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Hazelnut ragù (ragù di nocciole) – Italian home cooking
An unusual recipe where toasted hazelnuts replace minced meat. I discovered this idea online, but there is not much information about it - I suspect this is a relatively modern recipe.The chopped hazelnuts lose their crunchiness, and, with the support of tomatoes, dried ceps, spices and red wine, become a deeply flavoured sauce, as satisfying…
Torta di patate e porri, della Lunigiana ma con influenze sudiste (potato and leek pie, from Lunigiana but also with southern Italian influences) – Italian home cooking
Lunigiana is the austere mountainous area where three regions meet: Toscana, Liguria and Emilia Romagna. From the administrative point of view, it is now part of Tuscany, but historically and culturally it has always been a terra di confine, a border land, where the identities of those three regions, and of its people and food…
Polpette di pane – bread polpette or breadballs, if you insist – Italian home cooking
Lucca, June 2022 . London, August 2022. This has been the best, most rewarding recipe of this summer. Just love it I am a bread collector. All those stale loaf-ends (apparently called “the heels”) that cannot be eaten but cannot be turned into breadcrumbs either, I put aside - “I will make a bread pudding…
Torta monferrina di mele e zucca (apple and pumpkin cake from Monferrato, Piemonte) – Italian home cooking
Well, that title IS misleading in its conciseness. It should read "apple, pumpkin, amaretti, chocolate, figs and sultana cake with brandy and rum" - no less!. This opulent pudding is one of the most delicious and the most unusual dishes I have tasted in a long time. It comes from Piemonte (again!, as you might have…
Scarpaccia viareggina (sweet and custardy courgette cake from Viareggio, in Tuscany) – Italian home cooking
It took a leap of faith and my avid curiosity to try this cake: could a basic sweet batter and some grated courgettes make a good cake? No nuts, no sultanas, no spices...really? A resolute "yes!" is the answer. This is a most unusual and excellent cake come dessert: delicate, plain and light, but not…
Pasta china – baked pasta with mini meatballs and lots of other lovely things, from Calabria – Italian home cooking
“Pasta china” is the name of a sumptuous, festive, baked pasta dish from Calabria, the heel of Italy, in the deep south. In the local dialect, “china” stands for the Italian adjective “piena”, full, and that’s exactly what this dish is about: a riotous affair of short tubular pasta dressed with a spicy tomato sauce,…
Notes on panzanella – Italian home cooking
Panzanella On a hot, summer day in Lucca, few places are more agreeable to have lunch at than under the stone arches of the old trattoria Da Giulio, well protected from the gaze of the sun. The menu never changes (dreary to be a chef there, one would have thought) and the food is solid…
Parmigiana di finocchi e patate – Fennel and potato parmigiana – Italian home cooking
Mid April and spring has not made its mind up yet. Days can be stunning, with blue skies dotted with clouds but it is still cold. Yesterday evening we made a fire.In shops and at the market one can find spring vegetables (peas, broad beans, artichokes)and winter bitter greens, leeks and fennels. April really is…
Butternut squash tripe-style, i.e. in a tomato, pecorino and mint sauce, from Sardinia – Zucca alla sarda, con pecorino e menta, alla moda della trippa – Crocoriga usu trippa – Italian home cooking
Don't be fooled by the title – this recipe is actually meatless. I do not know much about Sardinian food and cookery, but whenever I browse through books on the subject, I am surprised by how often (and how creatively) mint comes up in recipes – a herb not generally associated with Italian cooking. This…
Parmigiana di zucca (Butternut squash parmigiana) – Italian home cooking
Aubergine parmigiana is one of the most famous Italian dishes: layers of fried aubergines, tomato sauce, mozzarella and parmigiano reggiano (in its most basic version). It is not, however, the only parmigiana in town: one can make artichoke, courgette, potato, fennel, celeriac, mushroom parmigiana and even a butternut squash one, which I am sharing with…
Caponata di zucca (Sicilian sour-sweet butternut squash caponata) – Italian home cooking
Sicilian caponata di melanzane is very famous, however it is not the only one. In fact, on a trip to Sicily and after reading the seminal "Profumi di Sicilia" by Giuseppe Coria, I learnt that "caponata" is only a generic term used to describe a dish made of assorted cooked vegetables finished off with a…
Polpette di pane – bread polpette or breadballs, if you insist – Italian home cooking
Lucca, June 2022 . London, August 2022. This has been the best, most rewarding recipe of this summer. Just love it I am a bread collector. All those stale loaf-ends (apparently called “the heels”) that cannot be eaten but cannot be turned into breadcrumbs either, I put aside - “I will make a bread pudding…
Pomodorini scattarisciati – crackling cherry tomatoes (Puglia) – Italian home cooking
Update: summer 2022, Lucca: with top Italian pomodorini this dish is even more spectacular. I noticed they improve after a good rest, i.e. the day after they were even better. Original version: It is now summer, or at least this is what the calendar says; it has been raining for days here in London and…
Ragù alla bolognese in pentola a pressione (pressure cooker Ragù Bolognese, even better than the conventional one) – Italian home cooking
UPDATE September 2022: please check the end of this post In her last book, even the arch-traditionalist Marcella Hazan said that making egg pasta dough in the food processor is fine. She was finally acknowledging what home cooks and restaurant chefs had probably been doing for a long time, but it was also testament to…
Asparagi in fricassea (Asparagus in an egg and lemon sauce, fricassea-style) – Italian home cooking
In Italian cookery terms, when you cook something “in fricassea”, it means that you add egg yolks that you have already mixed with lemon juice to a hot, cooked dish, at the very end, generally off the heat. The yolks thicken and become a velvety, lemony sauce that enrobe the other ingredients. The trick, obviously,…
Scarpaccia viareggina (sweet and custardy courgette cake from Viareggio, in Tuscany) – Italian home cooking
Update May 2022: it is that time of the year again - courgette bonanza. Time to make scarpaccia, both as a dessert and as a savoury tart. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ It took a leap of faith and my avid curiosity to try this cake: could a basic sweet batter and some grated courgettes make a good cake?…