Beginners Italian

Italian Cookies

2009-07-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

By Anna Fiori

If you love to bake, then why not try your hand at some Italian cookies? These cookies make a great dessert after your Italian meal or a sweet snack to go along with your cup of espresso. Two popular recipes are almond biscotti and Italian butter cookies, so here is how to make these two sweet treats.

Almond Biscotti

One of the more popular Italian cookies is almond biscotti. Truly Italian, it is often served with a cup of coffee. You can make these to eat on your own or share them as a gift for family and friends. You will need to gather some ingredients to prepare these Italian cookies. You will need:

• 3/4 cup of butter

• 1 cup of sugar

• 3 eggs

• 3 cups of flour

• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon of anise extract

• 1 tablespoon anise seed

• 3 and 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder

• 1 cup chopped almonds (you can also substitute walnuts if you do not have almonds)

• Optional: one ounce of rum or brandy (you will need to add a little extra flour to make the dough the proper consistency)

To prepare your Italian cookies, you will want to soften the butter in a small sauce pan on low heat or in the microwave. Pour into a mixing bowl. Add sugar and beat for about 30 seconds on low, then increase to medium for an additional two to three minutes or until the butter begins to cream.

Add in the eggs, vanilla, and anise extract, beating for an additional 30 seconds. In a separate bowl combine the flour with the baking powder, chopped nuts, and anise seed.

Add this to the cream mixture, stirring by hand until the dough becomes stiff. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead until it is smooth. If the dough is sticky, add in small amounts of flour.

Once thoroughly kneaded, divide the dough into two or three pieces and form it into long, thin rolls. Bake the Italian cookies at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, removing when a light brown. Allow to cool and then cut diagonally into 1/2 slices. Return to the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until toasted. Cool and serve.

Italian Butter Cookies

These Italian cookies make for a sweet dessert or snack. You can also use them as a holiday treat by topping with a glazed cherry and decorative sugar for a festive look. To bake these treats you will need:

• 1 pound of butter, softened

• 1 cup of powdered sugar

• 1 cup of finely chopped walnuts

• 3.5 cups of sifted flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Powdered sugar

To create these Italian cookies you will want to first soften the butter. Pour it into a mixing bowl, adding in one cup of powdered sugar and the vanilla. Beat for about 30 seconds on low, and then increase the speed to medium and beat for an additional two to three minutes so that the butter creams. Stir in the walnuts.

Add in small amounts of flour at a time, mixing thoroughly until the dough becomes stiff. Spoon out portions of the dough, roll into balls, and then press with the bottom of a glass.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the Italian cookies from the pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Learn Italian Software - The 4 Best Italian Software Packages You Can Get Online

2009-07-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

By Kerry Scheffer

Learning Italian doesn't have to be a chore. Despite our education system's obsession with making learning languages as ineffective and painful as possible, if you use the right learn Italian software it's actually great fun. Here are 4 of the best.

#1 Tell Me More Italian

Tell Me More is a language teaching software company whose main claim to fame was to first implement speech recognition software in learning languages. While I prefer the ability to record my voice and listen to the example provided, plenty of people think that speech recognition is great. Another feature of Tell Me More is the sheer amount of content, over 300 hours. The only thing that doesn't make this an outright recommendation is the difficulty: this is not for beginners and should NOT be attempted if you are one, it will only discourage you. The interface is also slightly confusing and may frustrate users. Overall, if you're an intermediate Italian learner and aren't worried about confusing interfaces, then Tell Me More Italian is the best learn Italian software for you.

#2 Rosetta Stone Italian

Rosetta Stone is one of the more well known of the learn Italian software featured here, it has some similarities to Tell Me More with speech recognition and other content. None of Rosetta Stones courses have direct translations, instead relying on what they call the Dynamic Immersion Method, which attempts to simulate how a child learns their first language. Rosetta Stone is the most expensive learn Italian software listed here, so take that into account if you decide to purchase Rosetta Stone. I personally think there is better bang for your buck out there, but plenty of people like what Rosetta Stone offers.

