the odors coming from the kitchen and then remaining there at the table for hours with courses almost never stoppping..of course this was Sunday or Holiday meal.

“Memoires are like poetry and without memories there is no poetry”

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene,

Maria

http://twitter.com/Marialiberati

Get your copy of The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions with over 140+ recipes, menus and short Holiday stories

The Basic Art of Italian Cooking kitchen here in Italy was busy with many recipes today, although still hot,hot, hot and no desire to use an oven or a stove but preparing for some end of summer picnics to take advantage of the summerl iek weather that will be ending soon (I think).

Of all the recipe swe worked on my favorite is a sort of cheesecake made with fresh ricotta..my faovrote part of making the cheesecake was taking a walk to the local place in town where they produce the fresh ricotta.. Here it is ..

Ricotta Raisin Cheesecake

1 1/4 lbs (fresh, if possible) ricotta

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

6 eggs

1/4 cup raisins

peel and juice of one fresh lemon

1 tsp of orange flower water

a pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

Place raisins in a small bowl of warm water for 15 minutes. Place ricotta in a bowl with sugar, blend with wooden spoon until you it is a smooth creamy mixture, add in egg yolks. Sift 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and add into ricotta cream. Blend, then  and add in orange flower water and juice and peel of lemon. Blend

Beat egg whites till firm  with pinch of salt. Add t oricotta mixture blending in with wooden spoon. Drain raisins, dry with paper towel and dust with remaining flour. Add into ricotta cream. Blend in with wooden spoon.

Line a pie pan with baking paper. Place in battter, eve nout batter with wooden spoon. Cook in ove npreheated to 360 degrees for 55 minutes or unti ltop is golden in color.

Get your copy of The Basic Art of Italian Cooking:Holidays & Special Occasions before the holidays with 140+ recipes, menus, Holiday stories and more!

Mangia Bene, Viv Bene,

Maria

http://twitter.com/Marialiberati

 copyright 2009, Maria Liberati

Where did this messsage come from..all of a sudden in my e-mail  mailbox after a trying day.. a well needed message to remind me to look for the rainbow outside ..such a metaphor for I really did need to find my rainbow by the end of today…

The timing was perfect..Look for the rainbow..”that’s it Maria” (I said to myself)..”always look for the rainbow”. There is usually a rainbow amidst a cloudy, dark  sky you just have to look for it.. If you don’t look for it you will never find it…

First of all a special thanks to a special friend who sent this message ..

A perfect way to end a not so perfect day!

And it also reminds me of a favorite saying of my better half

“Rosa di sera, bel tempo si spera” he will remind me after a particularly rainy night and the sky will open up with this beautiful red color to remind us that the weather tomorrow will become beautiful

Roughly translated means that ‘the red evening sky will bring beautiful weather tomorrow’.

Where is this leading to…….. anginetti cookies…something else that really cheers me up when I have had an unuusally stressful day. They are light little angel puffs…Baking up a small batch of these brings the sunshine back into a dreary day. And oh yes ,eating them are just as much fun..and put that lightness back into your spirit…

Hope you got to see a rainbow today….
Anginetti Bite-Sized Cookies: (yields approximaely 40 cookies)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon zest

6 tbsp butter

½-cup skim milk

½-cup regular or organic sugar

3 whole eggs

3 -1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Icing:

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

1-cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while lining large cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and non-stick coating.

In large mixing bowl, beat vanilla, zest, margarine, milk, and sugar with electric mixer on medium setting until texture is well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating each addition, and then continue to beat mixture for 1 minute.

On low speed, blend flour (1 cup at a time), powder, and baking soda until consistency becomes firm, sticky dough. If needed, have wooden spoon available for mixing. Dust hands lightly with additional flour, rolling dough into bite-sized balls. Place approximately 20 onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing 2 “apart.

Bake 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Icing: While first batch is baking, combine vanilla, lemon juice, sugar, and water into a small mixing bowl, whisking ingredients until mixture is completely blended. Remove cookies from oven, placing a sheet of wax or parchment beneath wire rack. Using a small pastry brush, frost the tops of each cookie with icing, sprinkle with additional confectioners’ sugar, and transfer to rack for cooling. Begin second batch.

Still have a sweet tooth? Check out Maria Liberati’s delicious Cannoli recipe… http://marialiberati.com/blog2/?p=221

Be sure to visit http://www.marialiberati.com and get your copy of the bestselling book, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking, by Maria Liberati.

copyright, 2009, Maria Liberati, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking 

My weekend was filled with pizza making in The Basic Art of Italian Cooking kitchen here in Italy, or should I say inside the kitchen and outside..as you can see, yours truly getting our new outside brick oven ready.. Nothing like the flavor of pizza cooked in a brick oven..

