Pasta con le sarde

Frankpasta, primi piatti, Sicilia42 Comments

Pasta con le sarde

One of Sicily’s signature dishes, pasta con le sarde, or Pasta with Sardines, is also one of my personal favorites. I was lucky enough to enjoy it on its home turf a few years back, during a trip for a family wedding. Unfortunately, replicating this classic back here at home … Read More

Pasta con nduja

FrankCalabria, pasta, primi piatti42 Comments

Pasta con nduja

It’s funny how some recipes or ingredients that have been around forever suddenly become trendy and therefore “new”. So it’s been lately with nduja, that deliciously spicy spreadable pork sausage from Calabria. Dating from the 1200s, a few years back it suddenly started popping up everywhere on the internet and … Read More

Soffritto napoletano

FrankCampania, pasta, secondi piatti40 Comments

Soffritto napoletano

We don’t often think about it, but meats also have seasons. Just as lamb is a talisman of the spring, autumn and early winter is pork season. In the days before freezers, it was the time of year when pigs were traditionally slaughtered. The colder weather acted as a natural … Read More

Wedding Soup

FrankItalian-American, primi piatti, Soups34 Comments

Wedding Soup

As regular readers know, every October, which is Italian-American Heritage Month here in the US, we feature an Italian-American dish. This year’s entry is the famously misnamed Wedding Soup. A mistranslation of minestra maritata, a classic Neapolitan soup whose name means “married soup”, the marriage in question doesn’t involve a … Read More

Pici all’aglione

Frankpasta, primi piatti, Toscana48 Comments

Pici all'aglione

As I’ve pointed out many times over the years, one of the hallmarks of “fake” Italian cookery is its in-your-face use of garlic. Now of course garlic is a common ingredient in Italian cooking. But Italians generally use it with great discretion. A common technique, featured in this blog for … Read More