A homemade Italian Christmas cake filled with dried fruit. The story is that the raisins should bring you and your guest good fortune, the oranges happiness in love, and your own choice of dried fruits good health. It is often served together with warm wine or a sweet drink, accompanied of a lemon mascarpone cheese on the side.

This is a typical Italian recipe with veal that is either topped or rolled in prosciutto ham and sage leaves. To get the meat moist you need to cook it in butter and white wine very slowly on low heat. For an increased Italian touch serve it with tagliatelle, arugula and small sweet tomatoes on the side.

This homemade recipe for pesto is based on olives, arugula and basil. The pesto has a flavorful and stronger taste if you use fresh basil and arugula. You can eat the pesto as it is together with bread as a starter, on the pasta, or use it on a pizza instead of the tomato sauce.