#3 Pimsleur Italian

Not strictly software, I nevertheless felt I should include Pimsleur Italian because it is very useful for a select group of people who only want to speak Italian. You see, Pimsleur Italian is audio only, and as such there is no instruction on reading or writing. But what Pimsleur DOES teach you, it does better than any other course: teaching you how to SPEAK Italian. The only thing against Pimsleur is the price which at $800 for all three levels is nothing to sneeze at. If you can afford it and you only want to speak Italian there is no alternative to Pimsleur.

#4 Rocket Italian

Rocket Italian is pretty new as far as its competitors go; it blends parts of Pimsleur and other courses into a more affordable package than any of the above. The audio section of Rocket Italian is similar to Pimsleur, and the software games disguise the innate learning going on very well. I think that Rocket Italian is the best learn Italian software for those of you who are absolute beginners, for its ease of use, good fun and affordability.

Best Italian Language Software - A Guide to the 3 Best Italian Language Software Packages Online

2009-07-02T00:56:00.000-07:00

By Kerry Scheffer

The Italian language may just be the most beautiful language on the planet, everything that is said in Italian just sounds so...good. Anyway, you can make learning Italian a lot easier on yourself if you pick the right course...

1. Tell Me More Italian

The Tell Me More Italian program has several features to it that make it a great course: the voice recognition software probably being the feather in the cap. Tell Me More is a fantastic program for those of you that are not quite beginners in learning Italian, but for absolute beginners it's not the best Italian language software for you.

2. Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone has recently upgraded most of their entire catalog to version 3.0, which includes their Italian program. I like the new version, it adds a little more variation and cultural sensitivity to each language that it is teaching. In any case, if you don't know how Rosetta Stone works, it works on word/picture association and zero translation, so basically it throws you in and makes you figure out things by yourself, like how we learned our first language. So Rosetta Stone's goal is to accuractely simulate how we learned our first language as little kids, and to an extent it succeeds. Unfortunately it costs more than $500US for the whole package, which is just out of reach for most people.

3. Rocket Italian

Rocket Italian is the newest entry in the list, it uses a combination of good old audio and software to teach Italian. I think that Rocket Italian is probably the best Italian language software for beginners, due to it's gentle learning curve, emphasis on fun and affordable price. Beginners should look no further, however if you consider yourself more advanced then there are alternatives.

How to Speak Italian - A Beginner's Guide

2009-06-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

By Tracey A Edwards

Are you ready to learn one of the most beautiful languages around? Bellissimo! Now while this little article won't have you conversing Italian like a local straight away (I do have a word limit!) it will help you start on the right foot so you can begin to learn how to speak Italian in no time. So let's get started.

Let's begin with the basics. A simple greeting so you say hello is a great place to start. Ciao is Italian for hello. OK you probably knew that one already. But do you know how to say goodbye? It's addio. Cool huh. So what do you say next in a normal conversation? How about 'how are you?', in Italian that's 'come va?'. And if someone asks you how you are then you can reply 'sono belle' which means 'I am fine'.

Now let's move on to something a little more advanced. A big part of life in Italy is about eating (actually it's a big part of most American' lives as well), so if you want to ask 'where can I find a good restaurant?' you would say 'dove posso trovare un buon ristorante?' Perhaps someone will reply with 'c'e uno per la strada" telling you that 'there is one down the street'.

Another great thing about Italy is the romance and love that the Italian's are well known for. So let's imagine that you are in a bar and see someone that you like and want to get their phone number. 'Can I have your phone number' translates to 'posso avere il tuo numero di telefono?'. Hopefully they'll hand you a napkin and say 'e 'su questo tovagliolo' which means 'it's on this napkin'.

Of course just knowing those few phrases won't get you too far so if you are really interested in learning how to speak Italian you need to take a proper course where you can learn it thoroughly.

I've reviewed a great course that will teach you Italian easily and it's also inexpensive no matter what you reason for learning is.