copyright 2010, Maria Liberati

New Year’s Day always means a day of relaxing around the kitchen of our ‘piccolo villa’ here in the mountains of Abruzzo with family and friends that drop by as the day lingers on and  the Vienna Philharmonic on TV with the famed New Year’s Day concert and all kinds of chocolate delights to munch on around the table. From locally produced chocolate torrone, to gianduia torrone, to a type of Panettone filled with chocolate. This year the Philharmonic even put footage of Vienna’s best chocolatiers creating some luscious chocolate creations in sync  to one of the symphonies. But the Raditzky’s March signals the end of another New Year’s Day concert, and the start of another New Year of great food, recipes and places to discover.

Here is a  chocolate recipe ..simple but delicious..one of my Holiday favorites that I picked up the first time I spent some of the Christmas Holidays in Venice. A Chocolate Salami..

http://quazen.com/recreation/food/love-chocolate-try-chocolate-salami/

Maria

http://twitter.com/Marialiberati

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