For yesterday’s post with tips for making homemade ravioli I needed some photos, and prepared a filling with duck and orange. First I braised duck legs in orange juice with the ‘holy trinity’ of onion, carrot, and celery as well … Continue reading Duck Orange Ravioli (Ravioli d’Anatra e Arancia)
Homemade ravioli are my signature dish. These delicate pasta pillows stuffed with goodness are a great way to impress your guests, and would be perfect for a Christmas dinner. You can make them in advance and when it is time … Continue reading Top 10 Secrets to Make the Best Homemade Ravioli From Scratch
Making risotto the traditional way, adding stock by the ladle and stirring all the time, takes me about 35 minutes from the moment I start sweating the onion to serving. We love risotto and I usually prepare it once a … Continue reading Is Pressure Cooking a Better Way to Prepare Risotto?
This somewhat eclectic dish came about when Teun and I were playing in the kitchen and decided to get some inspiration from the Plated Dishes volume of Modernist Cuisine. More and more I am getting the impression that these dishes … Continue reading Fusion Risotto with Oysters, Salsify and Avocado
Although crab and fennel are perhaps not ingredients you use on an every day basis, this is one of those pasta dishes that can be prepared in half an hour and is thus perfectly suited for a weekday meal. That … Continue reading Fusilli with Crab and Fennel
Last Saturday I hosted another wine dinner: 6 courses with 2 wines accompanying each dish for a group of 15 friends. If you’d like to see some photos of the event and read about what I served, visit my page … Continue reading Pasta with Romanesco and Sausage (Pasta con broccolo romano e salsiccia)
One of my favorite dishes is spaghetti alle vongole, and I realised I had never done a post on it yet. This pasta with clams has great depth of flavor because of the juices that the clams will release when … Continue reading Spaghetti alle Vongole
Happy Thanksgiving! When I was googling researching gnocchi all’acqua (‘water’ gnocchi, made from a dough much like that of éclairs), I noticed a variety of these gnocchi stuffed with pieces of pancetta and served with a tomato sauce. This sounded … Continue reading Gnocchi all’Acqua con Pancetta
Despite my forays into fusion, my favorite cuisine remains Italian home cooking. I’ve started following another blog in Italian, Grembiule da Cucina, hosted by Simona, an experience Italian home cook. She posted her family’s meatball recipe, which is also used for … Continue reading Green Ravioli with Ham
We love risotto and I am always looking for new recipes. When I saw pomegranate risotto on Marina’s blog Le Ricette di Baccos, I bookmarked it on my coming soon page so I would remember to prepare it later. As pomegranates … Continue reading Pomegranate Risotto (Risotto alla Melagrana)
This Southern Italian pasta dish has loads of flavor and texture: orecchiete pasta, broccoli, fresh anchovies, sundried tomatoes, crunchy sautéed breadcrumbs, chile pepper, and parsley. Those sautéed breadcrumbs are a good alternative for cheese (which is ‘forbidden’ on a pasta … Continue reading Pasta with Anchovies and Broccoli (Orecchiette Alici e Broccoli)
I had some left over homemade Thai green curry paste and after the success of shrimp ravioli I decided to do some Thai-Italian fusion and make shrimp ravioli with coconut and green curry. The result was phenomenal and something I’ll definitely … Continue reading Thai-Italian Fusion: Shrimp Ravioli with Coconut and Green Curry
We love risotto and so I think of new risotto recipes on a regular basis. The basis of almost each risotto is risotto rice, onion, stock, white wine, butter, and parmigiano. The type of stock and other ingredients added determine the … Continue reading Cauliflower Risotto (Risotto al Cavolfiore)
Homemade ravioli are my specialty. I love to serve them at dinner parties and delight my guests with those parcels of delicate pasta with a scrumptious stuffing. The keys to good ravioli are to make the pasta as thin as … Continue reading Shrimp Ravioli (Ravioli ai Gamberoni)
When we paid Jo of My Home Food That’s Amore a visit this summer, she gave us some goodies including a box of calamarata pasta. Thanks, Jo! The name of this pasta sounds like calamari, because these pasta rings resemble … Continue reading Calamarata Pasta with Swordfish Ragù (Calamarata con Ragù di Pesce Spada)
