Italian Recipes

Tagliata di Manzo, or beef tagliata, is a simple but delicious dish served throughout Italy as a main course. The dish consists of perfectly seared high quality steak, accompanied by fresh spicy arugula and aged Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.  For this version, I used a good-sized filet mignon, but any other quality cut of beef will …

Amaretti Biscuits (soft Amaretti Cookies) are an Italian dessert made with almond flour and Amaretto Liqueur. Amaretto Liqueur is made with apricot pits and, frequently, almonds. It has a slightly bitter taste and  a distinct almond scent. Amaretto helps give the Amaretti Biscuits a strong pleasant nutty almond flavor. Some recipes substitute almond extract for …

Pasta in Vodka Sauce (Pasta alla Vodka) is an Italian-American dish whose primary ingredients are tomato sauce, vodka and cream. I was initially reluctant to try this dish when I found it on menus, vodka? Really? While wine is most often used in making Italian sauces, the vodka in this dish actually adds a little …

 Italian Meatballs – there’s really nothing more delicious and homey than a plate full of spaghetti topped with homemade meatballs and sauce. We’ve been making meatballs this way for years, inspired by the secret recipe of a family of Italian chefs we met in San Diego. Of course, we’ve made our own modifications over time. …

While traveling through Italy, Eggplant Parmesan (or Aubergine Parmesan) became one of my favorite dishes. Whether in Northern or Southern Italy, a version of this dish is on most menus. Interestingly though, eggplant Parmesan (or melanzane parmigiana) is typically served as an appetizer dish. It is most often baked in the oven like a lasagna, …

The fresh herb frittata is a typical dish from Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. It was prepared for us by a local chef who used herbs that he found growing in the surrounding farm. He used a combination of fresh fennel, dill, mint, hops, sage and chives to make the simple dish as an appetizer. The …

Everyone needs a good basic tomato sauce recipe. We’ve experimented with our version over the years and perfected it during a recent trip through Italy. We took a lot of cooking classes during our time there including this one in Rome – Cooking with Nonna (Grandmother). In each region that we visited, Nonnas were cooking …

Our stuffed eggplant recipe is one of our favorites, and it’s really easy to prepare. If you aren’t typically a fan of this vegetable, this preparation may very well change your mind History of Stuffed Eggplant Baked stuffed eggplant recipes have been around a long time. Mentions of delicious stuffed eggplant in Turkey, known as …

Focaccia is a standard bread in the homes of many Italians. We learned this when we stayed in Puglia, which is in the “heel of the boot” of Italy. Here, focaccia bread is made fresh every few days and used as a snack, with meal or sliced and stuffed to make delicious sandwiches. And, focaccia …

We first sampled pasta with walnut sauce during a trip through Italy, where walnuts are a prized ingredient. There are many versions walnut sauce (salsa di noci) – including very simple preparations where pulverized walnuts are added to milk and breadcrumbs and then tossed with pasta. I prefer to use granule sized walnut chunks to …