I make this when I want “restaurant pasta,” but am short on time and ingredients. It’s a lovely Italian-inspired meal that you never knew could come from your home kitchen. Using one pot for the broccoli and the pasta makes for a breezy cleanup before bed—almost as simple as ordering in.
Bakeries in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, all sell these classic almond cookies, each garnished with a single almond in the center.
I questioned whether I should include yet another recipe for amaretti—they are sprinkled throughout this book, and the ingredients for most of them are more or less identical. And yet, the results are all quite distinct, thanks to differences in the handling of those ingredients. In fact, it was eye-opening, as I researched this book, to see how many different and unique iterations the same set of ingredients could create.
In the end, I am glad I included these. They are easy to make and they have a particular appeal, puffing up beautifully in the oven and forming small telltale cracks on their sugared surfaces. They are crunchy on the outside and tender and chewy within. Use the freshest almonds you can find to give these cookies their due. Sardinians use a special nut grinder to achieve the correct texture, but a food processor works well. Note that the dough benefits from an overnight rest in the refrigerator, so start them a day before you plan to serve them.
This giant crumbly cookie is a specialty of Mantua, in Lombardy. But I first tasted it at a cooking class at the home of a chef from Parma, in Emilia-Romagna, where it is also popular. This makes sense, as Parma is just about an hour south of Mantua, and popular cookies tend to travel beyond their place of origin.
Also known as torta sbrisolona, the name of this cookie roughly translates to “crumbly cake.” It comes from the verb sbricolare, which means “to crumble.” The cookie was once upon a time prepared by farmers using simple ingredients that they were likely to have on hand—flour, cornmeal, sugar, a little lard or butter, and almonds. It was eaten as a snack to revive them after a long morning of work.
When assembling your sbrisolona, resist patting the sandy dough into the pan too firmly. It needs to be loosely packed in order to yield that fall-apart texture that makes it so irresistible. Once baked, it is customary to break this cookie into irregular pieces for serving, though you can cut it with a knife for a neater presentation.
An Italian contorno that combines two of our favorite things: perfectly prepared beans and cooked greens. A cima puree, essentially more blanched greens blended with olive oil until silky, holds everything together while staying on brand. The combination tastes creamy, vital, and very Italian.
It’s important to use home-cooked chickpeas and heavily blanched cavolo so the cooking liquor from both can be added as needed when you bring everything together.
Romans have been worshipping at the altar of cheese and pepper (aka cacio e pepe) for centuries. This simple, creamy, indulgent, delicious combo is a pillar of the four great Roman pastas. We haven’t messed around with it, simply swapping out pasta for Italian borlotti beans. Ready in just 15 minutes, this is comfort food at its best.
A dish I was tasked with making when I was working in my first restaurant job at The Dorchester Hotel. Needless to say, the skill of making gnocchi has stayed with me and they often feature on the menus I write. The key is to not overwork the potatoes when mashing: you need it to be dry and floury to give you the best chance of success. Don’t be disheartened even if you fail: there is a lesson in that.
Don’t burn the sage: burn the butter, add the sage and the aromas will create a wonderful sense of calm in your home.
This cauliflower is dressed up with luscious flavors—anchovy, raisins, garlic, orange, and breadcrumbs—a typical combination in Sicily. I pair it with burrata, which, I admit, is everywhere these days, but I will never get sick of it.
When you’re in a time pinch, this pizza is possibly the best way to use puff pastry. Just add cheese. Add tomatoes. More cheese. Olive oil. Herbs. Bake until golden and puffed and cheesy and it smells like you’ve lit a pizza margherita candle in your kitchen. You win at dinner.
Sausages and peppers are a classic combo that is not only delicious but easy to prepare with only a sheet pan. By using chicken sausage, we can limit saturated fat while maximizing that savory Italian flavor that we’re going for. Add some gnocchi and serve on top of a bed of calcium-rich spinach. Done and done!
My mom adapted this from her Italian mother-in-law’s whole steamed artichoke recipe (see page 232) to make a dish that easily feeds a crowd. It uses the same flavors but eliminates the prep work required for whole artichokes and capitalizes on that mid- twentieth-century game-changer—frozen food—in the form of a package of frozen artichoke hearts. As in many ethnic families who have added their personal flavor to the standard Thanksgiving meal fare, this is my family’s “Italian” staple side dish and the first leftover scavenged the next day.