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
Arrosto di maiale al latte (Pork Loin Braised in Milk)
I first read about this simple recipe for Pork Loin Braised in Milk in Marcella Hazan‘s first cookbook The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating (1973), but you can find this well-known dish in many recipe books, including the venerable Artusi and … Read More
Lesso di manzo rifatto (“Re-made” Boiled Beef)
Waste not, want not, they old saying goes. There are a myriad of old recipes in the Italian repertoire for making use of boiled beef leftover from beef broth, a brodo classico or a bollito misto. Of course, boiled beef can simply be gently reheated in its broth and served … Read More
Zitoni al forno con le polpettine (Baked Ziti with Tiny Meatballs)
If baked pappardelle with radicchio is a good example of a northern Italian baked pasta dish, baked ziti, as this dish is known in English, typifies the southern Italian approach, and more specifically the Neapolitan approach, so much so, in fact, that this dish is sometimes called pasta al forno … Read More
Gratinéed Ox Tongue in Mushroom Cream Sauce
As mentioned recently, veal tongue is a common part of a bollito misto, but tongue is also a wonderful dish all on its own. Although classified as an organ meat, tongue doesn’t taste ‘organ-y’ at all. Rather it tastes like a richest, most unctuous cut of beef you have ever … Read More
Bollito and other boiled dinners
Some of our favorite Sunday meals during the cold weather months are boiled dinners. I usually make homemade broth in the afternoon and, not wanting anything to go to waste, the boiled meat and vegetables that went into the pot are usually dinner that night. Bollito misto If you’ve made … Read More
Costolette d’agnello «a scottadito» (Roman-Style Lamb Chops)
There is surely no meat more typical of the Mediterranean basin than lamb. Sheep husbandry began in pre-historic times and is thought to have gotten its start in Mesopotamia, quickly spreading to Asia Minor and southern Europe—it played a major role in the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, including the … Read More
