L'amore Italian Restaurant

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June 3, 2020 by Kim Abbott

Everything You Need to Know About Using Red Wine in Pasta Sauce

Take a look at the ingredients listed on the jars of pasta sauce in your kitchen pantry and you will likely find red wine listed more often than not.  A small amount of the right red wine has the potential to transform an average Italian dish into a spectacular one.  Red wine contains a variety of important compounds that dramatically improve the flavor of sauce as well as other cooked dishes.

Alcohol’s Role in Flavorful Sauce

The alcohol in wine triggers the release of flavor molecules into sauce, making every ingredient it contacts taste that much better.  Alcohol also dissolves fats, empowering sauce ingredients to release their nuanced flavors.  Other liquids and fats such as broth, water, olive oil and butter do not trigger a similar dissolving and subsequent flavor release.

As long as the alcohol is given sufficient time to cook off, it really will make the sauce taste that much better.  The best chefs in the business cook wine-infused sauce to the point that half the wine is cooked away.  Once the alcohol burns to this level, the sauce’s flavor begins to concentrate, providing quite the delicious taste.

Red Wine Acidity

Ask anyone who has paired a red wine such as Merlot with a dish featuring red tomato sauce about the experience and you will find the tomatoes burn straight through the wine, giving it a flat taste.  Low-acid wines like Merlot are overpowered by the highly-acidic tomato sauce used in pasta dishes, pizzas, etc.

This is precisely why truly elite chefs rely on wines like Chianti Classico for dishes featuring tomato sauce.  Chianti’s primary grape, the sangiovese, has the precise level of acid necessary to perfectly jive with that found in tomato sauce.

Perform a Taste Test

If you are still undecided as to whether red wine belongs in tomato sauce, perform a blind taste test.  Have a family member or friend prepare two separate pasta dishes: one with red wine-infused sauce and the other with plain sauce.  Give each a try and you will likely notice the pasta, pizza or other entrees topped with a sauce containing red wine tastes superior.  Red wine’s bold flavor really is the x-factor of the world’s best tomato sauces.

However, any old red wine will not suffice for truly tasty tomato sauce.  Our chefs abide by this mantra when it comes to using red wine in tomato sauce: “If we won’t drink it, we won’t eat it.”  This means you won’t find any table wine, wine from a box or any other subpar wine in our tomato sauce.  Our tomato sauce contains only the highest quality, most palate-pleasing red wine guaranteed to please your taste buds.

Filed Under: Cooking Tips, Italian Food, Recipes, Wine Tips Tagged With: Italian Cuisine, Italian Wine, Recipe

February 14, 2016 by Kim Abbott

Ready for Dessert? Impress Your Dinner Guests with This Delicious Tiramisu Recipe

10741889_SFrom affogato all the way to gelato, there are many popular Italian treats that tempt the palette, but few desserts are more iconic than the espresso-infused Tiramisu. While most people have enjoyed this decadent treat in a restaurant – or in the country of origin with a little luck – it is not as complicated to make as it might seem. With a little background and a few simple ingredients, here’s how this dessert came to be and how you can make your very own version of this old favorite.

The Tradition of Tiramisu

There are many contradictory accounts of how the popular dessert Tiramisu came to be. While one account claims that it was given to soldiers during World War I to provide them with energy as they went off to war, the most common belief is that it was invented in the restaurant Le Beccherie around 1971. It is said that the popular dessert, whose name means “pick me up”, was created by the restaurant owner, Roberto Linguanotto, and his assistant Francesca Valori, whose maiden name happened to be Tiramisu. The mystery around the creation of Tiramisu persists, but it’s worth noting that no mention of the popular dessert appeared in print before the 1980s.

How to Make Italy’s Most Popular Dessert

With layers of mascarpone and espresso, Tiramisu is a rich but airy dessert that delights the senses with its delicacy. It is the Ladyfinger biscuits that are soaked in espresso that give the dessert its unique texture and hard-to-define taste. When planning a party with an Italian theme, this simple recipe should provide approximately 8-10 servings and will take about 30 minutes to prepare.

The Ingredients
2 Cups Hot water
3 TBSP Espresso powder
1 TBSP Sugar
3 TBSP Tia Maria liqueur
4 Egg yolks
1/3 Cup Marsala wine
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 1/2 Cups Mascarpone cheese
1 Cup Heavy cream
36 Ladyfinger biscuits
Unsweetened cocoa powder

The Recipe

In a shallow, wide bowl stir together the water, espresso powder, 1 TBSP sugar and the Tia Maria liqueur, and then place in the fridge to cool.

Once this is complete, combine the egg yolks, Marsala wine and ½ cup sugar in a double boiler or saucepan over boiling water. Beat the mixture until it has increased in volume (approximately 5-8 minutes). Remove from the heat and beat in the Mascarpone cheese.

Beat the heavy cream in a large bowl until peaks form and fold in the mascarpone mixture until combined.

Dip each Ladyfinger biscuit into the coffee mixture until they are all coated, and then begin creating your layered dessert by placing 1 layer of biscuits into the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch pan. Once you have created your first layer, top with the mascarpone mixture. The ingredients should make approximately 3 layers of biscuits and mascarpone, but continue until all the ingredients are used up.

Dust the top of the layered Tiramisu with cocoa and cool it in the fridge for at least 6 hours and remove from the fridge approximately 30 minutes before serving.

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: Dessert, Recipe, Tiramisu

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3159 E Lincoln Dr
Phoenix , AZ 85016
Phone: 602.381.3159

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Credit for most photos: Kay W. Eskridge: Images By Kay

Our Hours

Lunch
TBD.
Dinner
Mon – Sat: 4pm–9pm
Saturday Dinner: 4pm–9pm

Sunday Closed

Happy Hour
Mon – Fri: 4:00pm–6:00pm
No happy hour on Saturdays

Holiday Closures: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, sometimes Christmas Eve (call to check), Christmas Day

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