Abbacchio alla romana, Roman Style Roast Lamb, or abbachio alla cacciatora as it is called by Romans themselves, is perhaps the most iconic main course for Easter dinner in the Eternal City. The preparation is a simple pan roast in the Italian manner, with a twist. You cut up the lamb into serving pieces, then brown it in olive oil (or lard for true traditionalists) scented with garlic and herbs. You then simmer the lamb in a bit of white wine. So far, so typical of many Italian pan roasts. What makes this dish distinctive is its finish—a paste of garlic, anchovies and vinegar added in the fin ..read more

Father’s Day in Italy is coming up on March 19, la festa di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph’s Day. This holiday has given rise to any number of special dishes, some of which such as bignè di San Giuseppe and the pasta con la mollica we’ve already featured on this blog. Today I want to share with you the recipe for what might just be the most famous of all San Giuseppe dishes: zeppole di San Giuseppe. Zeppole di San Giuseppe are doughnut like swirls of fluffy choux pastry, baked and dusted with confectioner’s sugar, then topped with another swirl of thick pastry cream and crowned with a black cherry ..read more

I learned about this week’s dish, a Ligurian potato pie called frandura di Montalto, from fellow food blogger Josephine Wennerholm, author of one of my favorite Italian cookery blogs, Frascati Cooking That’s Amore. Jo, who lives in the Alban Hils outside Rome, says she learned about frandura on Italian TV and decided to give it a try. She really liked it and blogged about it. After I read her post, I tried it and was delighted, too. Now I want to pass it on to you, dear readers, because this dish is as delicious as it is stupidly simple. From the tiny hilltop town of Montalto about 100 km (62 ..read more

It may come as a surprise to some, but Italians make stuffed cabbage. The dish, which they call involtini di verza or cabbage rolls, is especially popular in the central and northern regions of the country. If you’ve traveled to Italy as a visitor, however, you may not have come across it, as it’s is one of those dishes that are usually made at home and only rarely feature on restaurant menus. Perhaps the most typical are stuffed with a meat filling, which aren’t terribly different from the Central European recipes you may be more familiar with. But there are some notable differences. For one ..read more

Regular readers of this blog will know that lentils are my favorite legume. I adored my grandmother Angelina’s pasta e lenticchie as a kid, and I still love just about anything made with lentils, including of course soup. Zuppa di lenticchie or lentil soup is a winter standby in Italian home cookery, but zuppa di lenticchie e porri is unusual in that it doesn’t start with the typical soffritto (flavor base) of onion, garlic or the ‘holy trinity’ of onions, carrots and celery. Instead, this soup features leeks, another classic winter vegetable, which lends the savor of other alliums along with ..read more

Generally speaking I’m not a picky eater. Just the opposite in fact. There are very few things I won’t eat or at least try. I’ve had alligator in Florida, live lobster sashimi and rattlesnake in New York, fried lamb’s brains and pasta with calf’s intestines in Rome, fermented cassava balls in Nigeria, durian fruit and duck embryo in The Phillippines, ant larvae soup in Cambodia, sea cucumber in Hong Kong, boiled chicken feet and pan-roasted leafcutter ants in Colombia, grilled cow heart in Peru, curried rat in Guyana, grasshopper tacos in Mexico, frogs, snails and horse meat steak in Paris… Bu ..read more

If you’ve spent any amount of time in Italy, you have probably come across the name Cavour. I don’t think there’s a city or town of any size in the country that doesn’t have at least one piazza or via Cavour. So who was this Cavour? His given name was Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, but he’s better known by his abbreviated noble title of Count of Cavour, or simply “Cavour” for short. To make a long story short, he was one of the prime figures in the Risorgimento or unification of Italy, with a long career that culminated in his briefly becoming the first Prime Minister of the newly declare ..read more

After last week’s magnum opus, I want to share a simple, easy to prepare recipe with you this week. If you’re a seafood lover, this will be pure comfort food: polpo in umido con le patate, or Octopus and Potato Stew. The dish is often associated with the region of Puglia, although you’ll find versions of stewed octopus, such as Naples’ classic polpo alla luciana, all over the Boot. The octopus is cut into pieces and braised in a simple tomato sauce until tender, infusing the sauce with its briny goodness. And although you can serve the braised octopus just like that, I like to add potatoes. Th ..read more

Timballo teramano, one of the signature dishes of the Abruzzo region of Italy, is a kind of lasagna, but a very special one made with the ultra-thin regional version of crepes called scripelle instead of pasta. The filling can vary from locality to locality and even family to family, but in the most classic version, the scripelle are layered with tomato sauce, tiny meatballs, sometimes peas or other vegetables, and mozzarella or scamorza cheese. Often you moisten the crepes with an egg and milk wash called a bagnata. Admittedly, making a timballo teramano is something of a project. Preparing e ..read more

While as we saw last week a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner is fish based, Christmas Day dinner is a carnivore’s delight. Capon is perhaps the most classic secondo (main course), but roast pork is also a popular choice. And an ancient one. The ancient Romans ate roast pork for Saturnalia, their winter solstice festival, and in the year 435, Pope Sixtus III urged Roman Catholics to eat pork at Christmas. Arrosto di maiale con cipolline, or Roast Pork Loin with Pearl Onions, is easy to prepare, but it does need a little TLC. Pork loin is such a lean cut (especially these days) that, if ..read more