Women's Day recipes: a perfect dinner with friends!

Recipes for International Women's Day: here’s how to organize a perfect dinner with the most important women in your life: friends, mothers, grandmothers, or sisters! The menu for this occasion should be rich in delicious and exquisite dishes, so you can spend a fun and truly unforgettable evening, celebrating good food.

For the occasion, we thought of proposing a special menu inspired by yellow: no, it’s not a murder mystery dinner, but rather a nod to the color of the flower of this day, namely the Mimosa and its sunny yellow, which brings joy just by looking at it. Here are our tips for this splendid evening!

Recipes for International Women's Day: let’s start with the table!

Recipes for International Women's Day: setting the table with taste and elegance is definitely a good start. Dinner is enjoyed with the eyes, as well as with the palate, and a well-laid table is certainly a great starting point.

Set the table with your favorite dinnerware, and above all remember to adorn everything with a perfect centerpiece for the occasion: a Mimosa, the perfect flower! Make sure the vase isn’t too tall, so all your guests can see each other without having to move. If necessary, remove the vase before starting dinner.

Recipes for International Women's Day: our perfect menu!

Recipes for International Women's Day: our perfect menu from cocktail to dessert! Here are some recipes and tips to create a menu inspired by yellow.

Start with a starter that is very simple and quick to prepare: you can create tasty canapés with hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, or delicious shrimp. If you don’t have much time to dedicate to the canapés, we recommend our Tagliere I fiori dei pascoli, with Malga Novezza, Goat Gentian, DOP Monte Veronese cheese from slow food presidium, and extra pear and cinnamon jam from Fontana Bio. A delightful platter where the various shades of cheese and jam evoke the yellow of the sun and the flowers of the meadows! Here, you’re guaranteed to impress!

Prepare an ideal cocktail for the ladies' toast: the famous Mimosa cocktail! To prepare it, you will need Spumante Brut Ribolla Gialla, perfect for an aperitif, orange juice, and slices of orange for garnish. Just squeeze the orange to extract the juice to pour into the glasses, add the sparkling wine, and garnish with a crescent-shaped slice applying it to the rim of the glass. Cheers!

For the first course, we thought of a classic: saffron risotto. It is a simple dish to prepare, but to achieve an excellent result, you need high-quality saffron. We recommend the whole saffron threads from the Cleopatra agricultural company, which works with a spice of great quality using a completely hand-made process. With this saffron, your risotto will be as good as that of a starred chef! But to make a great risotto, you also need high-quality rice: we recommend the Carnaroli semi-processed rice, perfect for a consistent, rich, and healthful risotto: in fact, it is a semi-finished product, nutritious, and capable of holding better during cooking. No wonder it's the rice preferred by high-end restaurant chefs!

To prepare the risotto, you will also need onion, butter, beef marrow, white wine, broth, and grana padano cheese. The onion should be chopped and put into a saucepan with butter and previously blanched beef marrow in boiling water. Sauté until the onion is wilted, then add the Carnaroli rice and toast it for a moment. Pour in the white wine and let it absorb. Now add the broth one ladle at a time, and meanwhile, soak the saffron threads in a small bowl of broth. The last ladle of broth to pour over the rice will be the one with the saffron. Remove from heat, mix in some butter and grated cheese. Keep stirring until the butter and cheese have coated the rice, and serve hot. Bon appétit!

We’ll also use saffron for the main course. We thought of a very tasty recipe: saffron chicken! You will need saffron threads, chicken breast, garlic, fresh chili, oil, flour, potato starch, salt, and pepper.

Cut the chicken breast into strips, peel the garlic, and slice it finely. Cut the chili into rounds. Heat the oil in a pan, add the garlic and chili, and let sauté for a couple of minutes. Dredge the chicken in flour, and once the oil is flavored, immerse the strips and let them cook. Dissolve the saffron in a little warm water and add it to the chicken preparation. Season with salt and pepper and continue cooking. With the starch, you can prepare a sauce to thicken the dish: in a bowl, pour a tablespoon of starch and dissolve it with a couple of tablespoons of water. Mix to obtain a smooth cream. Add the mixture to the chicken preparation and stir all together. Serve the dish hot. This is not your usual chicken; the result is guaranteed!

Now let’s think about dessert: the most suitable cake for the occasion is undoubtedly the Mimosa cake! This is a delicious dessert made with sponge cake, which is topped with small pieces of sponge cake that resemble the flowers of the mimosa. The classic filling calls for pastry cream, while a liqueur soak will be needed for the base of the cake.

To make the sponge cake, you will need eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla powder, and the grated zest of a lemon. You should mix the yolks with the sugar, stirring vigorously. Then add the flour with the vanilla and incorporate the whipped egg whites. Finally, add the lemon zest and combine everything. Grease a baking pan and add the mixture. Bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. Once baked, remove from the oven and let cool. While the sponge cake bakes, let’s think about the pastry cream. In a saucepan, mix egg yolks with sugar. Add a little flour, grated lemon zest, and vanilla. Heat up some milk, and when it’s hot, pour it over the mixture while continuing to stir. Put everything on the heat and stir until the cream thickens. Remove from heat and let cool. For the sponge cake, you will need a soak with a touch of liqueur. We recommend using Limoncello made from organic lemons, straight from the Amalfi Coast! It will undoubtedly add an extra touch to your recipe, and you might also want to enjoy a sip separately at the end of dinner! For the soak, just dissolve a little sugar in a saucepan with water and two tablespoons of liqueur. Now it’s time to assemble the cake. The sponge cake should be cut in two, emptying the bottom part and keeping the crumbs aside, which will be used to cover the cake. Moisten the base with the liqueur soak, and fill with the pastry cream. Close with the top half of the sponge cake, cover the entire surface with pastry cream, and decorate with the sponge cake crumbs. Let the cake in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

We recommend a wine to serve at the table: for an evening among women, a good white wine like Lugana DOC Catulliano BIO from the Pratello winery in Padenghe sul Garda is ideal; it pairs well with many dishes. It’s a wine with golden hues, floral and fruity aromas, and a pleasant natural intensity that only organic cultivation can provide.

Recipes for International Women's Day: ending beautifully!

To end on a high note, bubbles, coffee, and a sweet treat! Here are our tips to conclude the evening with lots of joy!

For a truly DOC toast, we recommend Gambellara Spumante "Il Ricordo" Magnum from the Natalina Grandi winery, a great wine to accompany dessert, with an intense and refined aroma.

Let’s finish with a truly special coffee: the Fusari monorigine Brazil ground moka coffee, with an intense and refined aroma; a coffee from the most prestigious plantations in the world, those of Brazil, offering an aroma with chocolate tones that is truly memorable!

Along with the coffee, why not offer a sweet treat? The Baci di Dama with dark chocolate from the Venice pastry shop are ideal! And if you prefer chocolates, nothing better than the Sinfonia N° 9 from the prestigious Domori company, the Turin house awarded for the excellence of its chocolate.

Recipes for International Women's Day: follow our tips for a special evening with the most important women in your life! And above all... bon appétit!

Antonella Iannò

S&M