L'amore Italian Restaurant

Healthy Food

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5 Best Italian Vegetarian Dishes

If you’re a vegetarian or are simply looking for veggie recipes to cut back on meat, Italian food is the way to go. There are so many vegetarian Italian dishes to choose from that are delicious, healthy, and filling.

We’ve outlined our five favorites here for you to enjoy at home or during a night out for dinner.

1. Four Cheese Pasta

Love cheese? Then you’ll love this Italian recipe filled with parmesan, brie, cheddar, and emmental cheese. It’s like macaroni and cheese but only better and certainly does not come out of a box! It’s healthy and filling and is best served with a green salad and Italian bread.

2. Grilled Veggie Lasagna

Lasagna is one of the most famous Italian dishes. Typically, this dish comes with meat, but there are many vegetarian options you can use to make this a healthy, filling meal for the entire family. In between layers of lasagna noodles, you can add peppers, broccoli, squash or any other vegetables you love.

Like any other lasagna recipe, add lots of yummy cheese (ricotta and mozzarella) along with your favorite pasta sauce, homemade or not. This tasty treat is perfect for lunch or dinner. Serve with Italian garlic bread on the side to scoop up the pasta sauce and other ingredients.

3. Caprese Salad with Pesto Sauce

This recipe is a version of antipasti filled with fresh tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and pesto sauce. It makes for a perfect appetizer or a lunch dish. Did you know that the colors in this recipe actually represent the Italian flag? That’s right! Green, red, and white. Purely Italian.

4. Eggplant Parmesan

Skip the veal and chicken and grab some fresh eggplant for this filling vegetarian Italian dish. Layer this casserole with lots of tomatoes, parmesan cheese, and eggplant. Serve with a salad for extra vitamins and nutrients, along with garlic bread to scoop up the meal. Then sit back, relax, and digest this healthy meal.

5. Panzanella

This popular summer dish comes from the Tuscan area of Italy but is popular throughout the country. It’s a chopped salad consisting of tomatoes and bread. The bread is stale but soaked and goes perfect with freshly picked tomatoes. Add some onions and basil, along with a vinegar and olive oil dressing.  Create a small panzanella as an appetizer or side dish to go along with another incredible vegetarian Italian dish listed here.

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5 Ways to Use Italian Bread with Your Next Italian Meal

lamore italian restaurant breadAre you planning to prepare an authentic Italian meal? Do you want to have all the classic meats, pastas and sauce? What about Italian bread?  Italian bread is offered in an array of styles – from crispy and crunchy and light and fluffy. The fact is, no authentic meal would be complete without authentic Italian bread. However, are you unsure how to serve it? The fact is, there are multiple ways you can use Italian bread in your dish, with the top five highlighted here.

1. Make a Classic Italian Sandwich

There are several Italian breads that are ideal for making delicious sandwiches stacked full of Italian sausage, salami, pepperoni and more. One is the Muffuletta, with another being the Piadina. An even more popular option is ciabatta bread. While these breads have different densities and tastes, they both work great for a classic Italian sandwich.

2. Use Bread for Getting all the Sauce

When it comes to authentic Italian food, you don’t want to waste a morsel. As a result, you can have a flakey bread or even breadsticks served with your meal to ensure everyone can sop up all the sauce goodness left behind.

3. Make a Sweet Treat

While freselle isn’t technically a bread, it is still good enough to be added to this list. This is found in the southern regions of Italy and it can be used to make a great dessert or even an appetizer.

Many people top the bread with olive oil, basil and tomatoes, and some even soak it in water prior to eating it to make it softer.

4. Serve Bread to Accompany Soup

There’s no question that soup is commonly served during an Italian meal. Bread makes a great side item and is something you should include. Some people like to dip their bread in the soup, while others just eat along with the hot broth or past you have served. Even if they don’t necessarily eat the bread, it’s always nice to offer it with soup.

5. Make an Italian Pizza

What could be more Italian than pizza, right? You can use pane carasau or focaccia as your crust and make a delicious pizza. Everyone – kids and adults – are guaranteed to love the dish you create using this bread.

Are you ready to get cooking? While Italian cooking can seem overwhelming at first, it’s something that comes from the heart. Bread is a comfort food and something that should be a staple in any Italian meal. Be sure to use the tips here to find the perfect way to implement bread into your meal.

