A light springtime meal using the freshest spears you can find (which, ideally, means picking them at midnight) In favourable conditions (warm and sunny, but sheltered), asparagus can grow several inches a day. The Canadian Food Focus website claims a fantastic 15cm in 24 hours – which must also be noisy, if you have an ear close enough. Even if the reality is half that, it’s enough for me to consider spending a day in a field of it. I would need to lie down low – on an inflatable lilo, maybe – with a small cushion and a flask of coffee and whisky. I would need to have a penknife, too, so I co ..read more

When you’re hankering after something starchy and satisfying, this soupy spring rice delight will definitely please the tastebuds I don’t know whether I prefer saying risi e bisi or eating this Venetian springtime speciality, which is traditionally made to celebrate the feast of St Mark, the city’s patron saint, on 25 April. That said, this deliciously soupy, starchy dish ticks a lot of boxes for me at this time of year, not least because even I can amuse myself in a terrible Italian accent for only so long. Prep 15 min Cook 1 hrServes 4 ..read more

Celebrate the freshness of a new season with ricotta gnocchi with raw pea pesto, fennel sausage penne and broccoli orecchiette Prep 20 min Cook 1 hr 25 min Serves 4 ..read more

Soups and stews are what the rice-shaped pasta was made for, but it also works in salads and even some sweet dishes What’s the best way to cook orzo?“Orzo reminds me of being a child,” says Jacob Kenedy, chef/owner of Bocca di Lupo in London. “It’s very comforting, and you can eat it with a spoon.” It is perhaps first worth noting that in Italy the word orzo literally means “‘barley”, and the pasta we know as orzo more often goes by the name rosmarino (due to its likeness to a rosemary needle) or risoni (big rice). Here, we’re talking the pasta, which Kenedy uses as a substitute for both barle ..read more

A spring soup-stew known as scafata and typical of Lazio, featuring chard, potatoes, artichokes and new-season broad beans Broad beans are back – long, green fingers with the odd black nail. And so are the warning signs, for those who suffer favism (a rare but acute haemolytic syndrome), as well as for those, such as my neighbour, who think that fave are an abomination. For fans, the first young beans are good raw, with pecorino or cheddar. In Lazio and central Italy, scafa is dialect for a broad bean pod, and scafare the verb for removing the beans from their pods; therefore, scafata is a dis ..read more

Spaghetti House has had us on toast for 70 years – but will its new venture be a high street favourite? A Braccetto, 242 Earls Court Road, London SW5 9AA (a-braccetto.com). Antipasti £7.95, mains £14.95-£26.50, desserts £7.35, wines from £35 a bottle There are sights in London that are so familiar they now go largely unremarked, despite how deserving of comment they are: the sleek, well-fed mice which skitter between the tracks in tube stations; the over-lit shops stocked with bags of American confectionary, which seem never to attract a customer (but have now attracted the attentions of the R ..read more

The Dover restaurant in Mayfair does its New York Italian roots proud with a mean drinks list: we present its martini, the eastside, a bicicletta, the godfather and a New York sour A selection of our favourite Italian- and Italian-American-inspired cocktails. Many of our cocktails at the Dover are strained into frozen glasses. Put the glass(es) in the freezer for 30 minutes before serving, removing them just a minute or so before pouring your drink(s ..read more

Walnuts get a starring role in this pasta dish with a (sort of) bread sauce The walnut is a nut I regularly enjoy, but until now I’d never used it in a meal as a hero ingredient. Then I read about Ligurian salsa di noci and it caught my attention because it sounded like a garlicky, walnutty bread sauce. Now, I really love bread sauce, and ever since I made Delia’s circa 1999, I’ve been wondering how I could eat more of it with my main meals. Without wanting to offend the Italians, or the Brits, this is not bread sauce: it is silkier and nuttier, and it is beautiful mixed with twisted trofie pa ..read more

See in the new season Italian-style: lemon sole with spring vegetables and a sweet-sour dressing, and orecchiette with broccoli, anchovy and cumin Spring took rather a long time to arrive this year. Consequently, I’m planning to go all out on green veg at every opportunity from here on in. Five shades of green in just one dish (or six, if you include the grassy-green olive oil)? This is just me and my cravings starting out and trusting that everyone else is as ready as I am for something lighter, not to mention light-filled. Serve everything with a green salad, drink green lime and soda, and s ..read more

Welcome to a win-win vegetarian Italian classic: it’s simple, delicious and makes clever use of old bread Today’s easy recipe for Italian vegetarian “meatballs” is a great way to use up stale bread in a tasty yet economical way. I like them gently fried, then mixed with tomato sauce and spaghetti, but they’re also great coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried or baked until crisp and delicious. They’re good with steamed seasonal greens, too. Other variations on the theme include placing a cube of mozzarella in the middle of each ball and taking this dish to the next level. Unless I’m feeling flus ..read more