Cantuccini

There was this Italian guy on TV with his fancy cooking show and actually it wasn't half bad. Obviously, if you're a chef, you know something about cooking and if you're an Italian chef, Italian food is probably your expertise. Or it should be when you're on TV.

This one time, he made cantuccini, an Italian biscuit-y thing with nuts. They're pretty hard and crunchy and you're supposed to serve them with a dessert wine. I made it once before I even had the blog and they were quite nice but I think I left them in the oven for too long because they were practically inedible without dipping into hot cocoa.

So for my second attempt, I decided to add a bit of oil into the recipe. Believe it or not, the chef's recipe had no oil or milk in it. It was just the eggs! I guess that must have been the cause for the hardness... Anyway, you still want these to be more crunchy than chewy, so I recommend baking it twice. First 20 minutes, then cut into pieces and then 5 more minutes just for the added crunchiness :)

Zabaione

I went to Rome a week ago an while it was my first time in Italy, it certainly wasn't the first time I had come in contact with it. While everyone knows that pizza and many different kinds of pasta are Italian cuisine, the Italian desserts are somewhat overlooked. I guess that anyone is able to name the ice-cream "gelato" (which actually means ice-cream but is much different from what can be bought in a store) and tiramisu but other than that? 

I've come across a recipe for Zabaione, or alternatively spelled Zabaglione, in a search for more Italian dessert recipes after I made Cantuccini about 2 years ago. I've made Zabaione couple times now because it is simple yet challenging, incredibly rewarding and infinitely customizable. See, it's only egg yolks, sugar and wine. And a lot of whisking. A LOT! It is usually served with fruit like strawberries and blueberries but you can also use soft sweet bread like panettone or a soft sponge cake. Yum.