Friends were coming over for dinner. He loves Burgundy wines, especially red. That goes well with meat dishes like Boeuf Bourguignon, but she doesn’t eat meat. What to prepare? Then I remembered the great pairing of a Chambolle-Musigny (red Burgundy) … Continue reading Tuscan Bean Soup (Minestra di Fagioli)
Pasta e ceci is typical Italian comfort food. Ceci are chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans. As with all Italian home cooking, many variations exist. Some are with tomatoes, some without (in bianco). Some are more like a soup, with … Continue reading Pasta with Chickpeas and Pancetta (Pasta e Ceci con Pancetta)
Paola is one of my Italian blogging friends and she always has tasty simple recipes. Her motto is use leftovers as much as possible. Although in this case she did not present this as a way to use up leftovers, … Continue reading Pasta with Pumpkin and Pancetta
Yet another dish from our trip to Sardinia. We had brodo di cipolle e ravioli di percorino at S’apposentu, and this is my rendition of it. The dish is very tasty and elegant, yet only uses a few simple ingredients. … Continue reading Onion Broth with Pecorino Ravioli (Brodo di cipolle e ravioli di pecorino)
Kale is called cavolo riccio (curly cabbage) in Italy, but it is not widely used. The closest type of cabbage that is common in Italy is the Tuscan cavolo nero.In the Netherlands kale is very common and called boerenkool (farmer’s … Continue reading Pasta with Kale “in Saor” (Pasta con Cavolo Riccio “in Saor”)
When we had dinner at Michelin-starred restaurant S’Apposentu in Sardinia (read about our experience there in my review), one of the dishes that I decided right away I wanted to try at home was an unbaked lasagna with a mutton … Continue reading Unbaked Lamb Lasagna
Food blogging has provided me with so much inspiration to try new dishes. This tasty risotto was posted almost a year ago by CampariGirl, a long-time blogging friend. This time of the year it seems that the only local fresh … Continue reading Risotto with Savoy Cabbage and Sausage (Risotto Verza e Salsiccia)
I enjoyed the combination of scallops, shallots and almonds so much that I decided to serve it as a sauce on homemade fresh pasta. First the scallops are sautéed in olive oil. Then the shallots are slowly cooked in that … Continue reading Tagliolini with Scallops and Almonds (Tagliolini alle Capesante e Mandorle)
Dorgali is a town in the mountains on the east coast of Sardinia. We were staying at the seaside resort of Cala Gonone, but drove up to Restaurant Ispinigoli in the mountains to try the local cuisine. (If you ever … Continue reading Ravioli alla Dorgalese (Pecorino and Mint Ravioli with Meat Ragù)
Pasta is sometimes cooked in the way of risotto in Italian cooking, which means that it is cooked (or finished to be cooked) in stock. The pasta will take on the flavor of the stock, so this will give your … Continue reading ‘Risottoed’ Tagliatelle with Mushrooms (Tagliatelle Risottate ai Funghi)
Coda alla Vaccinara is a classic dish from Rome: oxtail stewed in tomato sauce. It is usually served as a secondo, but you can also eat the sauce over pasta as a primo before that. Another less common variation is … Continue reading Conchiglie alla Vaccinara (Pasta with Oxtail Ragù Sous-Vide)
The nice thing about cooking vacation memories is that even after having returned two months ago, it still keeps the memories fresh. When I saw Spaghetti alla Carbonara di Mare on the menu of La Perla in Calasetta on Sardinia, … Continue reading Spaghetti alla Carbonara di Mare
We love risotto and make it quite often. The nice thing about this recipe for bell pepper risotto is that no flavor is lost because the bell peppers are cooked in the stock that will be used for the risotto … Continue reading Bell Pepper Risotto (Risotto ai Peperoni)
There are more recipes from Sardinia to follow, but for now let’s go to Emilia-Romagna for some classic meat-filled cannelloni. Cannelloni can be made using fresh pasta or store-bought pasta, and they can be filled with either spinach and ricotta … Continue reading Cannelloni
Fregola or fregula is one of the typical pasta shapes from Sardinia (the other one is malloreddus). It is like very thick spaghetti made from durum wheat, cut into short pieces and then toasted. It is a bit like large … Continue reading Fregola Sarda con le Cozze (Fregola with Mussels)
