Italian Recipes
1418 recipes found
Neapolitan Cake
Here is an excellent project recipe that Christine Muhlke, then an editor and columnist at The New York Times Magazine, brought to us in a 2007 profile of the cookbook writer Gail Monaghan, who adapted it from a cookbook written by the Vicomte de Mauduit in 1933. It is infinitely more chic and cosmopolitan than most Neapolitan cakes, with no cartoon hue or bulk.
Affogato
L’affogato al caffè, a dessert of gelato drowned in espresso, is “one of Italy’s most delectable modern dishes,” writes Anna Del Conte in her “Gastronomy of Italy.” The ice cream can be fior di latte, vanilla or chocolate, or whatever you like. Dulce de leche, with its caramelized milkiness, would be wonderful, as would cherry amaretto. The magic of affogato is that you get two pleasures in one: a spoonable dessert sauced with coffee, and a cream-blushed drink to chase it. The sweet ice cream and bitter coffee should enhance, not overtake each other. Like the best partners, they should meet in the middle.
Caprese Antipasto
If you have ever eaten a caprese salad and wished that you could linger with it longer, that there were more tomatoes to spear with your fork, or more milky slices of cheese on the plate, then this is the dish for you. Best at the height of tomato season, it embellishes on the classic caprese, taking its five simple elements — mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, salt and olive oil — and adding roasted peppers, caperberries (or capers), olive and prosciutto. The result is a luscious lunch or light dinner that will make your dining companions swoon. You will wonder why you didn’t think of it sooner. Serve with a crusty loaf of bread on the side.
Rao's Meatballs With Marinara Sauce
This is one of the signature dishes at Rao’s, the East Harlem red-sauce joint that is best-known for a loyal, boldface-name clientele that makes it difficult to get a table. The restaurant now has satellites in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Calabrian Meatballs
Featured in my cookbook, “Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage Recipes and Family Stories from the Tables of Immigrant Women” (Harper Design, 2019), this polpette recipe comes from my grandmother’s Calabrian kitchen. The sugo di pomodoro, or tomato sauce, delivers complex flavor, serving as the poaching liquid for the delicate meatballs and as an essential ingredient in the meatballs themselves, adding both flavor and juiciness. Lightened further with milk and Italian bread crumbs, the meatballs are incredibly tender, bursting at the touch of your fork. The recipe yields a crowd-serving portion, perfect for Sunday dinner, but also freezes beautifully. Though the sauce may be tossed with your favorite pasta, this dish is the ideal version of a traditional platter of meatballs, covered in sauce and garnished with cheese and basil.
Pasta With Meatballs
Carbohydrate avoidance be damned: pasta with meatballs is the perfect culinary counter to the cruel world. Just looking at a slippery, tomato-sauced tangle of spaghetti topped with juicy toothsome meatballs makes you feel better; eating it is the instant antidote to whatever ails you. The recipe here makes more sauce, perhaps, than you'd normally want to use to dress a pound of pasta, but when I sit down to eat with the children I want to make sure I'm not going to have to get up and make them anything else to eat before they go to bed. (Of course you can freeze a portion of little meatballs in sauce for easy access in meals ahead. They need not accompany a bowl of pasta. My children like them just as much with a mound of plain white rice. Who wouldn't?)
Meatless Meatballs in Marinara Sauce
These “meatballs” use plant-based ground meat, and a combination of onions, garlic and tamari give them a satisfying chew and robust flavor. Because there’s no egg for binding, these are slightly more delicate than other meatballs, so use a light touch when shaping them, and make sure the mixture is very cold. Serve them on their own, covered in marinara sauce, or stuff them into hero rolls for sandwiches. They are also excellent over spaghetti.
Shrimp Risotto
Risotto can often be an intimidating dish, but this recipe, adapted from Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore’s “Fish Without a Doubt,” doesn’t have to be. It came to The Times in 2009, part of Emily Weinstein’s column on learning to cook. It worked for her, even though she didn’t prepare any of the ingredients ahead of time — or stir constantly as so many risotto recipes demand. Feel free to adapt the recipe as she did, substituting packaged seafood stock for the homemade shrimp stock, and chopped basil for the basil-infused oil.
Hot Pepper Fettuccine With Roasted Butternut Squash
To contrast with the sweetness of butternut squash, look to something salty and something spicy. This dish features hand-cut homemade red pepper pasta, no more difficult than making ordinary egg pasta. The dough contains three kinds of dried red pepper — sweet paprika, cayenne and a bit of smoky pimentón — which give it its rusty red hue. You can prep most of the components in advance, so it’s easy to finish at the last minute.
