09/19/05 Insalatona Pantesca - CookiesFromItaly.com

09/19/05 Insalatona Pantesca from CookiesFromItaly.com

"Un caloroso buon giorno e tanti saluti da Italia!" Welcome to another recipe edition from Adriana's Italian Bakery!

This week's Italian recipes:
-Insalatona Pantesca
-Terrina di Cioccolato e Mandorle
-Anicini

We hope you like the classic Terrina and Anicini cookie recipes which do not ask for many ingredients and are quite easy to prepare. Enjoy the complimentary news article report from "Only In Italy.com".

Enjoy the issue!

Yours Truly,
Adriana Ciccarello

Cookie of the Week: Almonds and Amarena Cookies

"Almonds and Amarena Cookies: A cookie that has started a trend here in Sicily! They are round cookie almond balls made exclusively from our own home grown natural almonds, the freshest farm eggs, an amarena cherry center, flour, and sugar. No preservatives, additives, artificial colors, nor flavors. Serves 4-6.

900 grams (2 lbs.) is only 15.99 Euro ($19.25-$19.75) + Shipping.

Example Order: One order to anywhere in the USA costs 15.99 Euro plus 8.50 Euro for Global Priority Mail shipping (7-8 days) for a total of 24.49 Euro ($29.25-$29.75 U.S. Dollars).

Recipe: Insalatona Pantesca

Insalatona Pantesca
Pantelleria Salad

Ingredients:

1 lettuce
4 boiled potatoes
4 large mature tomatoes
100 grams black olives
2 tbsp salted capers
2 red onions
8 anchovy filets preserved in oil
vinegar or vinaigrette
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper

Directions:

Wash the lettuce, chop it roughly and place it in a large salad bowl.

Slice the potatoes, tomatoes and onions and add them to the salad.

Mix in the olives, capers (rinsed), anchovies and dress with a vinaigrette.

Sprinkle oregano over the top and serve.

That's it!

Recipe: Terrina di Cioccolato e Mandorle

Terrina di Cioccolato e Mandorle

Ingredients:

For the almond biscuit:
180 grams almond flour
240 grams egg whites
180 grams cup sugar

For the chocolate ganache:
800 grams bitter chocolate flakes
250 grams fresh cream
2 tbsp rum

Directions:

Whisk the egg white till white and stiff, continue whizzing and sprinkle in the sugar and lastly the almond flour.

Butter an oven sheet, spread the mixture out 1 inch thick and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C - 350F, till brown.

Place the chocolate in a pan; bring the cream to the boil and pour it on top of the chocolate, cover with a lid so that the chocolate melts and stir in the 2 tbsp of rum.

In a terrine, or baking tin with removable ring, spread a first layer of ganache, then a layer of almond biscuit, and continue until you finish the ingredients.

Let it cool and serve cut in slices with a chocolate sauce or coffee sorbet.

That's it!

Recipe: Anicini

Anicini
Anise Cookies

Ingredients:

150 grams butter
200 grams sugar
3 eggs
300 grams flour
2 tbsp baking powder
3 tsp anise extract

Directions:

Work the butter and the sugar together until you get a pale soft foam. Whisk in the eggs in by one the stir in the anise seed extract. Work in the flour and the baking powder. Roll it out into a sheet.

Place it on oven paper on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 350F - 180C. Remove from the oven then cut the pastry into across in both directions to form squares.

Return them to the oven and bake 10 minutes more or until they turn a golden brown.

That's it!

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Only In Italy!

"Only In Italy" is a daily news column that translates & reports on funny but true news items from legitimate Italian news resources in Italy. Each story is slapped with our wild, often ironic, and sometimes rather opinionated comments. And now, for your reading pleasure:

Scientists Say Watching TV Hastens Puberty.

Study finds it is a matter of light and radiation.

The Guardian - John Hooper - June 28 - Does watching television bring on early puberty? Many parents would not doubt that repeated exposure to Sex and the City or the kind of sensual variety shows common on Italian TV could as easily turn their daughters into Lolit@s as stir up the latent testosterone in their sons.

But researchers from Florence University have come up with an alternative explanation: watching screens, regardless of the subject matter, helps to advance adolescence.

A study carried out last month in the Tuscan town of Cavriglia detected a huge increase in production of the hormone melatonin in children deprived of TV, computers and video.

Among the functions ascribed to melatonin is that of slowing down the progress of children to sexual maturity.

Roberto Salti said: "We may thus be able to explain a phenomenon of recent years, which is the bringing forward of puberty in young children."

Vast amounts of research have been conducted to the effect of television on children. But most has focused on the psychological, rather than physiological, effects.

"In our study television does not feature, as it does in other scientific studies, as a source of strong emotions, capable of unleashing emotive reactions that contribute to development," said Roberto Tarquini, another member of the team. "For us, it is just a source of light and radiation."

The researchers studied 74 children aged between six and 12 who normally watched television for an average of three hours a day. In the week preceding the experiment they were encouraged to do so a bit more.

They were then deprived of TV, computers and video games for seven days. In addition, their families were asked to use less artificial light.

At the end of the period the children's melatonin levels had risen by an average of 30%. The increases were particularly marked in the youngest children.

Alessandra Graziottin, director of the Centre for Gynecology and Medical Sexology in Milan and a former president of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health, said the results were "very interesting and plausible".

She told the newspaper La Repubblica: "Studies in the US have shown that the greater the exposure to television the greater the number of early sexual experiences, including teen pregnancies."

Melatonin is known to have an influence on sleep patterns. But whether it also determines the onset of puberty is still a subject of research and debate. The Florence University scientists said they were planning a joint study with US researchers aimed at putting an end to the uncertainty.

Dr Graziottin said the results could also help to explain another phenomenon of recent years. "Sleep disturbances, nightmares, difficulty in getting to sleep and so on, are ever more common among children. Melatonin has a role in this area too and it is quite possible there is a link with exposure to television."

Setting up the experiment had not been easy, Mr Tarquini said. "Some of the parents and grandparents were frightened. They didn't know how they were going to keep the children occupied without television."

Some of the younger children were reported to have cried when their TV was removed, but the mayor of Cavriglia, Enzo Brogi, presented each child with a book and board game, which seems to have helped.

Parents organized card games, ball games and fishing expeditions. They encouraged their children to listen more to the radio and arranged a collective reading of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. The experiment ended on May 16 with a midnight ceremony in which the mayor symbolically smashed a television set in the town square.

The Ansa news agency quoted one of the children as saying seven days was not enough for all the activities that had been planned.

However, La Repubblica reported that the activities also included simulations of well-known TV quiz shows.

"Piccoli bastardi!" Now this is a big problem because we know Italy is not ready to deal with kids reaching puberty at the age of seven!

"Madonna Santa!" Can you imagine Italian seven year olds:

-shaving and trimming their sideburns?
-drinking grappa and wine?
-wearing little Armani suits?
-speeding around with their little girlfriends on Vespas?

So, basically, what these Italian scientists are trying to say is that as long as parents keep children away from TVs, computers, artificial light and radiation, puberty won't set in as fast.

Hmmm...the best part of the article is the mention of Italian parents "organizing card games, ball games and fishing expeditions" to distract kids from television. Watching them having nervous breakdowns from organizing these events is definitely more entertaining than any reality TV.

It would be less challenging for them to repaint the Sistine Chapel!

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