Here’s another quick and easy vegetable side dish or light supper: Neapolitan style cauliflower, known in Naples itself as cavolfiore con passi e pinoli. It may come as a shock, but this dish contains no tomato, giving lie to the notion that all Neapolitan dishes rely on that ubiquitous vegetable. Ingredients … Read More
Cipolline in agrodolce (Sweet and Sour Baby Onions)
If there were an ‘all purpose’ side dish, this might be it. Cipolline in agrodolce, in English ‘sweet and sour baby onions’, go with just about any meat dish, although it is particularly lovely with roasts. And, the best part is, it is quite simple to make and is even … Read More
Fagiolini in fricassea (Green Beans with Egg and Lemon Sauce)
So far on this blog we have seen many of the most common techniques in Italian cuisine for cooking vegetables, including in padella (lightly boiled and then sautéed in garlic and olive oil), fritti (deep-fried in a flour and egg batter), gratinati (baked in the oven with a topping of … Read More
Baccalà alla vicentina (Codfish Vicenza-Style)
Baccalà , or dried salt cod, is a favorite meal around our house, even if it only appears occasionally on the dinner table. One of the most delicious ways to make baccalà has got to be baccalà alla vicentina, or in the style of the northern Italian city of Vicenza, slowly … Read More
How to Make Homemade Polenta
Homemade polenta is one of the most emblematic dishes of the northern Italian cuisines from the Veneto to Lombardia to Piemonte. It is also one of the oldest foods eaten in Italy, dating back at least to 990 BCE. In its original form, polenta—known to the ancient Romans as pulmentum—was … Read More
Anguilla alla bisentina (Braised Eel from Northern Lazio)
One of the best kept culinary secrets in Italy is the cuisine of northern Lazio in and around the city of Viterbo, an area known as the Tuscia. The style of cooking in this area is a kind of fusion between the lusty cooking of Roman to its south with … Read More
Pizzoccheri alla valtellinese (Buckwheat Pasta from the Italian Alps)
Nothing says ‘winter’ to me like pizzoccheri alla valtellinese, an Alpine buckwheat pasta dish oozing with melted cheese and winter vegetables, a typical dish of the Valtellina in the uppermost stretches of Lombardia, a fairly narrow valley region running northeast from the Lago di Como along the border with Switzerland. … Read More
Agnello e patate al forno (Oven-Roasted Lamb and Potatoes)
Lamb and potatoes have a natural affinity, as we saw in the elegant côtes d’agneau Champvallon. Here is a more rustic dish, made with seasoned chunks of lamb and potatoes baked in the oven until nicely browned on top. Simple, hearty and satisfying. Ingredients Serve 4-6 1 kilo (2 lbs) … Read More