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5 Tips for Making a Heart Healthy Spaghetti Sauce

Are you worried about the amount of sugar in canned and jarred spaghetti sauce?  What about salt? Soybean oil? 

Chances are, that jar of spaghetti sauce in your cupboard is packed full of fat, salt and sugar that you pour all over your al dente pasta.  Make pasta healthy again by making your own spaghetti sauce at home and freezing the leftovers for convenient use in the future. 

It’s easier than you think.  Here are five tips for making healthy spaghetti sauce from scratch.  

1. Use Fresh Tomatoes

Your first ingredient should be fresh tomatoes – lots of them. To get the correct consistency for spaghetti sauce, boil the tomatoes for 5 minutes and then let cool.  Peel off the skin and mash up the tomatoes, removing any seeds.  Now you’re ready to simmer your fresh tomatoes that will give you a boost of vitamin C, fiber, and potassium while fighting off cancer. The best tomatoes to use are Roma, Amish Paste, or San Marzano, to name a few.

2.  Use Virgin Olive Oil

Butter is your enemy when it comes to spaghetti sauce.  Instead, use a heart healthy olive oil option to lower the saturated fat content of your sauce.   This ingredient also comes with anti-inflammatory properties, antioxidants that fight cancer, and many other health benefits.  

3.   Add Vegetables

Mmm…broccoli and zucchini are excellent vegetables to add to your sauce, especially if you plan to make lasagna with it.  Both have vitamin C, potassium and fiber.  Broccoli also contains vitamin K, and fiber while zucchini adds anti-inflammatory properties to your sauce, not to mention it is low in carbs and calories.  

4.  Add Mushrooms and Black Olives

High in protein but low in fat and calories, mushrooms are a healthy addition to any spaghetti sauce you make from home.  They also contain vitamins C and B as well as calcium, minerals, antioxidants and more. Black olives are another gem to add to your sauce since they provide unsaturated fat to your sauce. Add these heart-healthy ingredients in place of meat for extra flavor.  

5. Don’t Add Sugar

You don’t need sugar to make your spaghetti sauce sweet.  The tomatoes that you carefully choose at the market or grow in your backyard garden are sweet enough. Instead, experiment with fresh herbs to help bring out your sauce’s sweetness.  For example, sweet basil is one option that will give your sauce one sweet kick.  

 

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5 of the Best Italian Dishes for “Comfort Food”

Whether you’ve been working non-stop, the weather has you down, or you just need some warmth and comfort any time of year, Italian food is the perfect choice.  The term comfort food first appeared in the 1960s in an article published by the Palm Beach Post.

Here is the excerpt:  “Adults, when under severe emotional stress, turn to what could be called ‘comfort food‘—food associated with the security of childhood, like mother’s poached egg or famous chicken soup.”

Whether you grew up eating Italian food or not, chances are you love at least one of these Italian comfort foods on our list.

Read on to discover the five best Italian dishes for “comfort food”.

1.  Lasagna

This hearty, filling meal can be stuffed with extras that really make it a personalized comfort food. Besides the basic ingredients of lasagna noodles, cheese and tomato sauce, you can add mushrooms, vegetables, and meats like sausage and ground beef.  Top it off with a yummy salad with spicy Italian dressing.

2.  Spaghetti and Meatballs

This classic recipe is served all over the world and most of us have grown up eating it.  Spaghetti is a warm, filling meal that pairs great with meatballs and a loaf of buttered bread.  Help yourself to seconds and even thirds but don’t forget to save room for dessert.

3.  Stuffed Shells

This recipe may take a bit of time to make, but it’s worth it.  Stuff the shells with a mixture of ricotta and parmesan cheese along fresh parsley. Drizzle with yummy tomato sauce and savor any leftovers for days. This is one recipe that tastes better and better from day one to day three.

4. Stuffed Manicotti

The cousin of stuffed shells, manicotti has a very different taste and texture due to the shape of the pasta.  Stuff your manicotti just as you would your stuffed shells and pour over your homemade spaghetti sauce.  Refrigerate the leftovers for yummy comfort food any time of the day.

5.  Minestrone

A hearty soup is always good comfort food and minestrone soup is no exception. It’s packed full of deliciousness with beans, pasta, vegetables, and more.  Make it from scratch at home in the crock pot and pair it with crusty bread.  Offer a bowl to your neighbor.  You just never know when someone else needs some Italian comfort food.