This Tuscan beef stew has a long history. The story goes that it was invented by the furnace workers (fornaciai) who baked the terracotta tiles for the Brunelleschi’s famous Duomo in Florence. They mixed roughly cut up beef shank, salt, lots of black pepper and red wine—Chianti, of course—in terracotta … Read More
Minestra di riso e cicoria (Chicory and Rice Soup)
Chicory (cicoria in Italian) is one of my very favorite greens. It brings back memories of Angelina for whom cicoria and escarole were almost daily staples. Maybe that’s why she lived well into her 90s… A great weeknight dinner option, the recipe for chicory and rice soup is very fast, … Read More
Linguine al vino rosso (Linguini with Red Wine Sauce)
As regular readers will know, I’m the traditionalist when it comes to Italian food. By and large, I stick with the tried and true. But every so often, an innovative dish comes around that attracts me, usually because, even if it’s not traditional, the dish feels so ‘right’ that it … Read More
Beef Carpaccio: The Original Recipe
Beef carpaccio—known to Italians simply as carpaccio—is one of the most famous of Italian antipasti. But the version most people are familiar with—thin beef slices macerated in olive oil and lemon, adorned with arugula and shavings of Parmesan cheese— is actually rather closer to another dish, carne cruda all’Albese, a Piedmontese dish. … Read More
Risotto all’indivia belga (Belgian Endive Risotto)
Risotto is one of my ‘go to’ dishes when I don’t feel like cooking anything elaborate. That may sound odd: risotto has a reputation for being a lot of work and easy to get wrong. And yes, when done badly, risotto can be a rather goopy mess. But it is … Read More
Cipolle al forno (Baked Onions)
Where would we be without onions, I ask you? The onion and other members of the allium family provide the flavor base for practically every savory dish in the Italian repertoire. Countless dishes begin with the preparation of a soffritto which, almost always, includes onion. In fact, although it might … Read More
Minestra maritata (The Original Italian “Wedding Soup”)
“Wedding soup” is a popular Italian-American dish made with escarole and tiny meatballs simmered in chicken broth and adorned with small pasta, typically of the tiny acini di pepe (or “peppercorn”) type. It is so popular, in fact, that it has been marketed as a canned soup by Progresso under the … Read More
Pollo arrosto ripeno (Angelina’s Roasted Chicken with Sausage Stuffing)
Apart from lasagna, nothing says Sunday dinner to me like a roasted chicken, sitting on the dining room table golden brown, with crispy skin, tender, juicy meat and—for special occasions—a savory stuffing. It’s a dish that was almost a universal feature of family dinners back in the day but, sadly, … Read More
