Cravin' Italian

Today is Craven Italian Day for me and Cheryl

We're cooking up big Italian flavors and big laughs in the kitchen today, y'all

Yum, yum, yum. And we're starting with a dip that's loaded with savory goodness

Doesn't that smell delicious? A cheesy pizza dip. Then it's a delicious shrimp scampi swimming in a bed of garlic butter

Just like right up my Italian alley. And for dessert, we're putting our tantalizing twist on an Italian classic

That's what I was banking on, honey. Tiramisu baby cakes. That is so stinking good

Y'all, the other day I was in one of my favorite bakeries here in town

Back in the Day Bakery. Thank you, Paula. Well, I was in there talking with Cheryl

We were talking about Italian food. And we're getting to go into the kitchen today together and fulfill our craving for Italian food

The first thing we're going to make today, y'all, is a cheesy pizza dip

And this is so good. Honey, if you would get me up a half a cup of mushrooms, onions, and half that bell pepper

Sounds good. And I'll get to working on our meat. Now, I'm going to put a little butter in our pans

Okay, we can't have dip without butter. No, we've got to have a little butter

Not at Paula Deen's house. Because we're going to saute the vegetables in this one back here, Cheryl

And then I'm going to handle the meat here. And for the meat, I've got some Italian sausage

We've taken the casing off, so it's just kind of like ground beef

I've got some wonderful Canadian bacon, Cheryl. Oh, I love that. You like Canadian bacon

I do. And I'm just gonna dice this up. Gonna try to get these gonna

And get this in the pan. So how's everything at the bakery? Things are great at the bakery

I tell you, I get a lot of visitors. Since I've been visiting you on the show

even more so, and people love to come talk. Oh, good. And I'm still loving it

Oh, I'm so, so glad. I'm still loving it. And I've got a chunk of pepperoni, y'all

Yummy. So I adore pepperoni. I love pepperoni. In fact, that's my favorite pizza

I love everything in that pot. I do, too. All right. In with some of our pepperoni

So you've got a small onion, a red bell pepper. And my chopping skills are much better

Thank you, Paula. Since the first time you showed me how to chop

Can I go ahead and put that in there with your butter? Yeah, honey. Okay. Your butter's melting now

And I'm going to just mash up my Italian sausage in here

Yum. Doesn't that smell delicious? That pepperoni? Oh, it looks delicious. I'm excited about this dip

Let me tell you what's really going to bring this to the dip stage, y'all

That and the meat, girl. In the pan, Cheryl. You ready for it? I'm ready, girl

we're putting two eight ounce packages of cream cheese. How bad can that be

This is looking so delicious. It's gonna be good. I'm just gonna go ahead and add our veggies

So that's a quick, easy thing. Quick and easy. So I have added our mushrooms

onions, and our bell pepper to this. Yum. And I'm just gonna let that cream cheese melt

I've got Italian seasoning, and I'm gonna put one teaspoon to our cream cheese dish

Let me get that little stir for you. Yeah, please stir that up. And we got some crispy bacon

This is really a meaty, meaty dish, isn't it? Yum. So I'm just going to coarse chop

It's going to be so, so good. So good. I can't wait

So in goes the bacon. If you'd stir that up. Okay. So I've got our pan sprayed

Now we're going to put this in the oven at 350 degrees, y'all

And we're going to bake it for 30 minutes. Okay. And while we're doing that, we're going to get our pizza crust in the oven

That looks so good. You know, Michael and I are really meat lovers, Cheryl

We are too, Griffin-on. So we're going in the oven. Yes, honey

And this oven, 350 for 30 minutes, y'all. Okay, doll baby. Let's move down here

Okay. Now, since you work with dough so much, this is not a homemade dough, y'all

This is just like a frozen pizza dough that you get at the grocery store

Right. And just thaw it out, and we're going to roll it out just a little bit, but not too, too much

Okay, that should be good. Because this is going to be our dipping sticks, y'all. And then I'm just blessing it with a little bit of flour there

I've got some Romano cheese, and I'm going to grate this up, and we're going to sprinkle this on our bread

So we going to just cut these little strips Cut cut cut You could actually do them in long strips and twist them but I like the idea of just kind of squares so I can really get a lot of dip on my piece of bread

Easy access. Yes. Let's go ahead and brush it with the olive oil

Okay. You want to, and I'll just do that, and then you can get the brush

And brush that in, and then we'll sprinkle it with our Romano cheese

Oh, that's going to be so good. And then we're going to hold it. It's going to be delicious

Yeah. Basically, we're turning this store-bought crust into homemade. Yes. Simple, easy, and delicious

Got our cookie sheet lined with parchment, y'all. Okay. I think that looks good

All right, so those are ready. Are we ready to pop those in? Let's put them in

We're going to put them in this. Put those over here? Yeah. Let's put this in the other oven. 400 degrees, 10 to 12 minutes