At Trattoria La Saletta in Alghero, Sardinia, I enjoyed some delicious mutton ravioli (ravioli di pecora) with crunchy vegetables. Since mutton (the meat of a mature sheep) is not available in the Netherlands, I decided to make something similar using … Continue reading Lamb Ravioli with Crunchy Vegetables
Frozen pollock or pollack (Dutch: koolvis, French: colin) is amazingly cheap. It comes in unnatural-looking rectangular blocks. At a local supermarket it is 1.75 euros for 400 grams (that is $2.37/lb). It is “frozen at sea”, which means it is … Continue reading Pasta with Cheap Fish Ragù
Can you guess what this is? No, it is not smoked chicken breast. Hint: we’ve just returned from a wonderful vacation on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is bottarga di muggine, or the salted and dried roe pouch of … Continue reading Spaghetti con la Bottarga
Goat cheese and asparagus both go well with Sauvignon blanc, so it is no surprise they go together as well. In this case I’ve made them into ravioli, delicate parcels of loveliness. To enhance the ‘goatness’ I made goat cheese … Continue reading Asparagus and Goat Cheese Ravioli (Ravioli agli Asparagi e Formaggio di Capra)
It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort to cook a delicious meal. This quick pasta dish was inspired by Simona’s insalata di pasta, salmone e pomodori. Her version was made with canned salmon and uncooked tomatoes … Continue reading Pasta with Salmon and Cherry Tomatoes
Pasta con le sarde is a very typical pasta dish from Sicily with a unique flavor. The main ingredients are pasta and sardines as the name implies, but also wild fennel (finocchietto). The latter ingredient may be hard to find … Continue reading Pasta con le sarde (Pasta with Sardines and Wild Fennel)
Although primavera means spring, this is also a great risotto to make in summer. Also because in March and April, certainly in this part of the world, the vegetables used for this are not in season yet. There are many … Continue reading Risotto alla Primavera
These fennel ravioli are heavily inspired on these fennel ‘meatballs’ (polpette) that I discovered in Sicily at the great trattoria Tischi Toschi in Taormina. I prepare a lot of fennel, either in a salad, in pasta, or braised as a side. … Continue reading Fennel Ravioli (Ravioli ai Finocchi)
This is what I had for dinner tonight (followed by a secondo of chicken breast). Spiralized Zucchini (also known as zoodles) is so well known as substitute for real pasta, that we’d almost forget that it is also really good … Continue reading Spaghetti with Spiralized Zucchini
The nice thing about buying shrimp with heads and shells is that you can make a very flavorful shrimp stock using those heads and shells. Together with zucchini and tomatoes, this makes for a very nice risotto. To have a … Continue reading Risotto with Shrimp, Zucchini, and Tomato
In Italy many recipes have a “rosso” version (with tomatoes) and a “bianco” version (without tomatoes). For instance, a “pizza bianca” means a pizza without tomatoes. This also goes for pasta sauces, amatriciana is usually rossa, but amatriciana bianca also … Continue reading Pasta with ‘White’ Wild Boar Ragù (Pappardelle al Ragù Bianco di Cinghiale)
Stefano of Italian Home Cooking has done it again: he posted a delicious traditional Italian recipe that I had not heard of before. I love Ragù alla Napoletano, which is a large piece of beef braised in tomato sauce. The … Continue reading La Genovese alla Napoletana Sous-Vide (Ziti and Beef with Onion Sauce)
This dish requires only seven ingredients: lamb shank, salt, pepper, thyme, flour, egg, and pecorino cheese. The lamb shank is cooked sous-vide, then shredded, and fresh homemade pasta is tossed with the shredded meat and the juices from the sous-vide … Continue reading Fresh Tagliolini with Sous-Vide Lamb Shank
Slow roasting is my favorite way to prepare cauliflower, and this time of the year I prepare it often (using this recipe or something similar). Slow roasting means it will take longer (90 minutes to 2 hours), but the cauliflower … Continue reading Slow-Roasted Cauliflower Ravioli
Spring is really arriving here in the Netherlands, but on some days it is still a bit chilly and perfect for a hearty pasta dish with the last of the season’s savoy cabbage. This humble pasta dish with cabbage and sausage … Continue reading Pasta with Savoy Cabbage and Sausage (Pasta Verza e Salsiccia)