  Pizza makes great food for a lazy Sunday afternoon dish..But it also provided us with a great way to work with the locally produced ingredients here in Abruzzo-the locally produced Pecorino D’Abruzzo to the fresh mozzarella produced in the little (nearby) village of Rocca Di Mezzo. And a radicchio produced at this time of  the year in Treviso, Italy..a little far from Abruzzo but many local produce stores get theirs fresh from Treviso..makesa great topping for a pizza..

Italy rejoices in the pizza and has made pizza making an art as well..championships in pizza and many competitions in pizza making..to the World Championship pizza making team.. who would have thought that a food made by the poor  people in Naples to make us of inexpensive ingredients-flour, yeast, tomatoes and make something substantive would become such a world renowned food…

So many toppings, so difficult to choose from,,we chose to do an arugula with shaved parmigiano-reggiano cheese, then one with a tomato topping wiht the Vesuviana tomatoes from the Mt Vesuvio region (they are an interesting tomato and one of the few varieties that grow without water. As a matter of fact the lesser amount of water they have the better they grow) with grated pecorino cheese.

The Vesuviana tomatoes led me to the story told to me by my friend, Velia, who works with us at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking Culinary School in Orvieto..she told me that her grandmother used to use the Vesuviana tomatoes as an example of life ..they grow sweeter and better with the more hardship the soil around them experiences since they grow better with drought. These are a tomato that grow without any water, And she went on to explain how hardships in life grow your character, just like they grow the Vesuviana tomatoes..that with perfect soil conditions the Vesuviana do not grow successfully and are not as sweet and plump as they are when they suffer a drought or the hardship of not having enough water…a life lesson to learn from this delicacy and they are a superior tomato as well..not just your average tasting tomato..

Then there was Pizza Margherita for those that want the traditional tomato (using the Vesuviana tomatoes) basil and mozzarella tomato..and since truffles are also found in many parts of Italy this time of year-a scamorza and shaved truffle pizza… and lastly we had to make a potato with fresh rosemary pizza since we have an over abundance of fresh, organic rosemary here in the garden..

Pizza is best made  fresh and is worth the extra time it takes…If you put your mind to it you can make a ball of dough in the morning before you head out to work, cover carefully with a towel and place in a warm place to let it rise..when you come home it will be ready to place in a pizza pan or pizza stone stone and add  topping. 10-15 minutes in the oven (can be your own indoor oven) and you have a quick, healthy meal..

Pizza….can be used to teach healthy eating and a philosophy for life…a wondrous thing that pizza……

Find more pizza tips here: http://tinyurl.com/djd29w

Sorry it took a few days to get back about the tasting of the Sacher Tortes we made here in The Basic Art of Italian Cooking kitchen. They were as beautiful as they tasted.  Even though this is The Basic Art of Italian Cooking..one can’t help but think about the elegant places in Austria when partaking of Sacher Torte (but Vienna was built by the Romans). Places like Vienna and Saltzburg..and the elegance of eating a piece of Sacher Torte.

With hardly a piece left of the Tortes as they were brought back to the kitchen it was evident that I was not the only one impressed by the lightly sweet taste of this torte. The torte contains basic ingredients like eggs, butter ,flour, sugar, dark chocolate, apricot marmelade, nothing difficult to find, actually quite simple ingredients for such an elegant dessert… but it is bit laborious to make.

Will be posting the recipe here this week.

This weekend was filled with  tastes  of local foods and visits to small villages throughout the region of Abruzzo, spots that are not in any tourist guides but are just as important to see.. The town of Aielli and Rosciolo in the mountains of Abruzzo are filled with history and artifacts, churches from the year ’700.. More on those trips this week.

The rest of this week we are  testing recipes in The Basic Art of Italian Cooking kitchen here in Italu  that are   in the upcoming book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking-Holidays & Special Occasions.. (although you can purchase a prepublication copy only online it will officially be released in September 2009). Here is one to enjoy, this recipe is also used for the Feast Your Eyes Campaign by the American Academy of Ophthalmology because apricots help keep your eyes healthy:

Apricot Clafoutis

(from The Basic Art of Italian Cooking, Holidays and Special Occasions, copyright, 2009, Maria Liberati)

*1 lb of fresh ripe apricots

*1/2 cup unbleached flour

*2 whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk

*5 tblsps sugar

*1 tsp vanilla

*1 ½ cups low fat milk

1 tblsp plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 365 degree

Place 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk in bowl with sugar, vanilla. Beat with wire whisk or electric mixer for 5-6 minutes.