Delicious. Coming up next, our pizza dip is ready to go. Then, a dish that's light on preparation

but big on flavor. Shrimp scampi. Honey, we've got enough shrimp for an army

I know. And for dessert, it's rich in creamy tiramisu baby cakes, y'all

So good. Drop dead delicious, y'all. We're ready to taste. That looks delicious

Doesn't it look delicious? You've got our pizza out of the oven. Out of the oven

Oh, my goodness. It is kind of funky shapes, but, you know, that makes it look really, really homemade, doesn't it

I think so. Mmm. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Mmm. This is delicious

It's so good. So are you ready for... You could almost make a meal off of that

I know. It's meaty enough, isn't it? Mm-hmm. Are you ready for some shrimp scampi

Absolutely. And this is a shrimp scampi with artichokes, y'all. So while you're draining our noodles, Cheryl

I'm going to get started on our shrimp scampi. Okay. And I'm going to use about a half a stick of butter

and some olive oil. Cheryl has just drained our angel hair spaghetti

Shrimp scampi is one of those wonderful dishes that doesn't take long at all

to fix. Steep that. Yes, I'm gonna come over here and just knock

three cloves of garlic and then I'm gonna ask you to chop

me up about a third of a cup of basil. Okay. And then we'll

squirt the lemon juice on it the last second. Sounds good. But I'm just going to need this to go in the pot pretty quickly

While you're doing that, Cheryl, I'm going to finish taking the tails off my shrimp

I'd gotten started and didn't finish it. Okay. So I've got probably a couple of pounds of a medium-sized shrimp

And, you know, I've told you all before, Michael and I argue about tails on or tails off

So who wins? I do. Of course. The cook gets to win

Absolutely. But for this particular dish, I am going to take the tails off. Okay

If you'd measure me out about a third of a cup, we're going to use a nice, light white wine

We're going to add that to our garlic and our butter and our olive oil

And in goes our garlic. Okay. It's quick, isn't it? Yes. I love it

I'm going to add our wine. Mm-hmm. Okay. And just let that reduce for a second

You can go ahead and toss in our basil. Okay. I've got some flaked red pepper

Okay. I'm going to just put a pinch. I've got some wonderful Parmesan cheese. Okay

If you would be grating that for me. I'm going to toss in our shrimp

Ooh. Fresh. How much do you think we need, Paula? About a half a cup

That should do it. Okay. All right. I'm going to add a little salt and pepper. Yum

Mm-hmm. Great. Look at this, Cheryl. Oh, that looks good. Let's get a little bit more basil in there

You want to? Oh, sure. Yeah, just a little bit more. So, Paula, what's the secret to not overcooking your shrimp

Just when it's lost its transparency, Cheryl, is when it's done. Okay

You can see how that's still transparent. Right, okay. You want that to go away

So it just gets that pretty little pink color. Yes. You know what

And I knew that I would do this, y'all. Put a little butter

All right, now we have the whole stick of butter in there. Now I'm adding a jar of marinated artichoke hearts that I've drained

So good. Honey, we've got enough shrimp for an army. I know. These have just about lost its transparency

All right, now why don't you... Get a little pasta for us. Yeah get us a little pasta Okay Oh you got tongs Good I have tongs

That looks perfect. Yes. I want to make sure you get some of that garlic

Oh, thanks. Wait, I want to make sure you get some of this wonderful juice, too

Good. Wonderful sauce on it. We're going to put a little bit of cheese

So now I have another meal. Ooh, that was a lot of cheese. To add to my repertoire for Griff

I mean, how easy is this? People love that. That was really easy

Uh-oh, I'm getting too, too many shrimp. Oops. Lost one. We lost a fella

Okay, let me get you some. And we've got all this wonderful basil from out of the garden

so I'll just put that right there. Okay, honey, come on down here

I got our napkins and I got our silverware ready. To you, baby

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Isn't that so good? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thank you for teaching me how to make this

adding this to my repertoire. You are so welcome. Now, Paula, you've taught me two lunch dishes

Yes. Now, you know I'm good for dessert. Next stop is... That's what I was banking on, honey

Tiramisu baby cakes. How does that sound? It sounds just like right up my Italian alley

Coming up next, we're getting started on our light and airy layer cake

and then a heavenly filling for our mouth-watering tiramisu baby cakes. Mmm, that looks good

So, Paula, you've taken good care of me now. You know I'm passionate about baking

So we're going to do a tiramisu baby cake. Put me to work, girl. Okay

Put me to work. I thought, you know, we needed to put a southern spin on that

So our southern spin is going to be a southern chiffon cake

And then we're going to turn that into a tiramisu baby cake. Okay

You know, a tiramisu is one of those things that it's an easy dish to put your own spin on

It is. So let's get started with the dry. A cup of all-purpose flour

Okay. Plus two tablespoons. Okay. Right into the sifter. Okay. And then we're going to add teaspoon of baking powder to that

And then we need a half a teaspoon of salt. Okay. So now I'm just going to add my sugar

And so we need a cup of sugar. All right, Ms. Paula, if you would get started with five eggs

Okay. Just add the egg whites right into the bowl. Mm-hmm. And then what we do is we get them to a nice foamy texture

Mm-hmm. And then once you get them foamy, we're going to add just a quarter teaspoon of the cream of tartar

and that's going to stabilize it for us. Yes. So you get those nice, you know, stiff peaks

