When you’re in a real hurry or just too tired to cook anything too elaborate, here’s a great solution: cacio e pepe, literally ‘cheese and pepper’, a pasta dish usually made with spaghetti, bucatini or—my personal favorite—tonnarelli, a kind of square spaghetti better known Stateside by its Abruzzese name, spaghetti … Read More
Peas and Eggs (Piselli cacio e uova)
Columbus Day is right around the corner, and as regular readers know, that’s the occasion each year for us to feature a classic Italian-American dish. This year we’re sharing an old family recipe, one that I’m sure will be familiar to many readers “of a certain age”: Peas and Eggs. … Read More
Spaghetti alla colatura di alici
If you’ve ever had occasion to read the 4th century Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria, popularly known as Apicius, you will have noticed that an ingredient called garum seems to make it into just about every savory dish, and even some sweet ones. Garum—a condiment made from fermenting fish—was a common ingredient back … Read More
Cannelloni ricotta e spinaci (Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni)
Incredible as it may seem, after nearly six years of blogging on Italian cooking—my blogiversary is coming up later this month—I realize I’ve never written a post about cannelloni. That’s an incredible omission, since cannelloni are probably the easiest stuffed pasta you can make. You simply roll square sheets of fresh … Read More
Pasta e patate (Pasta and Potatoes)
To many people the idea of pairing pasta and potatoes comes as a shock. Carbs with carbs? And in these carb-phobic times, it’s not only unheard of, it sounds down right unhealthy. Well, healthy or not, this iconic Neapolitan dish in true cucina povera tradition was born out of the … Read More
Riso e lenticchie (Rice and Lentils)
I love lentils. My favorite pasta when I was growing up was the pasta e lenticchie (Pasta and Lentils) Angelina made. Rice goes as well with lentils as pasta does, and it’s even easier to make. A one-pot dish that makes a perfect first course before a wintery stew or roast, Rice and … Read More
Zuppa pavese (Pavia Style Soup)
A humble soup in the cucina povera tradition, zuppa pavese from the Lombardy city of Pavia has a regal history behind it. Legend has it that French king Francis I, fleeing from defeat in a nearby battle, found himself in a peasant farmhouse where the lady of the house improvised a meal for her … Read More
Gnocchi alla romana (Roman Semolina Gnocchi)
Here’s a linguistic quandary: The Italian word gnocchi is usually translated as ‘dumplings’, and the dictionary defines the word ‘dumpling’ as “a small mass of leavened dough cooked by boiling or steaming” or “a piece of dough, sometimes filled, that is cooked in liquid such as water or soup”. Well, … Read More
