There are many types of lasagna dishes in Italian cookery, and in each is wonderful in its own way. But to my mind there are two “Ur-lasagne“, each typifying the northern and southern poles of Italian cuisine: Lasagna for Carnival, or lasagna di carnevale from Campania—the kind of lasagna that nonna Angelina … Read More
Ragù alla bolognese (Bolognese Sauce)
One of the most famous sauces in all of Italian cookery, ragù alla bolognese—known in English as Bolognese Sauce—is one of those archetypical sauces simmering for hours and hours on the back of the stove that so many people associate with Italian cooking. It is the northern equivalent of that … Read More
Buseca alla milanese (Milanese-Style Tripe)
As we’ve mentioned before on this blog, Saturday is tripe day in Rome… sabato trippa, as the saying goes. The tripe served in our house is usually alla romana, but today I made something a bit different: buseca (which is Milanese dialect for tripe). While Roman-style tripe is quite assertive, … Read More
Pappardelle all’anatra (Pappardelle with Duck Ragu)
When one thinks of Tuscan cooking, one of the first dishes that comes to mind—along with such icons as fagioli all’uccelleto and bistecca alla fiorentina—is pappardelle sulla lepre, a wide ribbon pasta with hare sauce. Its fame is perfectly justified; it is truly delicious. Finding hare is just about impossible … Read More
How to Make Homemade Broth
Making homemade broth is so easy to do, and the results are so wonderful and so almost infinitely useful, I really don’t understand why it’s almost disappeared from home cooking. Well, actually, I can guess: fewer and fewer people cook anything at all, let along things like homemade broth, which … Read More
Ossobuco alla milanese
Perhaps the most emblematic dish of the cuisine of Lombardy, the northern Italian region of which Milan is the capital, ossobuco (or oss bus in Milanese dialect) is veal shank, cut into thick rounds of shank meat around a marrowbone. It is typically served with risotto alla milanese, one of … Read More
Fregola e salsiccia (Fregola with Sausage)
A friend recently gave me a gift of fregola (also called fregula), a typical Sardinian pasta very similar to Israeli couscous. I had heard of fregola, but had never eaten it—nor did I know any recipes for preparing it, so I dove into my cookbooks and surfed the internet for more … Read More
Taglierini al sugo d’arrosto (Taglierini with Roast Drippings)
Here’s a neat idea for a really quick and savory pasta whenever you happen to be cooking a roast veal, chicken, beef or pork: Save the drippings and use them as a sauce for taglierini pasta—a sugo d’arrosto. It’s that simple. If your roasting pan is flameproof, you can even … Read More