This single-celled fungus is added to pizza dough (and most bread) recipes, and it causes the dough to rise and expand over the course of several hours.
What is yeast?
100
The name of this Italian cookie means "twice baked".
What is biscotti?
100
The process of cooking food relatively quickly in a pan over medium-high heat with a small amount of oil, so that the food begins to brown.
What is Sauteing?
100
This type of pasta involves rolling dough into logs and cutting them into little rectangles or "pillows".
What is Gnocchi?
200
This style of pizza is given its name because it originated in the Italian city of Naples. It features a very thin crust and is traditionally baked in an extremely hot wood-fired brick oven.
What is Neapolitan Pizza?
200
This is the process of mixing together softened butter with sugar until the two are well-combined and have the appearance of yellow frosting.
What is creaming?
200
A variation on sauteing, this process involves cooking food in a pan over LOW heat so that the food softens but does NOT brown.
What is Sweating?
200
This category of Italian food consists of small plates of food that diners share as the first course to a meal.
What is Antipasti?
300
This process of manipulating, folding and pushing dough with your hands or in a mixer causes the dough to become stretchy and elastic, and ensures that the final product will be chewy.
What is kneading?
300
This contraption is used to gently heat an ingredient in a bowl resting on top of a sauce pan with a small amount of simmering water it.
What is a double boiler?
300
The process of partially cooking food by plunging it into boiling water briefly.
What is Blanching?
300
This ingredient, often mixed into meatballs makes the final product lighter. Italian cooks originally began adding it to recipes to ensure that a small amount of meat could feed their whole family.
What are bread crumbs?
400
In the process of kneading dough, we are forcing the proteins in the flour to develop these long chains and networks.
What is gluten?
400
This frozen Italian dessert is similar to ice cream but differs slightly in its ingredients, churning process and storage temperature.
What is Gelato?
400
Often the 2nd step in the blanching process, this process involves straining food out of boiling water and plunging it into ice water.
What is Shocking?
500
The process during which yeast consumes sugars or simple carbohydrates that are present in a dough, and produces carbon dioxide and alcohol.
What is fermentation?
500
Most ice cream custards include eggs. In order to avoid scrambling them when incorporating them in the hot custards, recipes call for this step of slowly warming them with a small amount of the hot custard.
What is Tempering?
500
This type of short grain rice is used to make risotto.