This is one of the easiest and most versatile vegetable dishes in the Italian repertoire: funghi trifolati, or ‘truffled’ mushooms, so called because the thinly sliced and sautéed mushrooms are said to resemble that other, more highly prized tuber. I use two methods to make funghi trifolati, and both are … Read More
Frittura di verdure miste (Italian Fried Vegetables)
I was feeling sort of nostalgic today for the Italian fried vegetables my grandmother used to make. They were almost always the start of our family’s six-hour Sunday dinners, laid out (along with a big wedge of provolone) on the table to pick on as we played cards and waited for … Read More
Polenta pasticciata con fagioli e verza (Baked Polenta with Beans and Cabbage)
It’s a shame to throw away leftover polenta. There are so many delicious ways to use it. As mentioned in an earlier post on how to make polenta, it hardens as it cools and can be sliced into squares or other shapes, then grilled or fried. But my favorite way … Read More
Cavolfiore alla napoletana (Neapolitan-Style Cauliflower)
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
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
Fazzoletti di crespelle (Stuffed Crepe “Handkerchiefs”)
It may come as a surprise, but Italians make crepes. They’re called crespelle in Italian (even if many Italians just call them by their French name, as we do in English). The most common use for crepes in Italian cookery is not as dessert, but as stuffed pasta. They can … Read More