Peperonata
Bruschette With Ricotta and Peperonata
Il Sorpasso
Negroni Bianco
The Negroni deftly toes the line between sweet and bitter. A pinch of salt helps navigate that balance, muting bitter edges and highlighting sweetness, all without actually tipping the drink salty. This variation swaps in blanc (also called bianco) vermouth for the classic’s red, but feel free to use whatever vermouth you like or have on hand.
Linguine With Smoked Bacon, Leeks and Clams
Briny clams come together with smoky bacon and sautéed leeks in this showstopper. Quick to prepare, this weeknight recipe is decidedly sophisticated. First, sauté the bacon, add the garlic and leeks and add some good white wine and tomatoes. Toss with al dente linguine and top with clams and lemon juice. Finish with it with parsley and pine nuts, and pour yourself a glass of that wine. With this simple, elegant meal, you’ve earned it.
Zuccotto
Il Mulino's Tartuffo
At a few spots in New York, the tartuffo rises to exceptional heights. At Il Mulino in the Village, the kitchen pays attention to the last course and transcends the customarily disappointing Italian dessert tray. Here, by combining tartuffo with a superbly foamy zabaglione, which is then strewn with crushed amaretti and fresh berries, dessert would seem reason enough to go to the restaurant.
The Negroni
Ricotta Polpette in Tomato Sauce
This recipe is quintessential cucina povera, which roughly translates as ‘frugal cuisine of the poor’ in Italian, and it originated in Calabria. Its simple deliciousness comes from a handful of ingredients. In mountainous Calabria, where cows cannot roam free, goat’s-milk ricotta would typically be used, but recipes evolve over time and space, and cow’s-milk ricotta is commonly used in North America. Most translate the Italian word ‘polpetta’ as meatball, but in Italy, it is any mixture of ingredients rolled into a ball and cooked. This meatless variation’s base of ricotta is mixed with egg and bread crumbs, then rolled, poached in tomato sauce until fork-tender, and finally sprinkled with cheese. They make a perfect side to a first course of pasta or can be served on their own, with crusty bread, for sopping up the sauce.
Savory Gruyere-Olive Bread
Baked Ziti
This baked ziti is layered almost like a lasagna to ensure every bite has enough creamy ricotta, stringy mozzarella and tangy tomato sauce. But the key to its success comes from undercooking the pasta during the initial boil so it stays perfectly al dente, even after a trip to the oven. Heavy cream is added to prevent the ricotta from becoming grainy or dry during baking, letting it be its most luscious self. While this baked ziti is meatless (there’s plenty of richness from the cheese — three types, to be exact), you could always incorporate a bit of sausage, ground meat or pancetta, if you like. Simply add 1/2 pound to the onions while sautéeing and proceed with the recipe.
Lasagna With Spicy Roasted Cauliflower
Now that I’ve discovered how delicious roasted cauliflower is and how easy it is to do it, that’s the only way I want to cook it. It might be difficult to abstain from eating the cauliflower before you’ve gotten it into your lasagna.
Handmade Lasagna Sheets
There’s nothing quite like lasagna made with thin, silky sheets of fresh pasta. The noodles absorb the sauces as the dish bakes, and everything separate becomes one. Each bite will melt in your mouth. When rolling out the dough, sprinkle generously with flour to prevent sticking. And if you can’t cook the pasta right away, make sure to spread flour abundantly between each sheet because the longer it sits, the more it will threaten to stick back together. If after assembling the lasagna you are left with uncooked sheets of pasta, cut them into noodles, toss with flour, and freeze on a baking sheet in a single layer before transferring into a freezer bag. Freeze for up to a month, and to cook, just drop into boiling, salted water.
Stuffed Shells Filled With Spinach and Ricotta
These are comforting and easy to put together. You can make them ahead and heat them in the oven when you’re ready for dinner.
Lentil, Celery and Tomato Minestrone
Minestrone might be a familiar soup, but here it takes on a new flavor: celery. The celery, which may be lingering in the fridge having played a minor part in another recipe, adds a dimension of flavor to the mix that ordinary minestrone just doesn’t have. Celery has long been used in Chinese medicine to help control high blood pressure. It is also an excellent source of Vitamins K and C, and a very good source of potassium, folate, dietary fiber, molybdenum, manganese, and Vitamin B6.