Black autumn truffles (Tuber Uncinatum) are in season and they are not as expensive as white truffles (Tuber Magnatum Pico). They are also not as fragrant, but for fragrant truffles their freshness is more important than their color. I’ve already … Continue reading Fresh Truffle Risotto (Risotto al Tartufo)
Bologna is famous for being the food capital of Italy. The best-known pasta dishes from Bologna are tagliatelle (not spaghetti!) alla bolognese and lasagne alla bolognese, both made with fresh egg pasta and the famous ragù alla bolognese. Being the … Continue reading Gramigna al Ragù di Salsiccia (Fresh Pasta with Sausage Ragù)
We love blue cheese but I had not prepared anything with blue cheese in a while. Then for some reason I thought of pairing celeriac with blue cheese in a pasta dish, and it works! The celeriac becomes slightly sweet … Continue reading Pasta with Celeriac and Blue Cheese
This looks like a perfectly normal plate of Tagliatelle alla Bolognese. But in fact it is not, because these homemade tagliatelle have been made without gluten. A friend who suffers from celiac disease was coming over for dinner, and I decided not … Continue reading Homemade Gluten Free Pasta
In 2007 during our first wine discovery tour through Italy, we visited Castello di Brolio in Tuscany and had dinner at the restaurant that was part of the winery. They served a tasting menu to showcase their wines, and with … Continue reading Cheese Ravioli
Many pasta dishes are great for a weeknight meal, as they take no longer to prepare than it takes to cook the pasta. This is another example of such a dish, not a classic Italian recipe but something that came … Continue reading Pasta with Rabbit and Fennel (Penne Coniglio e Finocchio)
Giallo Zafferano is one of the most popular Italian cooking websites, with anchorwoman Sonia Peronaci now on Italian TV daily with a recipe. Recently she presented Cicatielli con cozze e fagioli. The combination of mussels and beans was a new … Continue reading Fresh Pasta Dumplings with Mussels and Beans (Cicatielli con Cozze e Fagioli)
Different types of pasta can be found all over Italy. Especially the shapes are different everywhere, but there are also differences in the pasta dough. Generally speaking, fresh pasta is made with eggs and 00 flour in the North, and … Continue reading ‘Water’ Gnocchi with Sage Pesto (Gnocchi all’Acqua al Pesto di Salvia)
The secret to a great linguine ai frutti di mare is to use fresh seafood and to use the juices of the vongole and a stock made from the shrimp heads and shells for the sauce. It is a bit of … Continue reading Linguine ai Frutti di Mare
Marinara sauce is the American-Italian term for tomato sauce, but in Italy it usually refers to a sauce prepared in the style of the seaman’s wife and is a tomato-based sauce with seafood. I really liked the risotto alla marinara … Continue reading Risotto alla Marinara (Risotto with Fish)
This dish doesn’t look all that great, but it sure was tasty! I got the idea for polenta (or grits) with corn from Mimi. When I saw her post, I responded that I had never seen local fresh corn on … Continue reading Double Corn Polenta with Ham and Pickled Chipotles
One of the goodies I brought from my trip to Italy was a new pasta shape: soqquadri or a square version of mezzi rigatoni. (If you can’t find the square version, you can also make this recipe with the usual … Continue reading Soqquadri Pasta with ‘deconstructed’ Eggplant Parmigiana
We love risotto and I’m always trying to come up with new recipes. This spinach risotto turned out really nice, and it was even nicer with the garnishes of pancetta and sous-vide egg-yolk. But the risotto is delicious by itself, … Continue reading Spinach Risotto (Risotto agli Spinaci)
After all the decadent restaurant meals, it is time for something very simple. This plate of pasta takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish. The list of ingredients is very short: pasta, zucchini, parmigiano, salt, pepper, olive oil. … Continue reading Quick Pasta with Zucchini
When I made my first batch of ravioli with a cauliflower stuffing some weeks ago, I contemplated whether I would make it with red wine or with white wine and ended up making a delicious red wine version with great depth … Continue reading Cauliflower and Lemon Ravioli
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