TRONCHETTO DI NATALE - Christmas Log

A recipe to finish your Christmas lunch or dinner with an Italian dessert. The tronchetto di Natale is a very nice and attractive cake, that you can decorate according to your taste. 

I wish you all a Happy and Joyful Christmas with your family and friends!

PUMPKIN AND SAUSAGE LASAGNA

Believe me: this lasagna is awesome! It is a tasty but delicate dish, perfect to be served during the festivities of Christmas. It will be love at first bite!

BISCOTTI FROLLINI - SHORTBREAD BISCUITS

Shortbread biscuits: one dough that can be easily personalized with the flavors and and ingredients that you prefer.

Of course, I use a vanilla shortbread dough, but you can flavor it with lemon zest, almond or lavender.

This is an example of what you can prepare with only one dough:

- simple shortbread biscuits

- shortbread biscuits with jam

- shortbread biscuits filled with Nutella 

SAFFRON BISCUITS

Homemade biscuits are a special present for the persons you care the most. You can create lovely packages with one or different types of biscuits. 

This is why a few years ago I started to bake biscuits as Christmas gift. I like to try unusual recipes, with particular ingredients, as the one in this post that I found years ago on a magazine: biscuits with saffron. They are all but traditional: slightly sweet and savory biscuits - you will definitely love them!

ZALETI - Venetian Cornmeal Biscuits

This is a traditional kind of biscuits from my region, Veneto. Their name sounds slightly different depending on the area and the dialect: Zaeti, Zaleti, Xaeti....
These biscuits are prepared with simple and common ingredients, as the cornmeal (in Italian also called farina gialla) from which they take their name: Gialletti = Zaleti, small yellow things.

RAGÚ DI MIA MAMMA - BOLOGNESE SAUCE

This is my mother's  ragú alla bolognese recipe. To prepare a good bolognese sauce you just need three ingredients:
1. really good meat
2. really good tomato sauce
3. patience, patience, patience. An excellent ragú won't never be ready in 30 minutes!

You can make loads of it and freeze it (as I usually do). Just remember to defrost it in the fridge before heating!

Bear in mind that this recipe is the one that my mother usually prepares. For the original ragú alla bolognese I suggest you to follow Sorelli Simili's recipe (you can find it here, in English)