Sift flour and add into egg mixture. Blend well. Then add in milk and yogurt. Blend well and let sit for 30 minutes.

Wash, dry apricots, divide in half, and remove stone inside. Place apricots and Grand Marnier into liquid mixture and stir in.

Butter and flour a pie pan and pour in mixture. Cook for 30 minutes. When cool, remove from pan onto serving dish. Sprinkle 1 tsp sugar on top. .

For more great recipes get your copy of  the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

Mangia Bene Vivi Bene,

Maria

copyright, 2009, Maria Liberati, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking  

Today, (here in the mountains of Abruzzo, Italy) while I was enjoying my colazione (breakfast )with radio station centocinque (105) and listening to Betty give her gossip and advice I began to plan out the recipe for today..sacher torte…

While  the conversation on today’s radio program was about the new website in Japan that talks about places around the world that have memorable aromas (good and bad)  I began thinking of the great perfume of chocolate that will soon be filling The Basic Art of Italian Cooking Kitchen here (in Italy).

Yes that’s right..the famous Austrian  Sacher Torte.. I learned this scrumptious dessert while studying a bit of Austrian delights in Austria a few years back and have been promising to make this for Alfonso’s birthday for a few too many years.

 Now that The Basic Art of Italian Cooking kitchen is here in Italy also and I have some extra hands to assemble everything ..well I decided to begin this experience.. This morning we made and baked the cake, and tomorrow we willassembled the cake.. The smell from the ovens were heavenly…. if you love the odor of melted butter and rich dark chocolate. I am guessing that many people do since we had some locals come by and ask what was ‘in the oven’ today?

Sacher Torte was ‘born’ in Vienna, Austria but is loved all throughout Europe and why not.. it is just as beautiful as it is delicious a dessert and made primarily with dark European chocolate ,butter ,eggs and apricot marmelade and of  course some sugar and flour. No preservatives, chemicals just real ingredients..

It has been awhile since I had my culinary classes in Austria and have not made a Sacher Torte for awhile and almost forgot how laborious a dessert this is..but well worth it.

First to locate ‘farina di frumento’ the flour that will give the cake some substance. Not an easy flour to find, but after a trip to the local shop for professional baker’s in town…I found it..

 Next the measuring out of all ingredients with our scale, then the melting of the dark chocolate on the ‘bain-marie’ (double boiler). Then the creaming of the butter and melted chocolate, then half the sugar. Then beating the egg whites till peaks form.. gently folding in the egg whites and flour and …almost there…..butter and flour the spring form pans, place in batter and cook for about 1 hour at 180 degrees centigrade or 360 degrees fahrenheit.. Well in our oven here they took less than an hour to bake. But the whole process took up all morning into afternoon..

This more than filled our day and by 2 PM we were ready to sit down and eat ‘pranzo’ (lunch). Stay tuned for tomorrow and the assembling of the Sacher Tortes. … and my recipe for the Sacher Torte

For more great recipes get your copy of my best sellling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene,

Maria

copyright, 2008,Maria Liberati

Editor: Sara Harris

What is it about cookies (dolci- in Italian) that have even the harshest food critics saying, Mmm! Whether these sinfully sweet desserts are prepared warm and gooey or tastily crunchy, I’ve never met a cookie that even Santa Claus didn’t like. Derived from the Dutch word koekie, meaning little cake, in most countries cookies are referred to as biscuits. Dating back as far as the 7^th century, these perfectly sized treats journeyed globally into the hearts of society by the 14^th century, quickly becoming a scrumptious crowd-pleaser among travelers, street vendors, and social classes alike. By the 1600′s cookies marched straight into the ovens of the Americas, proving a multitude of recipes were anything but ‘cookie-cutter’. The delicious aromas springs a nostalgic vision of generations hovering over antique appliances, waistlines cinched in funky aprons, as family traditions and bakeoffs leaves us wanting more.

Indigenous to parties and holiday dinners, Anginetti (a personal favorite) is a traditional Italian cookie-biscuit crafted to pillowy-white hints of lemon, vanilla, and confectioners’ icing. Perfect for tea parties, I located a family recipe and skillfully tried it… unsurprisingly they tasted exactly how I remembered. Versions of Anginetti float throughout the internet, but if you’re not in the mood to bake visit http://www.bellasbakery.com/ or http://www.gullaces.com/ for delectably purchasable homemade goodies.

