In Italy, pasta is much more than a dish; it’s a geographical and climatic map. If you travel from the snow-capped Alps of the North to the sun-drenched coasts of the South, you will discover that the “perfect dough” changes its soul according to the land it belongs to. The Great Divide: Soft Wheat vs….
After centuries we are still thanking the Tatin sisters for the famous apple tarte we all know well and love. From this mistake that produced caramelised apples baked with no shortcrust pastry, added later on the top of the fruit when they realised their forgetfulness, incredible variations with vegetables emerged. This modification of my previous…
This Savory Cherry Tomato Tarte Tatin is an intriguing and delicious appetizer that offers a fresh perspective on a classic Italian ingredient. In recent years, Italy has embraced the legendary French “Tarte Tatin” technique—originally born from a kitchen mistake—and transformed it into a savory masterpiece. In this version, we replace sweet apples with juicy, confit…
A gorgeous pie that increases the freshness of local and seasonal products like squash, leeks and chestnut with a twist given by Phyllo pastry. Not a personal creation, but a recipe I stole from Cristina Lunardini, an excellent Italian chef, a Romagnolo like me, who I admire, a model to me. Fresh vegetables which can…
Wider than “angel’s hair” pasta but thinner than tagliatelle noodles, tajarin (tagliolini noodles in the Piedmont dialect) were made in the Langhe and Monferrato area farmsteads, in the Piedmont region. From the 15th century, tajarin spread throughout Piedmont, as related in early chronicles. It is a festive dish, enjoyed mainly during important celebrations. The generous quantity…
Pignolata, also known as Struffoli in Naples, is a very popular dessert in Southern Italy, an area that was dominated by Spain for centuries, and its origin is from the region of Andalusia. These Christmas marble-sized honey fritters are deep-fried and then rolled in honey before being assembled into a cone or a globular wreath….
Maltagliati pasta is a very traditional shape in Emilia-Romagna, used for rustic soups like pasta & chickpeas or pasta & beans. Literally, its name means “badly cut”. All good Italian housewives never waste food and this pasta is made from the remnants of dough cut for other shapes. When you roll pasta dough with a…
What inspired me to make this tomato jelly was the need to prepare something healthy, with local ingredients, and because of my family’s cholesterol test results. It is ideal for a dinner with a big group because in can be made a day or two in advance, and it can make all our dining companions…
A necessary premise to an Italian article about frying is that the most common technique is shallow frying: most Italian fried dishes are in small pieces, whereas deep frying is used mainly in certain specific dishes like “arancini siciliani” and the famous “carciofi alla giudia”. However, these are somewhat exceptions. The first common rule…