Recipe Index: Italian
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White beans are so versatile. We usually have several cans ready to go and at least a pound or two of dried beans in the pantry. This is a simple baked bean dish, with the beans first cooked in simmering...
Now here's a classic midweek meal, or a hot dish to bring to a potluck. Baked ziti is a lot like American lasagna, but easier to make; it has practically the same ingredients but you don't have to fuss with...
A good tomato sauce is the foundation for so many wonderful dishes - pizza, pasta, chicken, and fish. Here is a recipe for a basic tomato sauce that starts with a soffritto of onions, carrots, and celery cooked in a...
This Bolognese sauce is a family recipe of one of our readers and is used in our Lasagna Bolognese recipe. Slow cooked for at least a couple of hours, the sauce is deep, rich, flavorful and worth the extra effort.
Revised and updated, from the recipe archive. Original recipe posted in 2005. ~Elise Tucked away in funky Bernal Heights, my old neighborhood in San Francisco, used to lie an Italian trattoria which served exceptional Italian food. The restaurant is long...
Cauliflower lovers unite! I'm always looking for ways to dress up my favorite white vegetable. Here's a quickie, inspired by Southern Italian flavors. A little bacon (or pancetta), some roasted pine nuts, some garlic (of course), oregano, and red pepper...
The trick to Eggplant Parmesan is to drain the eggplant slices of excess moisture first, before cooking. We found this recipe recently in the New York Times and adapted it to our taste (olive oil only - no canola oil...
Shaved fennel with Parmesan is one of my favorite combinations. Hank takes it up a notch with the addition of radicchio and endive. Enjoy! ~Elise This is one of my favorite salads. It's pretty to look at, crunchy and has...
Mmmm. Fettuccine Alfredo. So simple, but so so good. Most of us in America know this dish in its cream-based form, with a little nutmeg sprinkled on top. But did you know that the original fettuccine Alfredo sauce didn't use...
Have you ever made your own focaccia bread? I'm not much of a yeast-bread baker, but I've been curious about this Italian bread for years. We use it often for sandwiches; it's filled with the flavor of olive oil, soft...
Spaghetti just seems lonely without garlic bread, and it's so easy to make. There are several methods and twists for making garlic bread, the most simple being just rubbing a cut clove of garlic over slices of Italian or French...
What to do when your 8-year old nephew comes to visit? Make pizza, of course! Well, not of course, actually. I didn't think of it until we exhausted Sorry, Monopoly, and gin rummy. But it did turn out to be...
When I was a kid, the only time we ever had meatballs was with spaghetti or in albondigas soup. It never occurred to me that one could simply have meatballs with sauce, until I wandered into an Italian restaurant in...
A few weeks ago my mother and I attended a cooking demonstration by our local celebrity Italian chef, the delightful Biba Caggiano. We Sacramentans are proud to call Biba our own; she has a fabulous restaurant, is the author of...
Brrrr, it's cold outside. We had a warm spell for a few days, sunny, high 60s, but now the storms have returned and Sacramento is getting a good chilly drenching. Perfect timing for a big pot of warm and filling...
My parents have been making spaghetti this way for several years, ever since first learning about this method from watching a Martha Stewart program. Martha apparently got it from some famous chef in New York City. The beauty of this...
This isn't a quick and easy lasagna. This is a slow and divine lasagna. A memorable lasagna. And we have a reader of Simply Recipes to thank for it. Several months ago a commenter on this site, by the name...
What's there to say about this Italian-American classic other than, "red or white?" Linguini with clam sauce comes in either a red tomato-based version, or a white version with cream or white wine. Today we present to you a red...
Do you like Italian meatballs? I've been fishing around for a while for a good meatball recipe and have found it in this one. The basic idea is to take a base of ground pork, mix in other meat such...
According to the Wikipedia, minestrone is an Italian soup made with fresh seasonal vegetables, often with the addition of pasta or rice. Common ingredients include beans, onions, celery, carrots, stock, and tomatoes. There is no set recipe for minestrone, since...
The word primavera refers to being served with fresh vegetables; it is from the Italian (alla) primavera, or (in the) spring (style). Pasta primavera is almost always a simple-to-prepare dish using the fresh vegetables of the season. In spring you...
My dad is the kind of dad who will notice we aren't doing something to his standards and then just take over. (Insert growly voice.) "The recipe says mince, not finely chop, but mince. This isn't minced." I'm happy to...
I've made osso buco, an Italian dish of braised veal shanks, several times. I've eaten it in fine Italian restaurants. I've never really liked it until now. This is a great recipe that dad pulled from the web a few...
Okay, so I'm weird. I'm one of those people to whom you can say "cauliflower" and "anchovies" and I'll start salivating. I'll take cauliflower any which way (though IMHO roasted is best) and anchovies? Well anchovies are one childhood prejudice...
Guest contributor Hank Shaw of Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook shares one of his favorite pasta dishes. Sensuous and savory, this simple pasta and duck recipe is perfect for a romantic dinner. ~Elise This is one of my favorite things to...
Have you noticed the brightly colored bell peppers in the market lately? They're glorious. Here's a quick and easy recipe for Italian peperonata, or fried peppers, with onions, fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, and basil. This is one of those "I...
Hank Shaw is back, tempting us with pumpkin ricotta gnocchi. It's crazy good, and actually not as hard as you would think to make. Enjoy! ~Elise Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and sage is a classic for a reason: The...
A traditional Bolognese sauce requires hours of simmering and careful attention. But sometimes we don't have hours and we just want a sauce that's maybe not as spectacular as it could be, but still quite good enough. This simplified Bolognese...
Another Italian classic from Hank Shaw. Enjoy! ~Elise This is a classic dish from Venice, and it has many variations. Risi e bisi simply means rice and peas, and the dish is traditionally made with the fresh new peas of...
There must be a special place in heaven for men who cook. My father made this dish the other day to my mother's and my delight. It always amazes me that dad, who isn't a patient man to begin with...
This is a classic Sicilian side dish, prepared with leafy greens, toasted pine nuts and raisins. It may sound like an odd combination, but it works; it's sweet, savory, salty, spicy and just a little bitter. So as my mother...
Have you ever had a food epiphany? Years ago I had a seafood risotto at a restaurant on the Grand Canal of Venice (back in the cushy days of business trips with expense accounts) that was so silky, so luscious...
Spaghetti and meatballs, what's there not to love? Spaghetti and meatballs has to be one of the most fun dishes ever invented, at least from a kid's perspective. Mounds of spaghetti, fork twirling strands in a spoon, tasty meatballs, even...
Have you ever made potato gnocchi? If you have, then you know that the process can be tricky at best. What you want are light, fluffy dumpling pillows. What we often get is dense, chewy dough balls. Gnocchi with ricotta...
Welcome spring with this savory soup from Hank. ~Elise Minestrone is one of my favorite soups, and it is infinitely malleable with the seasons. This version celebrates springtime, when fresh, new vegetables begin to show up at the market. I...
Have leftover turkey stock? Our T-day turkey produced 3 quarts of stock this year. This risotto by Hank is a great way to use it. So creamy, my dad begged Hank for the recipe, and here it is. ~Elise To...