With a cookie-versatility ranging from chocolate sambuca, buccellati, cannoli, biscotti, dolce di fichi, as well as popular originals like chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin… it seems someone always has their hands in the cookie jar.

Anginetti Bite-Sized Italy (yields approximately 40 cookie-biscuits)

Cookies:

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon zest

6 tbsp butter

½-cup skim milk

½-cup regular sugar (or Splenda)

3 whole eggs or ¾ cup of Egg Beaters

3 -j1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Icing:

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

1-cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while lining large cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and non-stick coating.

In large mixing bowl, beat vanilla, zest, margarine, milk, and sugar with electric mixer on medium setting until texture is well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating each addition, and then continue to beat mixture for 1 minute.

On low speed, blend flour (1 cup at a time), powder, and baking soda until consistency becomes firm, sticky dough. If needed, have wooden spoon available for mixing. Dust hands lightly with additional flour, rolling dough into bite-sized balls. Place approximately 20 onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing 2 “apart.

Bake 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Icing: While first batch is baking, combine vanilla, lemon juice, sugar, and water into a small mixing bowl, whisking ingredients until mixture is completely blended. Remove cookies from oven, placing a sheet of wax or parchment beneath wire rack. Using a small pastry brush, frost the tops of each cookie with icing, sprinkle with additional confectioners’ sugar, and transfer to rack for cooling. Begin second batch.
Still have a sweet tooth? Check out Maria Liberati’s delicious Cannoli recipe… http://marialiberati.com/blog2/?p=221

Be sure to visit http://www.marialiberati.com/ and get your copy of the bestselling book, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking, by Maria Liberati.

Fritte miste serves as a fitting appetizer for any special occasion.  It is one of my favorite appetizers and always fun to have when it is made right in front of you at a table set up with a chef  preparing live…and then handed to you in a brown paper cone.

Here is the recipe as promised.  This is a rustic recipe and served in brown paper cones to absorb any oil since it is typically finger food when served at an outdoor event or party. If you don’t want to use brown paper cones, servve as illustrated here in a dish surrounded by lemon wedges..oh by the way fritte miste literally means-’mixed fry’ but it refers to the mixed kind of fish or fish and vegetables used for this.  You can use shrimp, squid, baccala, cod, any fish will do.

The ingredients are simple:
fish, flour (white or yellow), fresh lemon slices, olive oil, brown paper formed into cones.

Wash and clean 2 lbs of  fresh seafood including but not limited to shrimp, flounder, cod, squid, baccala, eel, anchovies, sardines.  Dry with paper towel thoroughly,

Place about 1 cup of flour in flat dish. Heat oil in saute pan. Dip fish pieces in flour. Fry till crispy and brown. Place on paper towels and then place in brown paper cones and serve each cone with a lemon wedge.

For more great recipes get your copy of the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

Ciao for now!
Maria

 copyright,2008,Maria Liberati

The Basic Art of Italian Cooking byMaria Liberati tm

As I began my morning very early yesterday to finish picking our fresh plums and ‘susine’ (another type of plum)- I was serenaded by a band marching through our little town. I didn’t realize it  was that time of the year again, but Saint Rocco is a Saint that is celebrated here., And it alwyas is done for his birhtday-August 16th and begins early in the morning with a street serenade and a procession that goes through the town.

Making fresh marmelade- although well worth it is sucha a laborious process. First to pick the plums then choosing the ones that are best for the marmelade- they must not be too mature and just beginning to become ripe. The plums are grown organically  on our farm here and get no chemical treatment whatsoever. Marmelade and crostata made with these plums are a real treat.

The whole experience alhthough tiring was also relaxing-being in the Italian sun, on a small farm, serenaded by a local band while picking the plums and hearing not much more thant the birds chirping and of course the church bells ringing off and on. Unfortunately I had to miss the Palio of Siena but we were able to watch it on TV while making the marmelade.

I want to leave you with a photo from the Palio of Siena en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena

 I also want to leave you with  the recipe we used to make our fresh pasta- tagliatelle since I have just about returned from what was the first and very successful The Basic Art of Italian Cooking culinary tour and cooking program at our farm/country resort in Orvieto-not far from the Tuscan hills. We cooked some wonderful recipes using the fresh ingredients produced at the farm. Of course eating the meals under the Italian sky on the hot August nights added to the experience. I will be making a series of posts of the recipes we created.

