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 thinly sliced, grilled beef, typically seasoned with aromatic herbs and spices. The tender slices of beef are served on a bed of fresh arugula, topped with cherry tomatoes and shaved Parmesan Reggiano …

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. While the name “Parmigiana” might suggest a connection to the Italian city of Parma, the dish does not originate from that region. Instead, it is believed that the name “Parmigiana” is derived from the Sicilian dialect term “parmiciana” or “parmiciana,” …

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 …

We learned to make focaccia with potatoes 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 meals, or sliced and stuffed to make delicious sandwiches. And, focaccia has been around here for a long …

We first sampled Salsa di Noci, a creamy walnut sauce over ravioli, during a trip through Italy, where walnuts are a prized ingredient. There are many versions of 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 …