Basically going to make a meringue. Exactly. Making a meringue. So while you're doing that, we've got all our dry

And so I'm just going to sift that up. In this bowl, what we're going to do is we're going to have three egg yolks directly into there

And then we've got some water. It's a third of a cup of water. And then we're going to add just a teaspoon of almond extract

And then we need a fourth a cup of oil. You're calling this a chiffon cake

I am. Oh, now that's not like an angel food, is it

Well, no, you know, they're related, but it's a little bit different because it's got egg yolks in it

Uh-huh. So all I'm going to do is whisk those together, and then you're going to get those frothy

Okey-doke. So into that, all we do is we're going to add all of our dry ingredients right into the bowl

We'll mix these up until we get it nice and smooth. I mean, is this easy or what

It's easy. And see how nice and pretty that is? Beautiful. All right, now these are starting to get nice and frothy and starting to get stiff

How much sugar do you want to add? Let's do three tablespoons just to kind of sweeten it up a little bit

Let me get that for you. Just going to add that in. Look at there

See that sugar? It's stiffening it right up. Okay, so that's two

And then that's three. Paula, I wish I could have you as an assistant in my kitchen

All right, this looks ready to me. Okay, that's ready. That's perfect

It looks like a beautiful, perfect lorraine, y'all. Okay, so here's the fun part

This is just a simple folding technique. And what I do is I'll put in like about a third at a time

And then just kind of fold it in. It does look gorgeous

And then we going to add Actually Paula if you want to continue to fold that for me if you don mind I will do it Then we just gonna add about a teaspoon of delicious

lemon zest. Yes. This is gonna be a really light dessert to go with that meal that you made

Mmm. That looks good. And then I'll turn that back over to you

Okay. And it's just very light. Look, it is so light. Look at that. Light as a

feather. Mmm. And then all we're gonna do, Paula, is we're going to put these right into

this half sheet pan. Okay, so we're not going to bake it in, um... Not like

a layer cake. In layers, okay. And then, what we'll do is we'll cut them out

and then we'll build our cute little cake. So, all you have to do is

pour that right in. Uh-huh. Isn't that delicious? Yum, yes. I just like to spread

it out evenly. Mm-hmm. And it's going to be nice and kind of flat

where we can scoop it out and make our little layer cakes

So cute. You can taste it. I'm just going to tap that down a little bit and get the air out

So what do you say we pop this in the oven? I'm ready. Okay. I'm ready, Cheryl

Going to just pop this in at 325 for about 20 minutes

Okey-doke. Coming up next, we're mixing up a sinfully sweet filling. Fabulous

And layering up the flavors. I am so, so ready. Welcome back, y'all

It's tiramisu time. I could eat this pan. Oh, my goodness. That is beautiful and light

All right, let's get started on the filling for these baby cakes. And we're starting with one pound of cream cheese, y'all

And we're just going to, like, kind of make a filling. So we're going to just add cream to that

Three and a fourth cup. So that's quite a bit. And this is heavy cream, right

This is heavy cream. I like to make things easy when I'm baking

I mean, why not just go ahead and put your vanilla right into the... I'm going to turn this down so I won't sling that all over that beautiful little pink dress

I'm just going to slowly add our heavy whipping cream. This is just gonna be drop dead delicious, y'all

All right, so one and a half cups of sugar. Of powdered sugar

Yes. Because I like it sweet. You can use 4X or 10X

Right. And then we're gonna just continue to add the heavy cream into that

How's it tasting? Simple. We're almost there. Yep, almost. It's just like out of this world

All right, so now all we're going to do is the decorating. Now we're just going to start cutting out the cakes from our dough

One for you. All we have to do now is we're going to brush on the coffee syrup

Cheryl's got a coffee-flavored simple syrup to just brush on top of our cake layers

Actually, I can get you to do that. Okay. And then I will continue to cut these little cakes out for us

Okay, perfect. Then we're just going to put our filling on. Oh

Or we'll just do it like this. And then we'll do the filling

So how many layers do you want to make? We're going to do three. So we'll put this third one on

A big dollop on that. What do you think? And then, Paula, the fun part is decorating

Let me work on this. So all I would do is, this is just cocoa

And then... That looks beautiful, Cheryl. Does that look cute? Chocolate sprinkles

I like that. And I think little pink sugars. And then we'll put some of these

And that's really it. Move it now. There you go, Paula. Ooh, that's going to be good

What do you think? Fresh little orchid? I think I love it

Look at that. And then we'll do yours. Oh, I love the orchid on it

You know what I love? Gorgeous. It's not perfect, but it's perfect

You know what I mean? That's exactly right. Perfect imperfection. I like that, Cheryl

It's not perfect, but it's perfect. Oh, my goodness. Okay, here's my favorite part

I know. All right, are you ready? I am so, so ready

Mm, mm, mm. Well, thanks for having me. Oh, honey, thank you for coming

And until we see you here in Savannah, I know Cheryl and I wish you best dishes and love

Best dishes. From our kitchens to y'all. That is so stinking good