Here is the recipe for the fresh tagliatelle we made and  enjoyed! Buon Appetito!
TAGLIATELLE (for 6 people)

2 lbs of ’00′ flour (for recipe)

1/2 cup  ’00′ flour for dusting wooden board while rolling out dough

8 whole eggs

3 tablespoons of semolina flour to dry pasta

Place flour on large wooden board and form a well in center. Break eggs into the center of well.  Beat eggs for 1 minute till blended. Then begin working flour into egg mixture with fingertips.  Gradually  work until dough is formed.Form dough into ball. Dust board with flour. Knead dough until it is smoth and elastic.

Then dust board with flour again and roll out in a large oval shape and about 1/10th inch thickness. Sprinkle dough with semolina flour and let dry for approx 5 minutes.

Then roll up each end of the dough this way- roll up one side, roll up the opposite side and continue till both sides meet and you have a jelly roll type of form. Then cut noodles by making 1/8″ cuts into roll, Seperate into noodles after cut. Dust noodles with semolina flour and let dry for 5 minutes.

Boil a pot of water (1.5 gallons of water) place in handful of salt when boiling. When water has reached a full boil place in noodles for approx 3-4 minutes. Cook till ‘al dente’. Drain quickly but gently.

Be sure to have on hand some extra virgn olive oil and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for the next part of this recipe.

We served this dish with an Orvieto Classico wine-a locally produced wine

Next post will include some of the sauces we created to top this dish. Ciao for now!!

For more recipes get your copy of the bestselling book - The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

 copyright, 2008, Maria Liberati

The Basic Art of Italian Cooking

Editor:Sara Harris

What is it about cookies (dolci- in Italian) that have even the harshest food critics saying, Mmm! Whether these sinfully sweet desserts are prepared warm and gooey or tastily crunchy, I’ve never met a cookie that even Santa Claus didn’t like. Derived from the Dutch word koekie, meaning little cake, in most countries cookies are referred to as biscuits. Dating back as far as the 7^th century, these perfectly sized treats journeyed globally into the hearts of society by the 14^th century, quickly becoming a scrumptious crowd-pleaser among travelers, street vendors, and social classes alike. By the 1600’s cookies marched straight into the ovens of the Americas, proving a multitude of recipes were anything but ‘cookie-cutter’. The delicious aromas springs a nostalgic vision of generations hovering over antique appliances, waistlines cinched in funky aprons, as family traditions and bakeoffs leaves us wanting more.

Indigenous to parties and holiday dinners, Anginetti (a personal favorite) is a traditional Italian cookie-biscuit crafted to pillowy-white hints of lemon, vanilla, and confectioners’ icing. Perfect for tea parties, I located a family recipe and skillfully tried it… unsurprisingly they tasted exactly how I remembered. Versions of Anginetti float throughout the internet, but if you’re not in the mood to bake visit http://www.bellasbakery.com or http://www.gullaces.com for delectably purchasable homemade goodies.

With a cookie-versatility ranging from chocolate sambuca, buccellati, cannoli, biscotti, dolce di fichi, as well as popular originals like chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin… it seems someone always has their hands in the cookie jar.

Anginetti Bite-Sized Italy (yields approximately 40 cookie-biscuits)

Cookies:

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon zest

6 tbsp butter

½-cup skim milk

½-cup regular sugar (or Splenda)

3 whole eggs or ¾ cup of Egg Beaters

3 -1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Icing:

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

1-cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while lining large cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and non-stick coating.

In large mixing bowl, beat vanilla, zest, margarine, milk, and sugar with electric mixer on medium setting until texture is well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating each addition, and then continue to beat mixture for 1 minute.

On low speed, blend flour (1 cup at a time), powder, and baking soda until consistency becomes firm, sticky dough. If needed, have wooden spoon available for mixing. Dust hands lightly with additional flour, rolling dough into bite-sized balls. Place approximately 20 onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing 2 “apart.

Bake 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Icing: While first batch is baking, combine vanilla, lemon juice, sugar, and water into a small mixing bowl, whisking ingredients until mixture is completely blended. Remove cookies from oven, placing a sheet of wax or parchment beneath wire rack. Using a small pastry brush, frost the tops of each cookie with icing, sprinkle with additional confectioners’ sugar, and transfer to rack for cooling. Begin second batch.

Still have a sweet tooth? Check out Maria Liberati’s delicious Cannoli recipe… http://marialiberati.com/blog2/?p=221

Be sure to visit http://www.marialiberati.com and get your copy of the bestselling book, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking, by Maria Liberati.