Pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) is a very typical Italian soup, simple, easy, yet incredibly versatile, as it is prepared many ways all across Italy. For thousands of years, beans have nourished people from every social class, but its richness in proteins allowed the survival of the most of population who could not afford…
In the trattorie of Florence I have heard shelled beans cooked in this way called “fagiouli all’uccelletto”. (Pellegrino Artusi, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well) This recipe is a typical Florentine way to eat their beloved cannellini beans which have replaced meat for centuries. The name originates from the way small…
Green beans are an excellent fresh vegetable, but there are not many variations for their preparation. They are usually boiled and eaten accompanied by simple olive oil. But Italian creativity enriched a dull preparation with a touch of herbs and the beloved tomato, inventing a unique and tasty side dish, a symbol of summer and…
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…
This rabbit stew (the rabbit can be substituted with chicken) is a vintage dish. I found it in a 1970s collection of recipes from an elementary school project in Pergola. Each child was asked to bring one of their grandmother’s recipes to school to assemble a traditional regional cookbook. Pergola is a tiny hillside village…
This chicken with bell pepper recipe is truly a typical summer one. The lively colours of the peppers and tomato create a unique blend that you can really appreciate only if you can find fresh sun ripened vegetables. It is a typical Roman dish, and there is a whole generation of Roman’s who are in…
This way of cooking red mullets is typical of Livorno, nevertheless, I discovered that the within the Italian Jewish community, it is also called “à la Moses”. I guess it’s due to the presence of a substantial Jewish community in the town of Livorno. Livorno was turned into the official access to the Mediterranean Sea…
The stuffing of this gnocchi is very similar to the one of Ascoli olives, a skilled mix of meats cooked in a soffritto, whose taste is made lighter by a touch of lemon zest. The only complicated phase is finding the procedure to fill the gnocchi; I think that using a piping bag makes the…
Cacciatora stew is one of those simple dishes which comfort you, above all if served with mashed potatoes on a cold winter day. It is an incredibly rich and simple dish, the result is an amazing sauce in which you can plunge bread and collect it in the famous “scarpetta”. It is a gesture not be…