If you’re looking for a quick and easy pasta dish, pasta con asparagi e gamberi, or Pasta with Asparagus and Shrimp, will certainly fill the bill. The asparagus and shrimp cook in the time it takes for the water to come to the boil and the pasta to cook. Dinner … Read More
Lampi e tuoni (Neapolitan Style Pasta and Chickpeas)
Pasta and chickpeas is one of those combinations that was just meant to be. You can find scores of renditions up and down the Italian boot, though mostly in the southern regions. Today we’re taking a look at Naples’ take on the dish which goes by the name lampi e … Read More
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
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
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
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
Spätzle di zucca (Winter Squash Spätzle)
Spätzle may be from southern Germany, but they also make these tiny dumplings in nearby Alsace, Switzerland and Austria. And in some parts of Italy, too, specifically the northeastern region known as Südtirol in German and Trentino-Alto Adige in Italian. The region was part of Austria until the First World … Read More
Risotto agli asparagi (Asparagus Risotto)
These days you can find asparagus in the market all year round but, for me, they signify Spring. I enjoy preparing this most noble and toothsome of Spring vegetables all sorts of ways: simply dressed with oil and lemon as an antipasto or side dish, puréed for dressing pasta or … Read More
