Browse
Italian Recipes
RecipeAgnolotti del Plin Burro e SalviaThe Langhe’s tiny pinched pasta, filled with roast meat and spinach, finished simply in butter and sage so the filling does the talking.
RecipeArrosticiniAbruzzo’s shepherd skewers: small cubes of mutton threaded tight, grilled fast over coals, salted, and eaten by the dozen straight off the stick.
RecipeCanederli in BrodoThe Dolomites’ bread dumplings, studded with speck and chives, poached and served in clear broth. Thrift turned into Sunday lunch.
RecipeCaponataSicily’s sweet-and-sour eggplant relish: fried eggplant folded into a celery, olive, and caper agrodolce that needs a night’s rest to become itself.
RecipeCavatelli al Ragù di MaialeMolise’s two-finger pasta in a pork rib ragù that simmers until the meat surrenders. The region Italy forgets makes the Sunday sauce it shouldn’t.
RecipeCiambotta LucanaBasilicata’s summer vegetable stew: peppers, eggplant, potatoes, and tomatoes cooked separately, then married. The garden in one pot, without the mush.
RecipeCjarsonsCarnia’s sweet-savory mountain ravioli: a potato dough filled with ricotta, herbs, raisins, and cocoa, sauced with brown butter and smoked ricotta.
RecipeFiadoneMolise’s Easter cheese pies: golden half-moons of wine-kneaded pastry around a rich filling of local cheese and eggs, good warm or from the basket.
RecipeFileja alla ’NdujaCalabria’s rod-rolled pasta in a sauce of melting ’nduja: Spilinga’s fiery spreadable salume dissolved into tomatoes until the heat glows instead of burns.
RecipeFocaccia GenoveseThe fügassa of Genoa: a finger-dimpled sheet bread baked with an olive oil and salt-water brine until the surface shines and the crumb stays plush.
RecipeFonduta ValdostanaThe Aosta Valley’s molten Fontina cream, thickened with yolks rather than starch, served hot with bread or spooned over polenta.
RecipeFrico con PatateFriuli’s golden cheese and potato cake: Montasio melted over softened potatoes and onion until the underside turns to a lacy crisp.
RecipeLenticchie di Castelluccio in UmidoThe tiny lentils of the Castelluccio plain stewed with soffritto and sausage: Umbrian mountain food, and Italy’s New Year’s good-luck supper.
RecipeMalloreddus alla CampidaneseSardinia’s saffron gnocchetti in a sausage and tomato ragù, finished with pecorino sardo: the Campidano plain’s feast-day standard.
RecipeOlive all’AscolanaAscoli Piceno’s celebration food: big tender olives stuffed with a three-meat filling, breaded, and fried to a whisper-crisp shell.
RecipeOrecchiette alle Cime di RapaBari’s street-made pasta with bitter turnip tops, anchovy, garlic, and chile: the dish that tastes like Puglia arguing with itself, deliciously.
RecipeOssobuco alla MilaneseCross-cut veal shanks braised in white wine until the marrow loosens, finished with gremolada. Milan serves it over saffron risotto; so should you.
RecipeParmigiana di MelanzaneThe Neapolitan way with eggplant: fried slices layered with tomato, basil, and two cheeses, baked until it slices like a promise kept.
RecipePasta alla NormaCatania’s tribute to Bellini: fried eggplant, tomato, basil, and a blizzard of ricotta salata over pasta. An opera in four ingredients.
RecipePesce Spada alla BagnareseBagnara’s way with swordfish: steaks poached gently in olive oil, lemon, capers, and parsley, the salmoriglio doing quietly what sauces do loudly.
RecipePici all’AglioneHand-rolled eggless noodles from the Val di Chiana in a tomato sauce built on aglione, the giant mellow garlic that perfumes without biting.
RecipePolenta ConciaAosta’s dressed polenta: cornmeal cooked slow, then beaten with Fontina and brown butter until it pulls in golden ribbons. Mountain fuel, perfected.
RecipeRibollitaTuscany’s twice-cooked bread and vegetable soup, thick enough to eat with a fork: cavolo nero, cannellini beans, and stale bread reboiled into something far greater than its parts.
RecipeRisi e BisiVenice’s spring rite of rice and young peas, looser than a risotto, thicker than a soup, sweetened with a broth made from the pods themselves.
RecipeRisotto alla MilaneseMilan’s golden risotto: Carnaroli rice, real saffron threads, good broth, and the double richness of bone marrow and butter. The city on a plate.
RecipeSaltimbocca alla RomanaRome’s ten-minute main course: veal scaloppine pinned with prosciutto and sage, flashed in butter and white wine until they jump in the mouth.
RecipeSarde in SaorVenice’s sweet-and-sour sardines: fried, then layered under slow-cooked onions with raisins and pine nuts, and left to mellow for a day or two.
RecipeSeadasSardinia’s shepherd dessert: a crisp fried pastry round holding warm, lemon-scented young pecorino, finished under a ribbon of bitter corbezzolo honey.
RecipeSpaghetti alla CarbonaraRome’s four-ingredient monument: guanciale, eggs, Pecorino Romano, and black pepper, emulsified into silk. No cream has ever been needed.
RecipeSpaghetti alla Chitarra con PolpettineAbruzzo’s square-cut egg spaghetti, strung through the chitarra, with tomato sauce and the region’s tiny hand-rolled polpettine.
RecipeSpaghetti alle VongoleNaples’ white-sauce masterclass: spaghetti finished in the liquor of true clams with garlic, oil, parsley, and the discipline to add nothing else.
RecipeStrangozzi al Tartufo NeroSpoleto’s eggless ribbons under a warm anchovy-less Norcia classic: black truffle pounded with oil and garlic, never cooked, only persuaded.
RecipeStrascinati con Peperoni CruschiBasilicata’s dragged pasta with its crowning glory: Senise peppers flash-fried to a crimson crackle, crumbled over garlic oil and breadcrumbs.
RecipeStrudel di MeleSouth Tyrol’s apple strudel in the hand-pulled tradition: tissue-thin dough around Val di Non apples, pine nuts, raisins, and cinnamon.
RecipeTagliatelle al Ragù BologneseBologna’s slow meat ragù on hand-cut egg tagliatelle: milk, a little tomato, three hours of patience, and never, under any sky, spaghetti.
RecipeTiella BareseBari’s layered bake of rice, potatoes, and mussels: raw layers, mussel water, and an oven doing the work Spain once did for paella’s cousin.
RecipeTortellini in BrodoBologna and Modena’s shared treasure: thumbnail tortellini around a mortadella and prosciutto filling, served only in a clear capon broth.
RecipeTrofie al Pesto GenoveseLiguria’s twisted pasta with true Genoese pesto, finished the canonical way: boiled together with potatoes and green beans, sauced off the heat.
RecipeVincisgrassiThe Marche’s grand baked pasta: silkier than lasagne, layered with a chicken-liver-enriched ragù, besciamella, and patience across two days.
RecipeVitello TonnatoPiedmont’s cool-weather classic: rosy poached veal sliced thin and dressed in a silken tuna and caper sauce. Make it a day ahead; it only improves.